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Volunteer Social Media Co-ordinator


National Flash Fiction Day (NFFD) is seeking a Volunteer Social Media Co-ordinator. The main purpose of the role is to manage NFFD’s social media channels (Facebook and Twitter) by sharing news, promoting submissions opportunities, events and our anthologies, and showcasing flash fiction that we’ve published for our followers to enjoy!


The role entails:
  • Managing and scheduling content across NFFD’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and checking in throughout the week.
  • Sharing news and updates about NFFD submission opportunities, sharing NFFD events, and promoting NFFD anthologies.
  • Sharing stories “from the archives” of NFFD, especially from our FlashFlood journal.
  • Seeking opportunities to help our audience grow, as well as help our audience engage with more flash fiction and NFFD
  • Promoting great stories or opportunities from other flash fiction publications that our followers may enjoy.

The role is perfect for someone who loves championing flash fiction.

For further information or to express an interest, please email nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com with Volunteer Social Media Co-ordinator as your subject.

Closing date 31st October 2018



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On Saturday 16th June this year, National Flash Fiction Day celebrated its seventh year! NFFD was founded in 2012 by Calum Kerr, and since then we have published hundreds of flash fictions by hundreds of different authors across anthologies, FlashFlood, and other flashy projects! We’ve had numerous readings, launches, workshops, and other events around the country to celebrate flash fiction. This was all thanks to Calum, who decided that this year would be his last NFFD.
There are many ways to say thank you. When Calum stepped down, the future of NFFD was uncertain, but we believed that the best way to say thank you was to keep NFFD going. Flash fiction has truly blossomed across the U.K. and the world, and it wouldn’t feel right if NFFD disappeared.
It is truly exciting to be able to announce that two astounding flash fiction authors will be working alongside me to not only continue NFFD but to raise it to new heights.

Please allow me to formally introduce and welcome Ingrid Jendrzejewski and Diane Simmons as fellow Co-Directors of National Flash Fiction Day!

Ingrid Jendrzejewski studied creative writing and English literature at the University of Evansville, then physics at the University of Cambridge. Her work has been published in places like Passages North, The Los Angeles Review, Jellyfish Review, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine and The Conium Review, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Vestal Review’s VERA Award, and multiple times for Best Small Fictions. Her short-form work has won fifteen writing competitions including the Bath Flash Fiction Award and AROHO’s Orlando Prize. She serves as editor-in-chief of FlashBack Fiction and a flash editor at JMWW.  Links to Ingrid’s work can be found at www.ingridj.com and she tweets @LunchOnTuesday. 

Diane Simmons studied creative writing with the Open University. Her fiction has featured in a variety of anthologies and publications including Mslexia, New Flash Fiction Review, FlashBack Fiction, Flash I Love You (Paper Swans), To Carry Her Home (BFFA), The Lobsters Run Free (BFFA), Micro Madness, and six National Flash Fiction Day anthologies. She has been placed in numerous competitions such as NFFD micro, Writers’ Forum, Woman and Home, Ink Tears, Worcs Lit Fest, ITV’s This Morning/She, 99 Fiction and The Frome Festival and has been short or longlisted in competitions such as The Fish, Exeter Flash and the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Her recently completed novella-in-flash was long listed in the 2018 Bath Novella-in-Flash competition. Diane is part of the organising team for the UK Flash Fiction Festival, has been an editor for FlashFlood and for the last three years has been a reader for the Bath Short Story Award. Her debut flash collection Finding a Way will be published by Ad Hoc Fiction in early 2019.
Ingrid and Diane have already brought lots of new ideas, enthusiasm, and energy to NFFD, and this brings us on to National Flash Fiction Day 2019.
National Flash Fiction Day 2019

SAVE THE DATE! National Flash Fiction Day next year will be on Saturday 15th June 2019! We’re already planning and exploring lots of options for next year’s National Flash Fiction Day, and if you’d like to plan an event or volunteer in any way don’t hesitate to get in touch!
That said, this year’s fantastic anthology is still available to purchase in paperback and on Kindle.
This seventh annual instalment of the National Flash-Fiction Day (UK) anthology is overflowing with food-themed flashes. Satiate your hunger for fiction with these delicious stories by new and established flash fiction writers. The authors have cooked up a smorgasbord of entertaining, moving and tantalising flashes for your reading delight. From fudge to oysters, apples to mangoes, gingerbread to (of course!) cake, there’s something in this anthology for everyone to sink their teeth into.
Authors include: Tara Laskowski, Christopher Allen, Nancy Stohlman, Frankie McMillan, Meg Pokrass, Nuala O’Connor, Robert Scotellaro, Alison Powell, Kevlin Henney, Jude Higgins, Tim Stevenson, Angela Readman, Megan Giddings, Joanna Campbell, Diane Simmons, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Calum Kerr, and Santino Prinzi.
The editors are Santino Prinzi and Alison Powell.
That's all for now, so we're going to leave you with a flash fiction from this year's FlashFlood! Here's a beautifully rhythmic flash called 'Breathe' by Kellie Carle: http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2018/06/breathe-by-kellie-carle.html 

