Save the Date: we're celebrating the next National Flash Fiction Day on 14 June 2025!
A huge thank you again to everyone who entered our Novella-in-Flash Award. We are delighted to announce our shortlist!
If your novella-in-flash is on the list we would love you to celebrate on social media, but to keep things anonymous for judging purposes please do not reveal your title.
Congratulations to all the authors!
The short-listed entries are:
Welcome to the second in our series of interviews with this year's National Flash Fiction Day Anthology editors and Microfiction Competition judges! Submissions for the Anthology and Microfiction Competition are open from 1 December 2021 to 15 February 2022.
This week, Diane Simmons chats with Christopher Allen, one of this year's judges for the 2022 NFFD Microfiction Competition, about movement, editing and crafting a collection of flash....
Diane: You have at times described yourself as a nomad. Do you think moving from place to place affects what you write about or how you write it?
Christopher: Indirectly maybe? Characters and situations I’ve encountered around the world do show up in my writing, but only rarely. The tree in ‘Fred’s Massive Sorrow’ was inspired by a tree growing on the top of a building in the middle of Vienna. A man working on the Mekong in Cambodia inspired ‘Kerosene Man’. A river in South Tyrol is the river in ‘Providence’. I just happened to be in Siena during The Feast of Santa Caterina, the memory of which forms the setting for my story ‘Santa Caterina’—but these are exceptions in my writing. I’m usually very much an ‘in-the-mind’ writer.
Always being on the road, though, does affect the way I write. I write on trains and planes or sometimes not at all. I scribble lines on scraps of paper and stuff them in my backpack. I think about stories for months before I write anything. I don’t have a desk or even a bookshelf, but I have memories of both. Writing for me is always a struggle to shut out the commotion around me.
Diane: In your role of editor at SmokeLong Quarterly, you must read a huge number of flash fictions. Is there any advice you can give entrants to your competitions on writing a successful flash or anything you would particularly like to see?
Christopher: I think around 5000 submissions a year since 2008? As a team, the SmokeLong editors read around 3000 submissions each quarter. Honest work that shines through every narrative layer, from word to concept, has a good chance of doing well in a SmokeLong competition. Something innovative with heart will stand out.
Diane: Can you recall a flash fiction that made you cry?
Christopher: When I received my copy of SmokeLong Quarterly: The Best of the First 10 Years anthology in 2014, I took it to the Greek restaurant around the corner from my house in Munich. I remember sitting there alone and choking back tears at more than a dozen of the stories. I don’t remember the specific stories that made me cry, but there were lots. ‘A Soldier’ by Siamak Vossoughi made me cry the first time I read it. ‘Rascal’ by Brendan Stephens makes me cry every time I read it in my Elements of Flash workshop. And lots of my own stories. I get so choked up when reading ‘What if All the Oceans’ that I’ve decided not to try to read it in public again, especially if I’ve had wine.
Diane: Your collection Other Household Toxins was published in 2018. Did you enjoy the process of putting together a collection? Do you have any tips that you’d like to share?
Christopher: Oh yes. The process was satisfying. I love the jigsaw nature of creating a collection. Other Household Toxins went through several permutations. At first the publisher wanted it to be a craft book, but I decided it was a couple of decades and a few collections too soon to make a craft book using exclusively my own work.
I’m not great with advice. Everyone has their own take on what works and what doesn’t. Don’t worry too much. Include only the stories you love. I’ve written and published quite a few stories I don’t love, and they will never be in a collection. A couple of years ago I made a commitment to myself to stop sending out stories just to send out stories.
Diane: Writing and editing must keep you very busy. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Christopher: Editing is a full-time job. SmokeLong is a full-time job. We have a team of talented editors who work so hard. I am continually impressed and humbled by how much work they put into the feedback they give.
Spare time. Oh god. I try to do as much sport as I can. I hike and cross-country ski. In months that are not cold, I try to cycle as much as possible. My dream holiday is just getting on my bike and cycling from village to village until I’m far far away.
Christopher Allen is the author of the flash fiction collection Other Household Toxins and the editor-in-chief of SmokeLong Quarterly. His work has appeared in Indiana Review, Split Lip, Booth, The Best Small Fictions and many other fine places. An instructor for more than 30 years, he teaches the flash narrative in workshops around the world, mostly online these days. He is a nomad.
A huge thank you to everyone who submitted their Novella-in-Flash.
