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Published on Leave a comment on NFFD 2024: Free Workshop with Anita Goveas – Recording Available!

Huge thanks to Anita Goveas for her fantastic workshop this morning.  If you missed out, then you're in luck:

Click here for a recording of today's session.

We are truly grateful to Anita for offering an annual National Flash Fiction Day workshop free of charge for several years running.  All NFFD projects are volunteer run, this included.  If you enjoy these free workshops, do follow Anita to keep up with her writing and the workshops she runs throughout the year.

You can follow Anita on Twitter at @coffeeandpaneer.

Thank you again to Anita for volunteering her time and expertise to the flash community this weekend!

Published on Leave a comment on NFFD New Zealand’s ‘A View From Here’ & other Festival of Flash Events

The UK's National Flash Fiction Day launches at midnight!

If you'd like a little something to distract you from the wait, have a look at the amazing things New Zealand's National Flash Fiction Day has lined up.... (NFFD NZ is completely independent from our UK-based NFFD project, but we're certainly kindred spirits!)

There's so much going on at NFFD NZ, including some fantastic free events in their Festival of Flash...including an online panel discussion with flash editors, 'A View From Here' which includes NFFD UK Co-Director and FlashFlood Editor Ingrid Jendrzejewski.  You can find the line-up here:

https://nationalflash.org/2024-festival-of-flash/

Keep in mind that these are listed New Zealand times. 'A View From Here' takes starts at 21:30 on 14 June in UK time, and at 8:30am on 15 June in New Zealand time.

And don't forget to scroll down through their whole programme - there are so many great events throughout June!

Published on Leave a comment on The Write-In 2024: Badges are BACK!

This year we have a whole new set of badges you can collect over at our sister project, The Write-In.

Over the course of National Flash Fiction Day, we're publishing one prompt per hour for a total of 25 prompts. You have until Sunday 16 June at 23:59 BST to submit them for possible publication at The Write-In, and for the first time this year you can also claim a virtual badge for each prompt you finish, as well as for a few other tasks.

You can see the full list of badges here and claim you prompt badges using our badgifier. It's all on the honour-system, but bad publication karma will most certainly befall anyone who tries to fool our badgifier....

Finally, if you are here looking for the special National Flash Fiction Day 2024 badge from this website, you can find it here:

Congratulations -- you're one step closer to being able to legitimately claim the Complete Set badge of 2024!

 

 

 

 

Published on Leave a comment on The Official NFFD 2024 Roadmap

The Official NFFD 2024 Roadmap

The UK's National Flash Fiction Day starts at 00:01 BST on Saturday, 15 June 2024. Here's your handy guide to what's happening when....

Read with us!

For 24 hours straight starting at 00:01 BST on Saturday, 24 June, FlashFlood, NFFD's curated online journal, will be publishing one flash every 5 to 10 minutes over at NFFD.  Check in at half past the hour every hour from start to finish for our Debut Flash Series — new stories written by previously unpublished flash writers.

We'll also be launching the 2024 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology, Tiny Sparks Everywhere, edited by Karen Jones & Sara Hills.  You can pre-order it in our Bookshop.

Write with us!

Over at NFFD’s sister project The Write-In, we’ll be posting a flash prompt every hour on the hour from 00:00 – 24:00 BST on National Flash Fiction Day. You'll then have 24 hours to submit your responses for a chance of publication. Publication of responses begins on 16 June 2024 and doesn't finish until the team is done reading through all the wondrous things you send us.  Due to the ever-growing number and quality of submissions, The Write-In is now submitting award nominations.

Learn with us!

This year, we have not one but two fantastic online workshops.  Both are free, but spaces are limited so you'll need to book in advance.

15 June, 9-10 a.m. BST: Audrey Niven is running a free one-hour workshop based around the prompts at The Write-In.  You can find out more and sign up here.

15 June, 11 a.m. - 12 noon BST: Anita Goveas is offering even more flash fiction inspiration.  You can sign up here to participate.  For those who can't make it, we'll publish a video of this workshop after the event.

Celebrate with us!

We're celebrating live in Birmingham with free in-person workshops, a panel and the launch of the 2024 Anthology, Tiny Sparks Everywhere.  The timetable is here.  We're sold out, but we'll release any returns as soon as they come through here.  Or, if you're nearby, feel free to contact us for any eleventh-hour spaces.

Connect with us!

As usual, we'll be posting all our prompts and FlashFlood stories on Twitter @nationalflashfd and will be around on Facebook at facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday

What are you planning for NFFD?

If you're running something flashy on or near National Flash Fiction Day, do let us know so we can spread the word.

Huge thanks...

Huge thanks to all the volunteers who help make this happen, and to everyone who has submitted work to our projects, joined in at home, and chatted with us on Twitter.  We hope you'll enjoy this weekend full of reading, writing and celebrating flash.

Happy writing!

Published on Leave a comment on 2024 Best Small Fictions Winner!