Thanks for reading!

Santino Prinzi

Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day

We are thrilled to reveal the cover for Ripening: National Flash-Fiction Day Anthology 2018. 

This seventh annual instalment of the National Flash-Fiction Day (UK) anthology is overflowing with food-themed flashes. Satiate your hunger for fiction with these delicious stories by new and established flash fiction writers. The authors have cooked up a smorgasbord of entertaining, moving and tantalising flashes for your reading delight. From fudge to oysters, apples to mangoes, gingerbread to (of course!) cake, there’s something in this anthology for everyone to sink their teeth into.

Authors include: Tara Laskowski, Christopher Allen, Nancy Stohlman, Frankie McMillan, Meg Pokrass, Nuala O’Connor, Robert Scotellaro, Alison Powell, Kevlin Henney, Jude Higgins, Tim Stevenson, Angela Readman, Megan Giddings, Joanna Campbell, Diane Simmons, and NFFD co-directors, Calum Kerr and Santino Prinzi.

The editors are Santino Prinzi and Alison Powell.

We're absolutely thrilled to be able to share the title of this year's National Flash Fiction Day anthology, along with our full line-up!

This year's title is borrowed from a stunning and moving flash fiction by Alicia Bakewell. 

The cover will be revealed in the near future, and below you can read the full line-up of authors who'll feature in this year's anthology! We can't wait to share all of these stories with you!


Ripening: National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2018


Alison Powell Have Your Cake
Joanna Campbell Gingerbread
Abi Hynes How to Eat a Grape
Helen Rye Me ‘N’ Claudz Of A Friday Night Down The Chippy And The Oasis Bar
Kymm Coveny Popcorn
Anna Rymer Eight Weeks Old
Tim Stevenson Not for the Body
Sharon Telfer Caramel Baby
Damhnait Monaghan Habits
Nan Wigington Famous Last Meals
Leonora Desar The Hot Fudge Lady
Deborah Meltvedt Farmer's Market
Sara Chansarkar Mango Pulp
E. P. Chiew For the Love of a Bagel
Emily Devane The Apple Seekers
Kevlin Henney No Carbonara
Olga Wojtas Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Emma Harding Say It with a Cake
Sarah Evans The Word Eater
Sylvia Petter Oysters
H Anthony Hildebrand Ewei
Megan Giddings Milk and Eggs
FJ Morris The Root of It
A. E. Weisgerber Knoxville
Sophie van Llewyn Hi, Dad, How've You Been?
Philip Charter The Change
Claire Polders A Tasting of European Chefs
Jude Higgins The Ways of the Flesh
Nancy Stohlman The Pilgrimage 
Christopher M Drew A Turn of the Tide
Erica Plouffe Lazure The Italic
Alicia Bakewell Ripening
Judy Darley Cornish Gold
Laura Pearson Not Love, Not Carbohydrates
Gay Degani Troy Mills
Calum Kerr Cooking on Gas
Anne Summerfield Only Now Can I Think of All The Things I Should Have Said
Sal Page A Fifteen Stone Woman, with a Six Stone Daughter Who Will Not Eat, Writes Shopping Lists
Rachael Dunlop Border Line
J. E. Kennedy An Offering
Angela Readman Attack of the Robot Grannies
TM Upchurch Plum Skin
Nuala O'Connor Sponge
Diane Simmons A Picnic in the Park
Stephanie Hutton Nourishment
Robert Scotellaro The Polygamist's Three Wives
Ros Woolner Make a Wish
Gemma Govier Bass Drums and Trumpets for Tea
Ingrid Jendrzejewski On the Wabash
Frankie McMillan The Happy Eggs from Podomosky
Meg Pokrass Culinary
Nadia Stone Yaya's Pips
David Cook The Shock Of The New Breakfasts
Jacqueline Saville It's Not Her
Jan Kaneen Sour
Santino Prinzi Nonni
Charlotte Wührer Shipwreck Feast
KM Elkes Late Blackberries
Poppy O'Neill The Creator is Disturbed at Her Vanity by the Cries of Mankind
Christopher Allen Samuel is Mango
Ioanna Mavrou Weekends in Waianae
Jennifer Harvey Thirteen
Tara Laskowski Goodnight Mush
Micro Competition Winners
Fiona J. Mackintosh The Birth of the Baptist
Charmaine Wilkerson Pull
Rachael Dunlop A Nice Bit of Linoleum
Lisa Ferranti Fifth Grade
Amanda O'Callaghan Death of a Friend
Catherine Edmunds Forgetting, Remembering
Rebecca Field Things I Never Saw Again After You Dumped Me By Text Message
Alan Beard 1990
Elaine Dillon Louise
Anita Goveas White Lies

