It’s Ad Hoc Fiction fourth birthday! The micro contest opened for entries first on 15th April 2015 and the first winning story by writer, Nick Black was published on 22nd April, four years ago, today. Our big thanks to John at Ad Hoc Fiction, who runs the Ad Hoc Fiction contest; designs and publishes the Ad Hoc Fiction paper back and ebooks; administers the Bath Flash Fiction Awards, and who has been doing so much to help put flash fiction on the map in the UK and beyond. A lot has happened in the last four years and here are sixteen random Happy Birthday Ad Hoc Fiction Facts:
Last Wednesday, April 17th, 2019 Ad Hoc published its 169th winner and in the current ebook there are 102 entries longlisted for the public to vote on to find the winner.
Each week, the micro contest usually attracts more than 150 entries from worldwide locations.
Our most prolific winner is Steven John from near Stroud, UK who has won six times. Louise Mangos and Nick Black have each won four times. And several other regular entrants have won twice.
Steven John’s winning Ad Hoc micro ‘A Brief History of Time in Our House’ was selected for inclusion in the international Bestmicro Fiction anthology, edited by Meg Pokrass, Gary Fincke and Dan Chaon, recently published.
Henry Peplow’s winning Ad Hoc Micro micro ‘When Zeus Fell to Earth, was a finalist for Best Small Fictions in 2017
Susan Borgenson, who has won twice, and entered mostly all the Ad Hoc contests in the first three years, wrote about her experience of writing micros for Ad Hoc and made a scarf printed with her wins.
Sharon Telfer, a 2016 Ad Hoc Winner used her free entry to Bath Flash Fiction Award that year and went on to win the £1000 first prize in our June 2016 Award judged by Michelle Elvy with her story ‘Terra Incognita’.
Ad Hoc Fiction has had two collaborations with the quality magazine Project Calm, and three Ad Hoc Fiction winners have been published in the magazine on each occasion.
Last April, 2018 we had a third birthday reading event at St James Wine Vaults Bath, and eleven winners read their stories. Louise Mangos came all the way from Switzerland and our other prolific winners, Steven John and Nick Black were there reading their stories as were several other winners from around the country including Debbi Voisey, from Stoke who has won once more since last year.
Ad Hoc Fiction has been long listed twice in the Saboteur Awards in 2016 and 2017, in their Wildcard category.
Ad Hoc Fiction became a short-short fiction press in 2017 and since then has published three anthologies from the Bath Flash Fiction Award; two collections of novellas-in-flash from the Bath Novella Award; two festival anthologies from the Flash Fiction Festival UK; the Bath Short Story Anthology, 2018 and two single author collections. All books are now available as ebooks with Kindle and Nook.
Ad Hoc Fiction plans to publish ten more books this year! (2019). Two single author collections, one by K M Elkes and one by an author to be announced this week; six novellas-in-flash by the three winning and three commended writers of the 2019 Bath Novella in Flash Award; a further anthology of long listed fictions from the three 2019 rounds of the Bath Flash Fiction Award and Flash Fiction Festival Three, an anthology of micro fictions submitted by the participants and presenters at the 2019 Flash Fiction Festival,to be held in Bristol, 28-30th June.
Ad Hoc Fiction created a dedicated online bookshop in 2018 and all the books are available to buy in several different currencies for worldwide postage.
How to Make a Window Snake,the novella-in-flash written by Charmaine Wilkerson, published by Ad Hoc Fiction, which won the first Bath Flash Fiction Novella in Flash Ad Hoc Fiction won the novella category in the Saboteur Awards in 2018. The Lobsters Run Free, Bath Flash Fiction, Vol 2 was longlisted in the Saboteur Awards in 2018.
Finding A Way, by Diane Simmons, published in paperback and ebook formats by Ad Hoc Fiction n February, 2019 is currently shortlisted for the Saboteur Awards in its short story category. Do vote for her (by 12th May). Thank you.
Ad Hoc Fiction is one of the sponsors for the Flash Fiction Festival UK and is also offering a special bottle of Ad Hoc Wine for the raffle.