Certainly many of the magazine writers who were part of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, the irreverent and celebrated luncheon of New York City critics, playwrights, and humorists that continued each weekday for nearly a decade,

Montaigne’s highly individual “movement of the mind” style—tracking his thoughts on the page to create a compelling narrative of inquiry—shapes the essay form, and all of literary nonfiction, to this day.

brief nonfiction has attempted to capture the reader’s attention and imagination in the first few words, and to hold it—uninterrupted—until the final period.

here. Literary nonfiction is not merely informational or topical, and it is not primarily intended to be persuasive. Instead, like literary fiction and poetry, the nonfiction we discuss is marked by the distinct, often peculiar, voice and sensibilities of the author and these works examine the deeply human—and often unanswerable—questions that

the work itself is individual, intimate, exploratory, and carefully crafted using metaphor, sensory language, and precise detail.

including creative nonfiction work up to 2,000 words, though the great majority of what is discussed is briefer: 500 to 1,000 words, and sometimes even fewer.

very short form of thoughtful, artful nonfiction.

Some small aspect of what it means to be human—a binding force full of craft essay possibilities. Also a tall order, but one that gets at the heart of what’s so compelling about good flash nonfiction: the writer’s experience of the world made small and large at the same time.