If your name is on the list we would love you to celebrate on social media, but to keep things anonymous for judging please do not reveal your title.
Congratulations to all the authors listed below!
Welcome to the first in our series of interviews with this year's National Flash Fiction Day Anthology editors and Microfiction Competition judges! Submissions for the Anthology and Microfiction Competition are open from 1 December 2021 to 15 February 2022.
This week, Diane Simmons chats with Karen Jones, one of this year's editors for the 2022 NFFD Anthology, about reading in public, humour, her novella-in-flash, as well as what she is (and isn't) looking for when reading anthology submissions....
Diane: Firstly, thank you for agreeing to be a co-editor of this year’s anthology. The theme is FREEDOM. Is there anything you would like to particularly see in submissions? Or not see?
Karen: Thank you for the invite – I’m delighted to be part of NFFD. I’d love to see some wild interpretations of the theme – things I hadn’t thought of, things that make me sit up and take notice. I always say when I’m judging or acting as submissions editor that I want you to surprise me, and it’s no different here. Themes can be constricting but I hope this one can be interpreted widely enough to allow people do something different. Or, you know, if you’re telling an old story, at least tell it in a new way.
I don’t particularly want to see a lot of pandemic stories, purely because I’ve seen so many already, and I’m also not a big fan of twist endings. Other subjects it’s probably best to avoid, again, because we see them so often, are dementia/Alzheimer’s, cancer, death of a child. I’m not saying don’t write about any of these things, just be aware that you may be up against lots of others writing on the same themes, and that immediately reduces your chances of being accepted.
Diane: I always enjoy hearing you perform your stories. Do you have any advice for writers who are perhaps daunted by the prospect of reading out a flash for the first time?
Karen: There’s a standing joke amongst people who first heard me try to perform that I sent earthquake tremors through Partick in Glasgow. I trembled so much that the paper I read from shook, my legs wobbled, my voice quivered. The next time I was due to read I contacted a friend who was a seasoned performer – she even read one of her poems at the opening of the Scottish Parliament – and she told me to read something already published and to say to myself, ‘This is good. It’s objectively good. It’s not something only your pals or family liked – it’s published, it’s worthy. And if the audience don’t get that, sod them.’ While the last part made me laugh, it turned out be excellent advice. Now I absolutely love performing, love the applause, love the validation. I’ve gone from trembling wreck to needing someone to wrestle the microphone out of my hand so someone else can get a turn. Believe in yourself and your words is the takeaway from this. At a more basic level, practise, practise, practise. And read much more slowly than feels natural. And remember – everyone listening/watching wants you to do well. Everyone in that audience is on your side. They want you to succeed, and they will help you do that by cheering for you at the end. And breathe. Remember to breathe.
Diane: Your novella-in-flash When it’s Not Called Making Love was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2020. I have head you mention that it draws very much from your own life. Is this something you do much of in the rest of your writing?
Karen: A lot of my stories and flashes and short stories, do, to some extent, draw on my life and experiences. When you write things that have happened to you or people you know, there’s an authenticity to the voice and character that helps the reader connect emotionally to the story. The best stories and characters draw the reader in, make them believe, make them feel. So, yes, I do draw very much from my own life and my own country.
Diane: You use a lot of humour in your flash fictions. Humour can be difficult to pull off. Do you have any tips?
Karen: Funny is hard. It’s probably one of the most difficult genres because, more than any other, it is so subjective. Think of how often you and a friend have disagreed over what is a funny film or sitcom or book. Restraint is probably the keyword where it comes to writing comedy. It can be so tempting to rush in, trying too hard, filling stories with endless funny situations, constant one-liners, all characters having hilarious names, puns by the pound… and that’s where it falls flat. Trying too hard is the worst thing you can do with humour. A gentle touch is, for me, better. Humour tucked into a dark story, or all out humour but with subtlety. Not easy, but so worthwhile when it’s done well. I’ve heard people say that if you laugh at one of your own jokes, you should cut it. I disagree. If you make yourself laugh, cherish it, nourish it – that’s where the gold lies.
Diane: Do you need silence or an empty house to write or would you rather be in a crowded café or a room full of people?
