The Virginia G. Piper
Center for Creative Writing

Let’s play with creating unconventional characters. There's a growing openness to other gender roles and identities for example but how do you write about such characters? There's so much more to it than simply changing pronouns. This is important work, to make space and the stories of those of us on the edges.

With a conversation about craft, we’ll dive into generative work from gender-queer perspectives. After talking about social expectations, roles, emotional reactions, physicality, mainstream media and yes, pronouns, we’ll free write together. We’ll take prompts from headlines, photos, music, poems, short stories, and flash fiction. With a freedom of experimentation, economy, wit, your work will offer a sense of place, mood, scene and atmosphere in under three pages. These pieces are often less narrative and more evocative. They give us, the readers, a slice or quality of life, a moment of discovery, or a flash of illumination. They are complete and when you finish, the last line stains and lingers. Think of this as Queer Flash.