Twitterature is Older Than You Think
Stephanie Hemphill is a whirling dervish of writing.
The award-winning Los Angeles author is working on two books, preparing for a trip to France and traveling across the country to lead workshops with aspiring writers — including an upcoming workshop at the State Historical Museum of Iowa, where young writers will study artifacts for inspiration.
So considering Stephanie’s schedule, it’s not surprising that she’s a fan of “flash fiction” or “Twitterature” — a newish term for an old literary form that ranges from a single sentence up to about 1,500 words. It’s practitioners include Aesop, Chekhov, O. Henry and Kafka, as well as more recent heavy hitters like John Updike, Raymond Carver and Joyce Carol Oates.
“It’s been around since humans began writing,” Stephanie said over the phone the other day. “It’s a way to learn how to do something in a very short space, and short pieces are great for online presence.”
Flash fiction tends to be tight, precise and emotionally charged. And like all great literary works, the best examples linger in the memory long after they’ve been read.
Some say the form is more popular than ever because of readers’ fast-paced lifestyles and shortened attention spans. Others take a more philosophical approach, suggesting that truth can be revealed only in flashes — even in 140-character tweets.
But Stephanie isn’t ready to toss the printed page in the trash bin quite yet. At the Young Writers’ Workshop in Des Moines, she’ll coach students to write both flash fiction as well as longer narratives, inspired by their trips through the museum’s storage vault.
“I really believe there’s going to be a resurgence of doing things without technology, and a book is good for that,” said the author of “Wicked Girls,” about the Salem Witch Trials, and “Hideous Love,” about the woman who dreamed up Frankenstein. “Books will never go away.”
Her own research is taking her to France for one of her forthcoming books, “The Language of Fire,” a historical novel about Joan of Arc.
Another work-in-progress called “Fatal Throne” is a collaborative effort with other writers who are tackling the story of King Henry the VIII of England. The project brings together six female authors to write first-person accounts representing each of Henry’s six wives, plus a male author to write the king’s side of the story.
She added, with hint a relish, “I get to be Anne Boleyn.”
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Join Stephanie Hemphill for a Young Writers’ Workshop June 12–16 at the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines.
— Jeff Morgan, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
