Dribble or drabble? Flashing at Poetry Swindon Festival

Dribbles and drabbles, flash*. Spot the difference between concise prose and sticking ‘poem’ on the end.

Yesterday (Thursday), Poetry Swindon Festival’s potentially hot debate – is prose poetry a thing? – was apparently thwarted by a squishy warm sofa with Jo ‘no’ Bell dividing and ruling, sat between Tania ‘yes’ Hershman and Luke ‘for sure’ Kennard. Next time: hard chairs.

Any/everything goes in flash fiction. Compact ideas spinning on a sixpence; twisting, elusive word trickery usually employed by poets convey narrative, atmosphere, tension or an idea. Or that could just be the stuff liked by Tania Hershman, today’s flash fiction workshop leader.

*A dribble is 50 words, a drabble 100 and flash, around 1,000. These words after the asterisk aren’t included in the word count.

Tags: flash fiction, Jo Bell, Luke Kennard, prose poetry, Swindon, Tania Hershman