Fresh Nonfiction Field Guide Reviews

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction, edited by Brevity‘s editor and featuring numerous Brevity contributors is getting some nice reviews.

Amaris Ketcham at Bark writes:

“You may want to carry this book in your laptop bag or keep it in your glove box, for those times when you are waiting on a friend at the café or pulled over at a park during your lunch break. You will want a pen and a notebook on hand. Twenty-six writers have contributed sections, each of which feature an essay that examines the form, exercises, and an example of flash nonfiction. You’ll want to sit for a while with each of these sections, work through their exercises and surprise yourself during a freewrite, and then spend some time with each of the example essays.”

There is also this review from Lori A. May at the Wilkes University MFA Blog, and a second review, also from May, at the New Orleans Review in which she says:

“What this craft guide does well is in refraining from pigeon-holing the genre by suggesting strict guidelines or definitions. Yet in freedom there remains the challenge for writers to experiment and tinker—not always for the better. After all, what is “good” flash nonfiction? In his introduction, Moore addresses the one quality that appeals to both editors and readers: “the writer’s experience of the world made small and large at the same time.” Yet how many words does that take? Two hundred? Five hundred? A thousand?”