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News
Ripening: National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2018 — Cover Reveal!
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.
Introducing the National Flash Fiction Anthology 2018
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 |
Micro Fiction Competition Winners!
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.
Micro Fiction Competition and Food Anthology Announcements!
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!
Deadlines for this Year’s Micro-Competition and Food Anthology are Fast Approaching!
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!
Happy National Flash-Fiction Day 2017!
Hello everyone,
Yes, it's here again. This is the sixth National Flash-Fiction Day (and they said it wouldn't last).
As ever, there are a number of events happening all over the UK and beyond, details of which you can read on our website at http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/events.htmlEarlier in the year, we ran our micro-fiction competition, and you can read the winning stories at http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/results.html
We also took submissions for our anthology, Sleep is a Beautiful Colour, which you can now buy online at Amazon in both paperback and kindle versions. The book also includes all the competition winners, as well as wonderful stories from some of the best flash-fictioneers in the world.
The anthology will also be on sale at the launch, this evening, as part of the UK's first ever Flash-Fiction Literary Festival, in Bath. Details about that are online at https://bathflashfictionaward.com/2017/03/flash-fiction-festival-sat-24th-sun-25th-june-2017/
And, last but not even a little bit least, we are once again flooding the internet with flash-fiction with our FlashFlood. You can read the stories as they appear on our blog (http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk) but also through our Facebook and Twitter feeds. And, don't worry, the stories will remain on the blog after tomorrow, along with over 1000 stories from previous issues.
Once again, it will be a massive day to celebrate the smallest prose fictions, and thanks must go to all who help organise the day, and all of you for your support in writing and reading and taking part in the day.
Special thanks to my co-Director Tino Prinzi, without whom the day wouldn't have happened.
And that's enough of me. The Flood is now flooding, the day is unfolding before you. So go forth and Flash!
Calum Kerr
co-Director
Cover Reveal!
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 |
Anthology Title and Full Line-Up Announcement!
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 |
2017 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology!
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 |