Well, we've finally made it through to the other side, and now we are able to announce the stories which have made it into this year's National Flash-Fiction Day anthology.
We received over 500 stories, closer to 600 stories really (182,000 words, or thereabouts) and these are the 50 which made it in. So, if you were unsuccessful, please take comfort that it was a very difficult decision from a large field of excellent work. The ones that we picked are the stories we felt would make the most compelling compendium, and a great snapshot of current flash-fiction.
To those of you who made it in: Congratulations!
As well as the stories listed below, the anthology will include the 10 micro-fiction competition winners, plus a range of commissioned stories from some truly exceptional writers.
The anthology doesn't have a name yet, but we hope to announce it very soon, along with the full line-up. It will be on sale on National Flash-Fiction Day at the anthology launch at the UK's first ever literary festival devoted entirely to Flash Fiction, as well as online in paper and e-book formats. For more information about the Flash Fiction Festival, please visit their website: www.flashfictionfestival.com Tickets are selling fast, so if you want to go you'll need to book soon.
Anyway, with no further waffle, here are the stories which will soon be printed up and bound for your edification.
| Angela Readman | Legs in the Air, We Think About Spring |
| Judy Darley | Fascinate |
| Rachael Dunlop | Teeter, Totter, Tattle-Tale |
| Adam Trodd | I Am My Own David Attenborough |
| Anne Summerfield | On the Track You Tasted Blue |
| Jane Dugdale | Milk and Money |
| Helen Rye | Sleep is a Beautiful Colour |
| Judi Walsh | Carousel |
| Claire Polders | Swing State |
| Lex Williford | Horsewhip |
| Marie Gethins | Unseen |
| Jonathan Taylor | Not a Horror Story |
| Erica Plouffe Lazure | On The Way Out |
| Catherine Edmunds | Molly and the Toe-rag |
| Gary Powell | Missing |
| James Coffey | Close Encounters |
| Conor Houghton | The Great Forgotten Language |
| Paul Currion | Happiness |
| Kirsty Cowan | Mrs Livingstone's Artist |
| David O'Neill | Tin Can Phones |
| Nod Ghosh | Exactly the Way You Are |
| Sophia Holme | Rehabilitation |
| Jason Jackson | Ana and Jose-Ramon |
| Mary Lynn Reed | The Thieves Are Coming. They Are Taking it All. |
| Ingrid Jendrzejewski | The Complete and Incomplete Works of Lydia Davis |
| Joy Manné | Stabbed |
| Lindsay Fisher | How Traveller Boys Love |
| Victoria Richards | Aino Yehudi |
| Steven Moss | Gabriel |
| Steve Tuffin | The Sun on the Dash |
| Diane Simmons | Dancing Partners |
| Christopher M Drew | The Fisher King |
| Joanna Campbell | Breathing |
| KM Elkes | The Way We Lie |
| Sophie van Llewyn | The Skirt |
| Jenny Woodhouse | Stepping Out |
| Gary Duncan | Free Hugs |
| Sharon Telfer | Never going to fall for modern love |
| Matthew Thorpe-Coles | It's M.E., Not You |
| Heather McQuillan | Iridescence |
| David Steward | Twenty-five Seconds |
| Miranda Kate | Friends |
| Michael Loveday | Let Them Know Me By My Teeth |
| Gay Degani | Anamnesis |
| Megan Crosbie | Big Responsibilities |
| Simon Sylvester | Soup Stone |
| Rupert Dastur | It All Ends |
| Sandra Arnold | The Quick and the Dead |
| Anna Nazarova-Evans | The Boy at a London Bus Stop Who Took My Photograph in the Summer of 1999 |
| Zoe Murdock | Living Alone With Derrida |
I really enjoyed Conor Houghton's story - and the fact that he is my nephew had absolutely no influence on the level of my enthusiasm.