Bio

The Long Version

As a boy, I spent my allowance on all sorts of pens and paper, so there was never much question I would become a writer. I received my B.A. from Grinnell College in English and my M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

It seems like I should have other degrees, such as an MFA in Novels about People Doing Nothing But Walking Around, a PhD in Collages and Doodles and Stick Drawings of Fruitless Pursuits, or a Knighthood in Insomniac Studies, but I don’t.

I recently published The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story, and I’ve also written two other books on writing: my collection of essays on creativity, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Prompts to Boost Your Creative Mojo, which came out from Chronicle Books in October 2017, and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide co-authored with Rebecca Stern, which was released by Viking in 2019.

I also publish fiction, notably something out there in the distance, a “flash novel”; All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, and my collection of one hundred 100-word stories, Fissures. Also, I edited Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story with Lynn Mundell and Beret Olsen.

I have published in such publications as The New York Times, Poets & Writers, LitHub, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, The Southwest Review, Tin House, The Gettysburg Review, Five Points, The Rumpus, Gargoyle, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Puerto del Sol, PANK, Superstition Review, and The Green Mountain Review, among others. My stories have been nominated for the Pushcart prize and included in such collections as W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction America; New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction; and collections like the annual Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction.

I am the co-founder of Memoir Nation (and co-host of its podcast), co-founder of the Flash Fiction Institute, co-founder of the lit journal 100 Word Story, and co-founder of the Flash Fiction Collective. I also work with a number of writing organizations. I’m a member of the National Writing Project Writers Council, a board member with Litquake, a member of the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Words’ Creative Council, a member of Clio’s curatorial board, and on the Advisory Board of Left Margin Lit.

I’m also an executive producer on America’s Next Great Author.

I also publish a weekly newsletter on writing and creativity, Intimations: A Writer’s Discourse.

Oh, and I’ve presented at such shindigs as the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Associated Writing Programs Conference, Book Expo America, the Chicago Humanities Festival, the Oakland Book Festival, the Bay Area Book Festival, Poets & Writers Live, the San Francisco Writers Conference, the Commonwealth Club, the Digital Publishing Innovation Summit, Writers Digest West, the Porchlight storytelling series, Litquake, Lit Crawl, the Mendocino Writers Conference, CreativeLive, the Arizona State Library Association’s YA Summit, the Kauai Writers Conference, the Okoboji Writer’s Retreat, and the Sierra Writers Conference.

The Shorter Version

Grant Faulkner is the co-founder of Memoir Nation (and also the co-host of the Memoir Nation podcast), the co-founder of the Flash Fiction Institute, the co-founder of 100 Word Story, and an executive producer on America’s Next Great Author.

He has published three books on writing: The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story; Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo; and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide.

He’s also published the “flash novel,” something out there in the distance; All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story.

His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including Tin House, The Southwest Review, and The Gettysburg Review, and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton’s Flash Fiction America; New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction; and in several editions of the annual Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction anthologies.

His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. He also works with a number of writing organizations. He’s a member of the National Writing Project Writers Council, a board member with Litquake, a member of the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Words’ Creative Council, a member of Clio’s curatorial board, and on the Advisory Board of Left Margin Lit.

He also publishes the weekly newsletter, Intimations: A Writer’s Discourse.