How to (Maybe) Avoid the Flashback

During this craft talk, we will address something that many apprentice writers struggle with: how to avoid the flashback. There are many writers who use the flashback well; more often than not, however, the flashback stalls a story and stifles its momentum. By analyzing Amy Hempel's "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried," we will learn how to avoid the flashback by endowing the present with the weight of the past through powerful dialogue and crisp and vivid setting.

More about JP Gritton:
JP Gritton's novel "Wyoming" is forthcoming from Tin House Books (November, '19). His awards include a Cynthia Woods Mitchell fellowship, a DisQuiet fellowship and the Inprint Donald Barthelme prize in fiction. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, Greensboro Review, New Ohio Review, Southwest Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. His translations of the work of Brazilian writer Cidinha da Silva have appeared in InTranslation. He is an assistant professor of the practice in the department of English at Duke University.

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