Source: Bettendorf Public Library › Call for entries for NaNoWriMo flash fiction contest

Judge Ethan Canin presiding. He currently teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

I haven’t kept up with the workshop since 2009, when I applied to two graduate programs in writing. IWW turned me down. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago accepted me. Glean from that what you will.

Whether or not Canin opts for the minimalist style the workshop’s championed for the past seventy-odd years (which is roughly sixty-odd years too long), it’s nice to have some crossover between that literary community and the one in the Quad Cities – which, while special in its own way, is not nearly as centralized as Iowa City’s own writerly population.

The more participants we have, the more similar opportunities will crop up in our region. So everyone write a 300-word short story. Everyone. Even if you don’t feel like it. The average Facebook post is half that length. You can do it. You got this.