A complete introduction to the art and craft of extremely compressed works of imaginative literature, this book, now in its second edition, introduces both traditional and innovative approaches to the short form and demonstrates how it possesses structure, logic, and coherence while simultaneously resisting expectations. With discussion questions, writing prompts, flash interviews, and illustrated key concepts, the book covers prose poetry, flash fiction, micro memoir, lyric essay, cross-genre/hybrid writing and much more. With new additions such as a chapter on inspiration and expansions that now cover such concepts as shape, humour, time, revision and publishing, H. K. Hummel and Stephanie Lenox have produced the ultimate companion to writing short fiction. Featuring an extensive and wide-ranging anthology that offers inspiring examples of short-form writing in all of the styles covered by the book, it now includes micro dramas and flash comics alongside work from writers across the globe such as by Charles Baudelaire, Grant Faulkner, Jamaica Kinkaid Kay Ulanday Barrett, Kevin Brockmeier, D. E. Hardy, Jose Hernandez, Diaz, Mihee Kim, Suzan-Lori Parks, Alyssa Quinn, and Claudia Rankine.