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Before we announce the winners of the micro fiction competition, I want to apologise about a technical issue that meant all of my lovely emails I sent out to authors who entered our micro competition or submitted to the anthology did not send. 

As usual, there were hundreds and hundreds of submitters. We always send out an email to let people know whether or not they've been accepted via a link to this blog where the announcement is made. Only one set of emails actually sent; the rest were bounced back as a failed delivery. Obviously my mail box was working to Bank Holiday rules.

Apologies again if you haven't received an email, but you can find out if you're in the anthology or were shortlisted for the micro competition by checking out our previous blog post.


Without further delay, it's time to announce the results of this year's micro fiction competition!

Again, I want to thank our judges for doing such a stellar job of reading through all 600 entries, narrowing it down to just 24, and then again to only 10. Thank you to Kevlin Henney, Ingrid Jendrzrjewski, Angela Readman, Rob Walton, Brianna Snow, and Anne Patterson. 

I also want to thank everyone who submitted, and to congratulate again all of the authors who made the shortlist -- that, in itself, is a huge achievement. The quality was very high, and this made for a very tight race to the finish.




First Place:

The Birth of the Baptist by Fiona J. Mackintosh

Second Place:
Pull by Charmaine Wilkerson

Third Place:
A Nice Bit of Linoleum by Rachael Dunlop

Highly Commended Stories:

Fifth Grade by Lisa Ferranti
Death of a Friend by Amanda O’Callaghan
Forgetting, Remembering by Catherine Edmunds
Things I Never Saw Again After You Dumped Me By Text Message by Rebecca Field
1990 by Alan Beard
Louise by Elaine Dillon
White Lies by Anita Goveas

Congratulations to all of the authors of our winning and highly commended micros! 

All of the stories are published below, will appear on our website in due course, and will be published in this year's National Flash Fiction Day anthology! We hope you love these micros as much as we do!


First Place:

The Birth of the Baptist
Fiona J. Mackintosh
Slide the 100 lire coin into the slot. Watch the lights flare, the fresco spring to life, Ghirlandaio’s pinks, blues, and greens. Watch your girl in denim shorts stare upward, lips parted, eyes roaming over the ancient stone wall. See her smile at St. Elizabeth reclining, at the wet nurse suckling the infant John the Baptist. And when the coin runs out and the chapel snaps back into darkness, know that you too are just the forerunner, that one day she’ll leave you in your own private wilderness with the taste of locusts and wild honey bitter in your mouth.
Second Place:
Pull
Charmaine Wilkerson
When their fathers went to the cockfights in the next parish over, the girls begged rides from the neighbour boys. While their dads wiped flecks of blood from their faces, the girls left their shoes and dresses on the sand. While the boys watched, rapt and rigid, from the powdery shore, the girls plunged, head first, into the warm saltwater, pulling through the waves, pulling through their fear of sharks, pulling through the sting of rays, pulling against lactic acid and breathing in gulps of their future as champions, their ticket away from this island.
Third Place:
A Nice Bit of Linoleum
Rachael Dunlop
The smell of lavender floor wax accompanies her out of the house. She’d rather have linoleum in the hall but parquet has more cachet, he says. She sniffs at her cardigan cuffs. She could have tucked them better into her housecoat this morning. At the greengrocer’s she runs a nail along the silky gills of a mushroom and inhales, longing for a life lived in the leaf-mould litter of a forest floor, peaty earth under her stockinged feet. Failing that, she thinks as she drops the mushroom into a torn-cornered paper bag, she’d settle for a nice bit of linoleum. 
Highly Commended Stories:
Fifth Grade 
Lisa Ferranti
Fifth grade was the year we giggled through the school nurse’s explanation of menstruation. The year boys were not separated from girls, and Jimmy M. fainted, fell at my feet. The year we ogled bare-breasted fertility statues at the art museum. Told we were forbidden to touch. I waited for the teacher to round the corner, pointed my finger a baby’s breath from the carved stone. I swung my hair, tried to catch Jimmy’s eye. Fifth grade was the year I learned to say without saying: Dare me?The year a blue-blazered security guard grabbed my arm.  
Death of a Friend
Amanda O’Callaghan
When she met her gaze, that last time, she remembered the mouse. Once, standing on the back verandah, night sunk deep into the trees, she’d heard the sound of bird’s wings, wheeling close. She knew it was the owl; she’d seen it, days before, perched on the sheeny muscle of ghost gum, turning its domed head. But this time, she could see nothing. There was only the lethal fold of feathers, swooping down, close to the grass. Then, a tiny creature carried aloft, shrieking from its miniature lungs, the shape of its outrage borne away, beyond a pitiless moon. 
Forgetting, Remembering
Catherine Edmunds
The gulf between us is a river in spate. We nudge each other when the snoring becomes intolerable, but our arms remain empty. 
You go up for an afternoon nap, and don’t come down again. The paramedics ask me my name. I don’t know any more.  
Later, I iron all your shirts, your socks, ties, hats, documents; I iron the bedsheets and spray them with starch until the river has subsided. I lie on the hot, alien sheets and scorch my back and buttocks until I remember my name.
Things I Never Saw Again After You Dumped Me By Text Message
Rebecca Field
My toothbrush. My spare contact lenses. That Bob Dylan album I lent you. The old Iron Maiden T-shirt you gave me to sleep in at your place. My Fight Club video. Your housemates, except for that one time I saw Dave in Fulton’s Frozen Foods and he blanked me. Your house cat – I wonder who fed him once I wasn’t there anymore. You in the morning with the shakes, thinking about your next drink. All the money I lent you to go out drinking without me. Best of all, that look my mother would give me when I mentioned you.
1990
Alan Beard
Girl in a Blockbusters smelling of Shake ‘n’ Vac, stares blankly in her soft plumpness and soft permed hair at the pop video playing. Vanilla Ice. She thinks of customers’ lives, their homes as they return last night’s film: Ghost, Petty Woman. Evenings ahead with her husband watching videos, maybe this boy who hangs around, chats to her between customers. Does she even like him? He has big brown eyes. He says put on heavy metal. Ugh, she says, not likely. She’s old fashioned, likes the Carpenters; the woman starved herself to death, but sang beautifully before she did.
Louise
Elaine Dillon
The thunder that meant the end of summer sent us running inside, just as the rain started hissing on the path. Fat drops topped up the paddling pool.
We sat in the doorframe and dared Louise to do something we wouldn’t, for fear of a leathering.  
She pulled off her swimsuit and exploded over the threshold. The grass licked her heels and her fine hair soaked dark against her back, as she sprinted towards the leylandii and launched herself through, like she was diving into a deep pool.
We sat with our mouths open and a towel across our laps.
White Lies
Anita Goveas
It's a tradition for Block B, Mary Gee Hall to eat together every Sunday. The first week of the Easter holidays, there's only three students eating lentil spag bol.
Shaven-headed Angus and curvy-hipped Lei are touching feet under the table, and mumbling about their individual plans for the week to their kitchen-mate. Peony-faced Kate cries at wildlife documentaries and once filled Lei's bed with rose petals for Valentine's day.
Leicester University is teaching them essay-writing, what happens when you put a black sock in with your whites, and that what you don’t say is more important than what you do.



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! 

Submissions for National Flash Fiction Day 2018 are now open, but the deadlines are coming up fast! 

You have until Saturday 17th March 2018 to send us up to three micro fictions on any theme for our Micro fiction competition. That's less than a week left! These must be 100 words or fewer. More details about the micro competition are here: http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/comp.html
Our 2018 anthology submissions are now open too, and we hope you're hungry! From now until Saturday 31st March 2018, you can send us up to three 500-word on this year's theme: Food! The anthology will be edited by award-winning writer, Alison Powell, and National Flash Fiction Day Co-Director, Santino Prinzi. Your stories must be 500 words or fewer. 