Karen: I don’t think I’d enjoy writing in a room full of people or busy café, though I’ve never really tried. However, I used to get the bus into Glasgow and then walk two miles down to Kelvingrove Art Galleries and sit in in the gallery that exhibits the Scottish Colourists, put classical music on my iPod and write for a couple of hours. That was probably my most productive writing period. On the bus and on the walk, I’d listen to passing conversations and make mental notes of things I could use. At the galleries, I’d people watch, always finding new characters. There was so much material right there. In the past few years, that hasn’t been possible, but I do still love to block the world out by plugging into some Mozart and just writing rambling nonsense until something starts to feel like it might be a story. I have a bit more time now, so may well start my bus journeys and walks to the galleries again. If you see me on the bus, whisper so I don’t steal your words.
*I know very little about art or classical music – I think that may have helped, because I wasn’t distracted by it, I just enjoyed being immersed in it. *
Karen Jones is a flash and short story writer from Glasgow, Scotland. Her flashes have been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Micro Fiction and The Pushcart Prize, and her story Small Mercies was included in Best Small Fictions 2019 and BIFFY50 2019. In 2021 she won first prize in the Cambridge Flash Fiction Prize, Flash 500, Reflex Fiction and Retreat West Monthly Micro and was shortlisted for To Hull and Back, Bath Flash Fiction, Bath Short Story Award and longlisted for Fractured Lit Flash Fiction Prize. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. Her novella-in-flash, When It’s Not Called Making Love is published by Ad Hoc Fiction. She is Special Features Editor at New Flash Fiction Review.
It's that time of year again; National Flash Fiction Day is OPEN for submissions to the 2022 NFFD Anthology & Microfiction Competition! We'll be reading submissions from 1 December to 15 February.
Please note that these are two separate projects run by two separate teams with two separate submissions processes. You can read about both below....
The theme of this year's National Flash Fiction Day Anthology is FREEDOM.
What do you think of when you think of freedom? Freedom from, freedom to do, freedom to be?
Does your mind go to prisons and zoos or to protest marches and politics or to leaving the office on a Friday, packing a bag and heading off on holiday? Or is it simply freedom of thought? Or is it George Michael belting out that classic? But maybe you have a very different view of freedom; go on, surprise us!
Feel free to interpret FREEDOM however you wish, in 500 words or fewer. You do not need to include the word 'freedom' in your piece.
This year, we are thrilled to announce that we will be awarding two Editor's Choice Awards. The 2022 editors, Karen Jones and Chris Drew will each select one piece from the accepted stories to receive a £50 prize. Find out more about our editors here and keep an eye on our news feed for their interviews early next year.
You can read our full anthology submission guidelines here or go straight to our submission manager, Duosuma, where you can submit your work.
We're reading flash of up to 100 words on any theme.
This year, we're offering:
All winning and highly commended flash will be published both online and in the NFFD print anthology.
Our judges are that Christopher Allen, Joanna Campbell, Tracy Fells, and Damhnait Monaghan. We'll be posting interviews with our judges in the new year, but in the meantime, you can read more about our panel here.
We are not able to consider simultaneous submissions this year, so please don't send us work that will be under consideration elsewhere before we announce the results on or before 15 March 2022. Our full competition guidelines and details of how to submit by email can be found here.
Our Anthology and Microfiction teams look forward to reading your work!
With our submission window set to open in less than a week, we'd like to take a moment to introduce you to this year's judging panel. This year, we're super excited to announce that Christopher Allen, Joanna Campbell, Tracy Fells, and Damhnait Monaghan will be reading your submissions. These fantastic flash writers, readers and editors will be doing it all: reading all the submissions that come in, compiling a shortlist, and then deciding on the winning and highly commended pieces.
Our submission window opens on Wednesday, 1 December 2021 and closes on Tuesday, 15 February 2022. We will be announcing results on or before 15 March 2022. We'll be reading flash of up to 100 words on any theme, but we are not able to consider simultaneous submissions this year.
For the 2022 competition, we're thrilled to be able to increase our prize pot by including cash prizes for all of our highly commended runners-up as well as our first, second and third place winners. All winning and commended pieces will be published online as well as in the 2022 National Flash Fiction Day print anthology. Check back on 1 December for full details and submission guidelines.
In the new year, we'll be posting interviews with our judges so you can get a better sense of what they're looking for, but in the meantime, you can read more about each of them below.
Huge thanks to our judges for taking on the 2022 NFFD Microfiction Competition and we look forward to reading your work!
2022 Microfiction Competition Judges
Submissions are open from 1 December 2021 to 15 February 2022.
