Kathy Fish
“Look Who’s Talking: Exploring Wildly Unconventional Points of View”
Three Hour Pre Festival workshop 2.00 pm-5.00 pm Friday 17th July: with Kathy Fish
(Note:This workshop is separate from the main weekend package and is also open to those not coming to the rest of the fesitval Cost £55. Book here via the registration form</a> Booking options also available on this form for Friday meals (5.00 pm to 6.00 pm).
Anyone attending the pre-festival workshop can also come to Friday evening events.
Kathy says:
Ever feel like your stories are well-crafted—but somehow familiar? Like you’re doing
everything “right” and still not surprising yourself, editors, or readers? Point of view may be the
missing lever. Flash fiction thrives on bold choices, and nothing vivifies a short piece faster than
an unexpected perspective. In this immersive three-hour workshop, we’ll dive into nine unusual
points of view—some rarely taught, some delightfully strange, and some that can instantly
unlock character, tension, and emotional depth. We’ll:
• Examine published flash that takes daring POV risks—and why it works
• Discuss how unconventional perspective shapes character psychology and conflict
• Write to playful, challenging prompts aimed at generating drafts and skill building
You’ll generate multiple new drafts or story starts, and likely stumble into approaches you’ll
want to use again and again. Perfect for writers who feel stuck, stale, or ready to level up
their flash with risk and originality.
Kathy Fish’s stories have been widely published in journals, anthologies, and textbooks. Her work has been published in Ploughshares, Guernica, Swamp Pink, Electric Literature, Denver Quarterly, Best American Nonrequired Reading, the Norton Reader, and Norton’s Flash Fiction America (2023). She has been honored with a Copper Nickel Editor’s Prize and multiple appearances in both the Wigleaf Top 50 and the Best Small Fictions series. The author of five short fiction collections, Fish teaches a variety of writing workshops online. She also publishes a bestselling craft newsletter, The Art of Flash Fiction, which was recently named one of the 20 Best Creative Writing Substacks by Writers at Work. Her writing has been generously supported by fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation and the Kerouac Project.