We're looking for stories inspired by and about whatever's on your plate. We're ready to salivate over your sentences, to savour the subtle flavours of your subtext, to devour your delicious dialogue. Sweet, sour, savoury, sharp, tangy, rich, or rotten. Serve us up some scrumptious tales and tantalising treats with tasty twists. Are we all becoming too healthy? Or is suet the main dish of the day? Has a friendship been ruined by raw chocolate? We're looking for full-fat, jam-packed flash fiction with an aftertaste we won't forget. Feel free to interpret the theme of "food" however you wish, but your flashes must fit the theme in some way. 
More details about the anthology are here: http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/anth.html
We can't wait to read your flashes!

Welcome to Sleep is a Beautiful Colour: National Flash Fiction Day 2017 Anthology, edited by Santino Prinzi and Meg Pokrass.

We are currently very busy proofreading the anthology, and the feedback from our proofreaders has been outstanding! They're all very excited about this anthology, as are we, and we hope you are too! We'll let you know when the anthology is available to purchase.

For the full line-up of authors and their flashes, see the list below:

Robert Scotellaro A Sky Full of Ghosts
Catherine Edmunds Molly and the Toe-rag
Simon Sylvester Soup Stone
Sandra Arnold The Quick and the Dead
Heather McQuillan Iridescence
James Coffey Close Encounters
Victoria Richards Aino Yehudi 
Kevlin Henney DIY
Sophia Holme Rehabilitation
Joy Manné Stabbed
Robert Lopez Into My Own Parade
Mary Lynn Reed The Thieves Are Coming. They Are Taking It All
Jonathan Taylor Not a Horror Story
Jenny Woodhouse Stepping Out
Steven Moss Gabriel
Peter Wortsman Bliss Street
Sharon Telfer Never Going to Fall for Modern Love
Marie Gethins Unseen
Bobbie Ann Mason The Girl in Purple
Conor Houghton The Great Forgotten Language
Rupert Dastur It All Ends
Tim Stevenson A Thousand Years
Miranda Kate Friends
Nuala Ní Chonchúir Bunnahabhain
Michael Loveday Let Them Know Me By My Teeth
Lex Williford Horsewhip
Sophie Rosenblum A Terrier’s Limits
Mark Connors
Gary Duncan
Communication
Free Hugs
Steve Tuffin The Sun on the Dash
Diane Simmons Dancing Partners
Gary Powell Missing
Rachael Dunlop Teeter, Totter, Tattle-Tale
Gay Degani Anamnesis
Helen Rye Sleep Is A Beautiful Colour
Christopher M Drew The Fisher King
David O’Neill Tin Can Phones
Stuart Dybek Fog
David Steward Twenty-Five Seconds
Nod Ghosh Exactly the Way You Are
Matthew Thorpe-Coles It’s M.E., Not You
Megan Crosbie Big Responsibilities
Joanna Campbell Breathing
Danielle McLaughlin Let Robot Lawnmower Work. Enjoy Your Life!
Sophie van Llewyn The Skirt
Erica Plouffe Lazure On The Way Out
Pamela Painter Vacation Dog
Clare Polders Swing State
Paul Currion Happiness
Calum Kerr Who Came?
Zoe Murdock Living Alone with Derrida
Meg Pokrass Tenders
Anne Summerfield On the Track You Tasted Blue
Etgar Keret The Most
Judy Darley Fascinate
Angela Readman Legs in the Air, We Think about Spring
Anna Nazarova-Evans The Boy at a London Bus Stop Who Took 
My Photograph in the Summer of 1999
Santino Prinzi They Keep Calling My Ex-Husband Brave
Judi Walsh Carousel
Lindsay Fisher How Traveller Boys Love
Ingrid Jendrzejewski The Complete and Incomplete Works of Lydia Davis
Jason Jackson Ana and Jose-Ramon
Robert Shapard Weather Girl
KM Elkes The Way We Lie
Jane Dugdale Milk and Money
Claudia Smith Startled
Kirsty Cowan Mrs Livingstone’s Artist
Adam Trodd I Am My Own David Attenborough
Jude Higgins There’s No Such Thing as a Fish
2017 National Flash-Fiction Day Micro Competion Winners
Brianna Snow Fifth Grade
Stephanie Hutton Geology of a Girl
Sherry Morris As Liquid is Poured
Catherine Edmunds Brave
Sally Syson Mermaids
Kayla Pongrac Fireflies in the Backyard
Sacha Waldron Fawn
Jennifer Harvey Mango
Christina Taylor The In-Between Hour
Alison Wassell The Smoking Circle

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Assembly of the 2017 National Flash Fiction Day anthology is well underway. The theme for this year's anthology is Life As You Know It.