Christopher Allen is the author of the flash fiction collection Other Household Toxins and the editor-in-chief of SmokeLong Quarterly. His work has appeared in Indiana Review, Split Lip, Booth, The Best Small Fictions and many other fine places. An instructor for more than 30 years, he teaches the flash narrative in workshops around the world, mostly online these days. He is a nomad.
Joanna Campbell is a full-time writer from the Cotswolds. Her short stories have won first place in the 2011 Exeter Writers competition, the 2013 Bath Short Story Award Local Prize, the 2015 London Short Story Prize, the 2018 Magic Oxygen Literary Prize and the 2018 Retreat West Short Story Prize. Joanna’s flash fiction won second place in the 2017 Bridport Prize, for which her short stories have been shortlisted many times. Her novella-in-flash, A Safer Way to Fall, was a runner-up in the inaugural Bath Flash Fiction Award and published in How To Make A Window Snake (Ad Hoc Fiction). Her short story collection, When Planets Slip Their Tracks, was published in 2016 (Ink Tears). It was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award and longlisted for the Edge Hill University Story Prize. Her novel, Tying Down The Lion, was published in 2015 (Brick Lane Publishing). Her next novel, Instructions for the Working Day, will be published in 2022 (Fairlight Books). She is on Twitter at @joannacampbell_.
Tracy Fells was the 2017 Regional Winner (Europe and Canada) for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her short fiction has been widely published in print journals and online, including: Granta, Brittle Star, Reflex Fiction, Popshot Quarterly, Firewords, Funny Pearls and the Bath Flash Fiction Award anthologies (2019 & 2020). She has been shortlisted for the Bridport and Fish Flash Fiction prizes, placed in the Reflex Fiction competition and Highly Commended in the NFFD Microfiction competition (2016 & 2020). In 2016 she was awarded an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Chichester University. She is a regular reader for several large short story competitions and leads writing workshops on short fiction. Tracy also writes novels and was a finalist in the 2018 Richard & Judy ‘Search for a Bestseller’ competition. Her debut novella-in-flash Hairy on the Inside was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2021. She tweets as @theliterarypig.
Damhnait Monaghan was born and grew up in Canada but now lives in the U.K. Her flash fiction has won or placed in various competitions and is widely published and anthologised. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfictions. Her novella in flash The Neverlands (V.Press) won Best Novella in the 2020 Saboteur Awards. Her debut novel New Girl in Little Cove is out now with Harper Collins.
The start of our 2022 Anthology and Microfiction Competition submission windows is just around the corner, so we thought we'd introduce you to this year's editor and let you in on the 2022 theme.
We are delighted to announce that the 2022 National Flash Fiction Day anthology will be edited by NFFD's Karen Jones and Guest Editor Chris Drew.
The theme of this year's National Flash Fiction Day Anthology is FREEDOM.
What do you think of when you think of freedom? Freedom from, freedom to do, freedom to be?
Does your mind go to prisons and zoos or to protest marches and politics or to leaving the office on a Friday, packing a bag and heading off on holiday? Or is it simply freedom of thought? Or is it George Michael belting out that classic? But maybe you have a very different view of freedom; go on, surprise us!
Feel free to interpret FREEDOM however you wish, in 500 words or fewer, and submit your stories by 15 February 2022.
We'll be opening submissions on 1 December 2021, at which time you'll be able to read our full anthology submission guidelines here or on Duosuma.
We're looking forward to reading your work!
2022 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology Editors
Anthology Submissions are open from 1 December 2020 to 15 February 2022.
Karen Jones is a flash and short story writer from Glasgow, Scotland. Her flashes have been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Micro Fiction and The Pushcart Prize, and her story Small Mercies was included in Best Small Fictions 2019 and BIFFY50 2019. In 2021 she won first prize in the Cambridge Flash Fiction Prize, Flash 500, Reflex Fiction and Retreat West Monthly Micro and was shortlisted for To Hull and Back, Bath Flash Fiction, Bath Short Story Award and longlisted for Fractured Lit Flash Fiction Prize. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. Her novella-in-flash, When It’s Not Called Making Love is published by Ad Hoc Fiction. She is Special Features Editor at New Flash Fiction Review.