Huge congratulations to Patricia Q. Bidar whose piece 'Cuttlefish' was chosen for the 2024 edition of Best Small Fictions.

This flash first appeared in Scratching the Sands: National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2023 which is available in our Bookshop.

You can find out more about Best Small Fictions series here.

Congratulations again to Patricia Q. Bidar, and to all our 2023 National Flash Fiction Day Best Small Fictions and Pushcart Prize nominees!

Published on Leave a comment on NFFD 2024: Places left on our FREE online workshops!

National Flash Fiction Day is only a week away! 

We're preparing for a day of workshops and readings in Birmingham, but if you can't join us there, we have two free online workshops on offer on Saturday, 15 June 2024 via Zoom.  They're free, but places are limited.  Here's what's on offer and how to book....

9am - 10am BST (online): Audrey Niven of Propelling Pencil is running a free one-hour workshop from  based around the prompts at The Write-In.  This is aimed at writers wanting to give The Write-In a try.  Sign up here: https://thepropellingpencil.com/workshops/

11am - 12noon BST (online): Anita Goveas is giving a free one-hour workshop to everyone who wants to celebrate National Flash Fiction Day in flashy style.  You can reserve your space here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/national-flash-fiction-day-flash-fiction-workshop-tickets-907669924177

Our live event in Birmingham is sold out, but do keep checking the website as we release cancellations as soon as they come in.  Here is the link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/national-flash-fiction-day-2024-tickets-858859952237. And, if you live nearby, feel free to check in with us on the day for last-minute cancellations.

 

Published on Leave a comment on National Flash Fiction Day 2024 Anthology Title and Cover Reveal!

We're delighted to introduce the title and cover of our newest anthology, Tiny Sparks Everywhere: National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2024.  It will launch on 15 June 2024, but you can pre-order here.

 

 

 

Thanks to Jennifer Brutschy, author of the eponymous story and to our artist-in-residence Jeanette Sheppard who provided the cover image.

We're excited to share the anthology itself with you in less than a month!

Published on Leave a comment on FlashFlood opens for submissions on 21 April 2024, for one week only!

We are delighted to announce that FlashFlood will be open for submissions from 12:01 a.m. BST on Sunday, 21 April to 23:59 BST on Saturday, 27 April 2024.

You can read our submission guidelines here, and read about this year's editors here.

We're looking for submissions of up to 300 words on any theme.  (Shorter pieces are very welcome; there is no minimum word count.)  We are happy to read up to three pieces per author per year.

We are happy to consider previously published work as long as it was published before 2022, you give us full publication details, and you retain rights to republish.   We consider all previously unpublished pieces for award nominations; we nominate for Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction and Best of the Net.

Please note that we do not accept AI generated work at this time.  Whilst we appreciate that AI can come up with some very interesting things, we have a very human team of editors volunteering their precious and limited time.  We simply don't have the resources to deal with a deluge of AI generated work.  Please be kind to our editors by only submitting work that you yourself have written.

 

 

Published on Leave a comment on Join us in Birmingham for NFFD 2024!

To celebrate National Flash Fiction Day 2024, we're hosting a live event in Birmingham on Saturday, 15 June 2024, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. BST.

Join us for two flash workshops, a panel presentation and the launch of the 2024 NFFD Anthology, complete with readings from some of this year's authors.

You can read more on our events page and you can book your ticket here (on EventBrite), but hurry -- space is limited and we expect to sell out.

Tickets are free, but donations are very gratefully received.

 

 

Published on Leave a comment on National Flash Fiction Day 2024 Microfiction Competition Results

And the results are in!

Huge congratulations to our winning and highly commended authors (listed alphabetically by story title):

  • First Prize: ‘Frost Fair’ by Josie Turner
  • Second Prize: ‘The Attempts of Arlo, Age 9, to Create a Shooting Star After Learning They Are Just Rocks Moving Very Fast’ by Leila Murton Poole
  • Third Prize: ‘Sex, Sighs and Masking Tape’ by Chris Cottom
  • Highly Commended: ‘Everyone Said It Was Pointless Trying to Date a Girl Obsessed With Marine Arthropods but I Had to Find out for Myself’ by Rebecca Field
  • Highly Commended: ‘Granny’s Biggest Handicraft Project to Date’ by Anne Howkins
  • Highly Commended: ‘I imagine the Sun Changing Its Mind’ by Sarah Barnett
  • Highly Commended: ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ by Sherry Morris
  • Highly Commended: ‘Pearls on His Kurta’ by Sudha Balagopal
  • Highly Commended: ‘Stars and Stripes, 1945’ by James Montgomery
  • Highly Commended: ‘When We Were Young’ by Suzanne Hicks

The winning and highly commended stories can be read here and will appear in the 2024 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology.

Thank you again to our four judges: Sara Chansarkar, Jan Kaneen, David Rhymes and Alison Wassell.

Congratulations again to all our prize-winning and highly commended authors, and to all those who were shortlisted. And, a big thank you to everyone who entered this year’s competition and trusted us with their stories.