The Flash Fiction Club Masterclass & Discussion Circle: “Setting" // Facilitator: Riham Adly

Are you tired of your truth being redacted by noise?

Do you feel like a fragment in someone else’s narrative?

Ready to witness how 400 words can become a radical act of resistance?

The Flash Fiction Club: Craft as Resistance & the Soul of Survival.

In a landscape of global war and systemic betrayal (The Epstein Files), reading is no longer a passive hobby, it is a survival tool. When “grand scale history” is corrupted, micro-fiction allows us to zoom in on the human cost the world tries to erase.

Welcome to a discussion circle designed for flash fiction enthusiasts, truth-seekers, memoirists, and deep-reading writers. Whether you are a dedicated practitioner of the ultra-short form or simply or simply curious about its unique power. We gather to do more than just read; we distill reality until only the soul remains.

Why This Club is Vital Now:

• Reclaiming Agency: We discuss the tension between a character’s external commitment (Loyalty to Systems) and their internal needs (belonging, justice, peace). This is our blueprint for survival.
• The “Micro” as Resistance: In an era of disinformation brevity is your greatest weapon. We focus on the mastery of exactly 400 words.
• The Architecture of Absence: We analyze the power of the “Unsaid”. Absence can be the most powerful presence on the page.

Your Survival Toolkit (Included in Registration):

• The Masterpieces: You will receive three 400-word masterpieces from the Best Micro-fiction 2026 anthology to read in advance. (They are so short you can finish reading in one sitting even if it’s a couple of hours before we start).
• The Inspiring prompt: After our discussion you will receive a specific writing prompt to help you find your own “independent clause” amid the noise.
• High Value Professional Critique: To ensure your voice is heard every participant is entitled to a professional critique from Riham on the draft born from this session.
• The Recording: Access to the session recording for your craft arsenal.

The Flash Fiction Club: May 20, 2026 "SETTING" edition

This is the third installment of the Flash Fiction Club Craft Series. A stories club that is not unlike a book club. We explore the flash fiction form and see how it links directly to subconscious emotions, desires, and beliefs that come forth in writing.

The past two installments focused on character, and perspective and point of view. We looked at stories through the lens of a reader and a writer, discovering and exploring how a story so short and brief can touch on larger than life moments and emotions that hit the reader and leave a lasting imprint.

This last installment of the series will be all about setting in flash fiction. Setting isn't just time and place. It's a dynamic player that often acts a mirror to our characters and their perspectives at times, and at other times--like we'll discover-- it can be another character. You'll see!

What You Will Experience

1. A brief reminder of what is flash fiction, it's structure, why it works, and when to use it.
2. Exploring what setting really is. Is it just time and place or is it much more?
3. We're looking at what setting does in the stories:
   1. Setting as a tool that reveals and mirrors the internal world of our characters.
   2. Setting as context for bigger and more difficult stories that could not take place anywhere else aside from the setting chosen.
   3. Setting as an interactive player in the story.
   4. Setting as a character in and onto its self interacting with other characters.

An optional writing prompt exercise will be provided at the end of the discussion.

Who Should Take The Flash Fiction Club: May 20, 2026 "SETTING" edition?

• Writers and Readers: Those fascinated by the precision of the flash fiction form.
• Memoirists and Activists: Those feeling the weight of the “unsaid” in today’s world.
• Therapists and students: This circle serves as a powerful channel for self-discovery and community healing.

Registration Details:

• When? May 20 2026
• Where? This is an online workshop meeting live via Zoom
• Duration: 3 hours
• From 3:30 PM - 6:30 PM ET | 2:30 PM - 5:30 PM CT | 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM MT | 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM PT | 7:30 PM - 10:30 PM UTC
• Tuition: 60$ for members, 75$ non-members, 40$ students
• Scholarships: Equity is part of our survival. The TLA Network offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

What people are saying about learning with Riham:

I know many of you love to write, and. more importantly, love to LEARN. Riham Adly is an incredible writer and teacher. I am so grateful that I gave myself the gift of this course a couple of months ago, and also recommended it to a friend, who also enjoyed the process immensely. — Lisa Boulware Molina

Riham is a phenomenal writing instructor and coach. If you have any interest in writing flash fiction, Jung, Tarot, Dream analysis, and going deep with your writing, this is a a class not to be missed. — Theresa Coty O'Neil

If you are starting to write, like me, you will really benefit from this course. I took Riham Adly's writing courses and they are so thoroughly researched and she introduced me to such new things. It was extremely productive. I highly recommend. — Annie Banerjee

I highly recommend. If you are looking for something different that dives deeply into emotions and other driving motivations that enhance your characters and narrative, don't miss this opportunity. — Lorette C. Luzajic

Where and When Does the "SETTING" edition Workshop Meet?

When: Wednesday, May 20, 2026 

Where: This is an online workshop meeting live via Zoom on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 for three hours from 3:30 PM - 6:30 PM ET | 2:30 PM - 5:30 PM CT | 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM MT | 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM PT | 7:30 PM - 10:30 PM UTC.

Recording: The workshop will be recorded and the recording shared only with registrants.

Scholarships: Equity is part of our survival. The TLA Network offers scholarships based on income, disability. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

The Flash Fiction Club Masterclass & Discussion Circle is a Series of three independent workshops.

You can register for one or all. NOTE: You will need to register for each workshop separately. 

1. May 6, 2026 will focus on CHARACTER
2. May 13, 2026 will focus on PERSPECTIVE AND P.O.V.
3. May 20, 2026 will focus on SETTING

About the Facilitator

Riham Adly is an award-winning flash fiction writer from Giza, Egypt. Riham is a Best of the NET and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work is included in the Best Micro-fiction 2020 anthology. Her flash fiction has appeared in over fifty journals such as Litro Magazine, Lost Balloon, The Flash Flood, Bending Genres, The Citron Review, The Sunlight Press, Flash Fiction Magazine, Menacing Hedge, Flash Frontier, Flash Back, Ellipsis Zine, Okay Donkey, and New Flash Fiction Review among others. Riham has worked as an assistant editor in 101 words magazine and as a first reader in Vestal Review magazine. Riham is the founder of the “Let’s Write Short Stories” and “ Let’s Write That Novel” in Egypt. She has taught creative writing all over Cairo for over five years with the goal of mentoring and empowering aspiring writers in her region. Riham’s flash fiction collection Love is Make-Believe was released and published in November 2021 by Clarendon House Publications in the UK.

Keep in touch with Riham on Instagram.