Christopher M Drew is a writer from Yorkshire. He started submitting flash fiction in 2015 and since then has been published widely in online journals and print anthologies. He has won second prize in the Bath Flash Fiction (2016), Reflex Fiction (2018), and Forge Literary Flash Fiction (2019) competitions. His SmokeLong Quarterly story Alligator was selected for Best British and Irish Flash Fiction 2019, and When we were young, originally published in trampset, was selected for Best Microfiction 2021. He has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net, and was one of the founding editors of the historical flash fiction journal FlashBack Fiction. You can connect with Chris on Twitter (@cmdrew81), or through his website (https://chrisdrew81.wixsite.
It may be cold and dark out, but we’re already dreaming about a flash-tastic summer, and making plans….
First and foremost, mark your calendars: we’re delighted to announce that National Flash Fiction Day 2022 will take place on Saturday, 18 June 2022. We’ll celebrate with a day full of flash fun involving writing prompts, a 24 hours of flash publication at FlashFlood, and the launches of the 2022 NFFD Anthology and our Novella-in-Flash Award winner’s novella, among other things.
If you’d like to get involved (and we hope you do!), here are some dates to look out for:
As always, if you're running a flash event or have other ideas as to how to celebrate National Flash Fiction Day, feel free to get in touch. We would love to hear from you, no matter where you are in the world.
Come join us!
I am sharing the news that I have decided to step down as Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day (UK).
This year marked National Flash Fiction Day’s tenth anniversary, which is a huge milestone not only for National Flash Fiction Day itself but for the celebration of flash fiction within the community in the U.K. and across the globe. I joined the team in 2015 and it has been remarkable to see National Flash Fiction Day and the flash fiction community itself blossom over the years. It has been a real privilege to be a part of this story, but I feel that our tenth year marks the right moment for me to pass one of the torches on to someone new.
I want to thank everyone who I have had the utmost joy to work with over the years. With a project such as this there will always be too many people to name, but I would like to thank Calum Kerr for masterminding National Flash Fiction Day in the first place, and Kevlin Henney, Tim Stevenson, and Amy Mackelden who helped show me the ropes when I joined the party. Thank you to my fellow anthology co-editors, Nuala O’Connor, Meg Pokrass, Alison Powell, Joanna Campbell, and Nod Ghosh. A special thank you to my fellow Co-Directors, Diane Simmons and Ingrid Jendrzejewski, who will continue bringing National Flash Fiction Day and all that comes with it to so many people.
Finally, I offer my deepest gratitude to every writer who has trusted me with their words and every reader who read them.
Santino Prinzi
This year, Farhana Khalique and Anita Goveas generously offered a free, one-hour workshop, 'Layers in Flash Fiction' as part of the tenth anniversary National Flash Fiction Day celebration. The workshop was online and focused on how writers can use imagery, structures and titles to develop layers in flash fiction.
We had incredible demand and couldn't accommodate everyone who wanted to attend, so Farhana and Anita have recorded the workshop to share with the NFFD community.
You can access the video with this link to the Zoom session, using the passcode 'Z@fs5ZkM' (without the quotation marks).
Here is a link to the handout:
NFFD Workshop - Layers in Flash with Farhana Khalique and Anita Goveas
If you missed your chance to participate live this time -- or if you enjoyed the workshop and want more -- Anita and Farhana are running another workshop in the autumn (independent of National Flash Fiction Day). It's called 'Building your house; laying the foundations for fabulous flash fiction', and will be 11am-1pm BST on Saturday the 9th October 2021. (It's a steal at less than £6 and places are limited.) You can find out more and register on the workshop's Eventbright link.
Huge thanks again to Farhana Khalique and Anita Goveas for running the workshop and sharing the materials with us!
Farhana Khalique is a writer, voiceover artist and teacher from London. Her stories are forthcoming or have appeared in the National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2021, Leicester Writes Short Story Prize Anthology 2020, Reflex Fiction and more. Farhana has been shortlisted for The Asian Writer Short Story Prize, and she has won a Word Factory Apprentice Award. She is also the editor of Desi Reads and a submissions editor at SmokeLong Quarterly. Find Farhana @HanaKhalique and www.farhanakhalique.com.
Anita Goveas is British-Asian and based in London. She’s on the editorial team at Flashback Fiction, an editor at Mythic Picnic’s twitter zine, and she’s an editor for the FlashFlood. She is one of the teachers on Dahlia Publishing’s 2021 ‘A Brief Pause‘ writer’s development programme. Her debut flash collection Families and Other Natural Disasters was published by Reflex Press in Sept 2020. Find her at @coffeeandpaneer and https://coffeeandpaneer.wordpress.com/.