The Literary Concept of

One-Page Stories

 

 

This approach originates from the French initiative Récit-page (2013), a concept translated into English as One-Page Stories. As the name suggests, these are narratives that unfold within the space of a single page.

This duration, which is also a space, allows for echoes distinct from those found in the short story and different as well from those —often fragmented— of ultra-minimalist writing, which seeks to confine literature to the span of a single line or just a few words.

It is worth noting that the prose poem, which contains narrative elements, can be interpreted as a One-Page story.

This leads to the paradox inherent in any literary constraint: rather than closing off creative spaces, it opens them.

Some may argue that the digital age complicates the definition of a "page". However, since conventions help fill such gaps, we will adhere to the traditional A4 format —though with some flexibility —viewing it primarily as a canvas that enables the work to exist, while allowing the completed image to transcend it.

With a distinct name and domain, One-Page Stories now claim their own province within the broader realm of brevity.

Less concerned with sequence than with sudden flashes of insight, and having to contend with the absence of plot, storyline, or even anecdote, the one-page story draws its resources less from narration than from language itself —its ability to suggest, evoke, subvert, invert, and embrace paradox. Yet it does not dissolve into mere logical curiosities or purely verbal feats: cleverness alone does not make literature.

Regardless of its register, if the one-page story leans towards poetry, it shuns the emphatic and the declamatory; if it smiles, it rejects outright comedy; if it turns solemn, it avoids pathos and sentimental effusion. Lacking any real vocation for truth, it is neither a philosophical inquiry nor a manifesto. It does not seek to educate or moralize, nor does it aim to edify. Often floating on uncertain realities, open to whimsy, it remains distinct from the realm of the fantastic.

Neither a summary nor an abbreviation, nothing in the One-Page Stories calls for expansion or development; for when it is fully realized, it exhibits the self-contained roundness of a small, finely crafted world, revolving around its own literary aesthetic —one that allows for no shortcuts in quality or effort.

All within the protective confines of the page —let it not stray from it!