Good afternoon, flashers!
We are now in our seventh year of National Flash Fiction Day! As always, both our micro fiction competition and annual anthology encourage hundreds of you to send us your best flashes, and this year was no different. Both competitions were incredibly fierce this year, but I can finally share with you all some news!
Micro Fiction Competition Shortlist
This year we had around 600 entries for our micro fiction competition, where we asked you to write a story of 100 words or fewer on any theme. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our brilliant judges who had the rewarding but difficult task of whittling these 600 entries to a shortlist of just 24 stories: Angela Readman, Anne Patterson, Briana Snow, Ingrid Jendrzrjewski, Kevlin Henny, and Rob Walton.
We'd also like to thank you all for submitting!
Without further delay, here's this year's shortlisted authors and titles:
| Alan Beard | 1990 |
| Rachael Dunlop | A Nice Bit of Linoleum |
| Wes Lee | Conch |
| Amanda O'Callaghan | Death of a Friend |
| Lisa Ferranti | Fifth Grade |
| Carmen Marcus | First Date |
| Catherine Edmunds | Forgetting, Remembering |
| Alison Woodhouse | Home Fires |
| Victoria Richards | I remember her in espadrilles |
| Gaynor Jones | Ladybird, Ladybird |
| Elaine Dillon | Louise |
| Jan Kaneen | My Teenage Son Defining Words Just Before I challenge his use of Possessive Pronouns |
| Jeanette Davies | Primigravida at the Day Centre |
| Charmaine Wilkerson | Pull |
| David Cook | Revenge, Via Handicrafts |
| Lucy Goldring | School Run |
| Noa Sivan | Sign Language |
| Clare O'Brien | Suspension |
| Graham W. Henderson | Ten Minute IQ Test |
| Fiona J. Mackintosh | The Birth of the Baptist |
| Shirl Weir | The Haves and the Have Nots |
| Jan Kaneen | The Last Six Things I’ll Have Done by the Time You Wake up |
| Rebecca Field | Things I Never Saw Again After You Dumped Me By Text Message |
| Anita Groveas | White Lies |
Congratulations to all of our shortlisted authors! The judges have already chosen the winning stories, and a further announcement will be made once all of the scores have been collated. The winning and highly commended flashes will be published on our website and in this year's flash fiction anthology.
NFFD Food-themed Flash Fiction Anthology
Again, this year our anthology editors have had hundreds of incredible flashes to read and choose from, making selecting 50 stories for the anthology extremely enjoyable, but equally tricky.
Myself and this year's co-editor, Alison Powell, challenged you all to write flashes of 500 words or fewer responding to the theme of Food, and were so spoilt for choice! There were numerous delicacies for us to sink our teeth into, and so many different responses to the theme. We feel that this anthology is going to be something really special.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Alison for all of her hard work in helping me choose our top 50 stories.
And so, here are our anthology authors and their flashes:
| Philip Charter | The Change |
| KM Elkes | Late Blackberries |
| Nan Wigington | Famous Last Meals |
| Nuala O'Connor | Sponge |
| J. E. Kennedy | An Offering |
| Frankie McMillan | The Happy Eggs from Podomosky |
| Ingrid Jendrzrjewski | On the Wabash |
| Jude Higgins | The Ways of the Flesh |
| Alicia Bakewell | Ripening |
| Joanna Campbell | Gingerbread |
| Nadia Stone | Yaya's Pips |
| Charlotte Wührer | Shipwreck Feast |
| Diane Simmons | A Picnic in the Park |
| Sylvia Petter | Oysters |
| Judy Darley | Cornish Gold |
| Sal Page | A Fifteen Stone Woman, with a Six Stone Daughter Who Will Not Eat, Writes Shopping Lists |
| Christopher M Drew | A Turn of the Tide |
| Sarah Evans | The Word Eater |
| E. P. Chiew | For the Love of a Bagel |
| Rachael Dunlop | Border Line |
| Emily Devane | The Apple Seekers |
| Anna Rymer | Eight Weeks Old |
| Helen Rye | Me ‘N’ Claudz Of A Friday Night Down The Chippy And The Oasis Bar |
| Emma Harding | Say It with a Cake |
| Anne Summerfield | Only Now Can I Think of All The Things I Should Have Said |
| Olga Wojtas | Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art |
| Sophie van Llewyn | Hi, Dad, How've You Been? |
| Sharon Telfer | Caramel Baby |
| Ioanna Mavrou | Weekends in Waianae |
| Gay Degani | Troy Mills |
| Jan Kaneen | Sour |
| Sara Chansarkar | Mango Pulp |
| Claire Polders | A Tasting of European Chefs |
| Ros Woolner | Make a Wish |
| Stephanie Hutton | Nourishment |
| Jacqueline Saville | It's Not Her |
| FJ Morris | The Root of It |
| Damhnait Monaghan | Habits |
| A. E. Weisgerber | Knoxville |
| Poppy O'Neill | The Creator is Disturbed at Her Vanity |
| Jennifer Harvey | Thirteen |
| H Anthony Hildebrand | Ewei |
| David Cook | The Shock Of The New Breakfasts |
| Kymm Coveny | Popcorn |
| Deborah Meltvedt | Farmer's Market |
| Erica Plouffe Lazure | The Italic |
| Laura Pearson | Not Love, Not Carbohydrates |
| Gemma Govier | Bass Drums and Trumpets for Tea |
| TM Upchurch | Plum Skin |
| Abi Hynes | How to Eat a Grape |
Congratulations to all of our authors! The full line-up with stories from guest authors will be announced at a later date, as well as the title and cover reveal!
Thank you all, as always, for supporting National Flash Fiction Day! We can't wait to announce the winners of the micro competition and to serve up our food-themed flash anthology!
Meanwhile, if you're planning an event for National Flash Fiction Day on or around Saturday 16th June, please don't hesitate to email us at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.co.uk with all of the details, and we'll help shout out about it!