
Grant Faulkner and Gayle Danley are joining the Chautauqua Writers’ Center for Week Six and will begin their residencies with a faculty reading at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the Hall of Philosophy.
Faulkner is the author of three books on writing — he’s the former executive director of National Novel Writing Month — and two short story collections. Co-founder of the literary magazine 100 Word Story and co-host of the podcast “Write-minded,” he’s currently executive producer of the upcoming TV show “America’s Next Great Author,” and has weekly newsletter Intimations: A Writer’s Discourse.
For Sunday’s reading, he will be reading from some of his 100-word stories, and exploring elements that make up a short story.
“Flash fiction is a new form for a lot of people,” he said. “I hope they leave excited to write flash fiction.”
Throughout the week, Faulkner will be leading a workshop called “The Art of Brevity” through Special Studies. The workshop will focus on flash fiction — stories that are 1,000 words or less — and the art of omission.
“In longer fiction, you’re expected to really fill in those gaps to provide the connective tissue of the story, but in shorter work — especially the type that I write — it is largely about providing those hints,” he said. “It’s really an intuitive creative exercise.”
Flash fiction, he said, is very accessible for people who live busy lives and have a hard time finding time in their schedule to write. As the world gets more crowded, it crowds out people’s imagination, and he wants people to exercise their storytelling.
Poet-in-residence Danley will also be leading a workshop — titled “Soul Portraits: Slam Poetry as a Deep Dive Inside the Heart” — this week for Chautauquans to learn and implement a simple four-step writing and performance process.
With the writing process, she hopes to build a welcoming space for writers, at all stages, where they aren’t scared to explore poetry.
“I have found that the steps have been like a magnet,” she said. “They’ve made people feel like they can come … and accomplish this wonderful thing and not be judged for it, and they can feel a sense of accomplishment no matter where they are in their writing journey.”
Danley is an award-winning slam poet and a teaching artist. She leads grief writing workshops with Johns Hopkins Hospital and Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, and works with women facing homelessness, showing them how to use their words to find a home.
During her Sunday reading, she will read poems that focus on relationships and what she has learned about love.
“I want to delve into that, and get folks to think about how they are relating to other people and how that makes them feel. I want to explore that,” she said. “You can create a world that you can live in with joy and with peace and with healing through your words. With the words that you choose to share with yourself, to share with others, you can really shape a world that you love.”