Grant Faulkner
Author/Co-founder Memoir Nation
Workshops: 1. The Art of Brevity. 2. A Crash Course in Novel Writing.
Grant Faulkner is the co-founder of Memoir Nation (and also the co-host of the Memoir Nation podcast), the co-founder of the Flash Fiction Institute, the co-founder of 100 Word Story, and an executive producer on “America’s Next Great Author.” He was also Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for 12 years.
He has published three books on writing: “The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story;” “Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo;” and “Brave the Page,” a teen writing guide. He’s also published the “flash novel,” “something out there in the distance,” “All the Comfort Sin Can Provide,” “Fissures,” and “Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story.”
Grant’s stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, as well as in anthologies such as Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, and Flash Fiction America. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. He also hosts “Write-minded,” a weekly podcast on writing and publishing, and publishes a weekly newsletter on Substack, “Intimations, a Writer’s Discourse.”
Learn more about Grant: On Substack at https://grantfaulkner.substack.com/ and at https://grantfaulkner.com/
Workshops
“The Art of Brevity.” In flash fiction, the whole is a part and the part is a whole. The form forces the writer to question each word, to reckon with Flaubert’s mot juste, and move a story by hints and implications. Flash stories are built through gaps as much as the connective tissue of words, so what’s left out of a story is often more important than what’s included. In this workshop, Grant Faulkner, co-founder of 100 Word Story and the author of “The Art of Brevity”—will discuss how a different type of creativity emerges within a hard compositional limit, exploring the many different forms that short shorts can take.
“A Crash Course in Novel Writing.” One of the biggest obstacles any writer faces is writing the first draft of a novel. As Nora Ephron said, “I think the hardest part about writing is writing.” Your story matters, and “someday” is not the time to write it. If something has been holding you back from writing your novel—whether it be lack of time, lack of motivation, lack of knowing how to write it, or just plain fear—then Grant Faulkner, former Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month, can help you get your creative juices flowing and take the first steps to planning your novel. Warning: you will leave this session with a novel plan in hand, so be prepared to write.