We're thrilled to announce that this year's anthology will be called Sleep Is A Beautiful Colour, taken from a brilliant and funny story by Helen Rye.

We've also managed to include a series of commissioned stories from a range of wonderful writers. We're sure you'll recognise some of these writers, and that you'll be as excited as we are about their appearance in this year's anthology! The full 'line-up' is below, with all the incredible stories you'll be able to read.

We will be launching Sleep Is A Beautiful Colour on National Flash Fiction Day (June 24th) at the UK's first Flash Fiction Festival taking place in Bath. If you are organising a flash fiction event for National Flash Fiction Day, please get in contact with us so we can promote your event!


Without further ado, welcome to life as we know it...

Sleep Is A Beautiful Colour

Robert Scotellaro A Sky Full of Ghosts
Catherine Edmunds Molly and the Toe-rag
Simon Sylvester Soup Stone
Sandra Arnold The Quick and the Dead
Heather McQuillan Iridescence
James Coffey Close Encounters
Victoria Richards Aino Yehudi 
Kevlin Henney DIY
Sophia Holme Rehabilitation
Joy Manné Stabbed
Robert Lopez Into My Own Parade
Mary Lynn Reed The Thieves Are Coming. They Are Taking It All
Jonathan Taylor Not a Horror Story
Jenny Woodhouse Stepping Out
Steven Moss Gabriel
Peter Wortsman Bliss Street
Sharon Telfer Never Going to Fall for Modern Love
Marie Gethins Unseen
Bobbie Ann Mason The Girl in Purple
Conor Houghton The Great Forgotten Language
Rupert Dastur It All Ends
Tim Stevenson A Thousand Years
Miranda Kate Friends
Nuala Ní Chonchúir Bunnahabhain
Michael Loveday Let Them Know Me By My Teeth
Lex Williford Horsewhip
Sophie Rosenblum A Terrier’s Limits
Mark Connors
Gary Duncan
Communication
Free Hugs
Steve Tuffin The Sun on the Dash
Diane Simmons Dancing Partners
Gary Powell Missing
Rachael Dunlop Teeter, Totter, Tattle-Tale
Gay Degani Anamnesis
Helen Rye Sleep Is A Beautiful Colour
Christopher M Drew The Fisher King
David O’Neill Tin Can Phones
Stuart Dybek Fog
David Steward Twenty-Five Seconds
Nod Ghosh Exactly the Way You Are
Matthew Thorpe-Coles It’s M.E., Not You
Megan Crosbie Big Responsibilities
Joanna Campbell Breathing
Danielle McLaughlin Let Robot Lawnmower Work. Enjoy Your Life!
Sophie van Llewyn The Skirt
Erica Plouffe Lazure On The Way Out
Pamela Painter Vacation Dog
Clare Polders Swing State
Paul Currion Happiness
Calum Kerr Who Came?
Zoe Murdock Living Alone with Derrida
Meg Pokrass Tenders
Anne Summerfield On the Track You Tasted Blue
Etgar Keret The Most
Judy Darley Fascinate
Angela Readman Legs in the Air, We Think about Spring
Anna Nazarova-Evans The Boy at a London Bus Stop Who Took 
My Photograph in the Summer of 1999
Santino Prinzi They Keep Calling My Ex-Husband Brave
Judi Walsh Carousel
Lindsay Fisher How Traveller Boys Love
Ingrid Jendrzejewski The Complete and Incomplete Works of Lydia Davis
Jason Jackson Ana and Jose-Ramon
Robert Shapard Weather Girl
KM Elkes The Way We Lie
Jane Dugdale Milk and Money
Claudia Smith Startled
Kirsty Cowan Mrs Livingstone’s Artist
Adam Trodd I Am My Own David Attenborough
Jude Higgins There’s No Such Thing as a Fish
2017 National Flash-Fiction Day Micro Competion Winners
Brianna Snow Fifth Grade
Stephanie Hutton Geology of a Girl
Sherry Morris As Liquid is Poured
Catherine Edmunds Brave
Sally Syson Mermaids
Kayla Pongrac Fireflies in the Backyard
Sacha Waldron Fawn
Jennifer Harvey Mango
Christina Taylor The In-Between Hour
Alison Wassell The Smoking Circle

1

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