Our 31st Award closes 4 weeks today, on October 5th. Our judge is Kathryn Aldridge-Morris, a previous first prize winner of Bath Flash Fiction Award (read her story, selected by the judge of that round, Matt Kendrick here). Double and triple entries are discounted. £1460 in prize money. Results out at the end of October. All fifty longlisted writers are offered publication in our anthology. It’s your last chance this year to be published in our tenth anniversary award anthology and to receive a free copy of the book.

If you want a prompt,read our interview with Alison Powell, first prize winner of the 30th Award (story linked here).

If you want last minute inspiration, on Saturday 27th September and are in or near Bath, Jude’s holding a FREE evening of readings with readings from around 15 flash fiction writers, in St Jame’s Wine Vaults gallery room in Bath, from 7.30 pm to 10.00 pm. Free snacks and raffle with tickets £1.00 each and good prizes of books and other goodies. Proceeds from the raffle are again being donated to Penny Brohn National Cancer Help Centre, based in Bristol. At the in person Flash Fiction Festival, we sponsor, we raised £384 for Penny Brohn and they sent us this lovely thank you certicate to share. Thanks to all who came to the festival and bought tickets and for volunteer Nicold Keller (helped by Cheryl Markosky) for selling them

If you weren’t able to come to the in-person Flash Fiction Festival this July and want a festival vibe, I’ve organised another online Great Flash Fiction Festival Series. This one is series five. Three festival days from 11.00 am to 6.30 pm London Time, on 25th Oct, 29th November and 10th January on Zoom Each day there are three workshops. Two of 60 mins and one of 90 mins, a writing prompt for a free mini contest. Prizes for winners books and publication on line and in the 2026 Festival anthology, flash fiction readings from world wide authors, yoga for writers and community chats. (Plus a few little surprises).

The competitions and the day are a riff on the reality TV show, The Great British Bake Off. The writing prompts, which I set will, like the Bake Off series, involve a signature, technical, and showstopper challenge. One on each day. Exccept you will be cooking stories not cakes and sparking off an image plus some instructions from me (Jude Higgins).

Many of the workshops on offer are online versions of ones offered at the in person festival. Read all about them and the workshop leaders on flashfictionfestival.com. You can also see the timetable for each day there and you can book via Paypal or any card.

Each day only costs £35. Or you can buy all three days for the discounted price of £90

Hope you can come! The days are a lot of fun. And friendly and it’s nice to chat with your world wide flashy friends. You can also come of course if you are new to flash and what to find out more.

And here’s a reminder of other flashy dates. The 31st Bath Flash Fiction Award closes in just over four weeks (October 5th). It’s judged by one of our first prize winners, Kathryn Aldridge Morris, who has also won several other awards. Check out our interview with her). Results out by November 1st. Anthology publication offer in our special 10th anniversary BFFA anthology for all 50 longlisted. £1460 in prizes.

The 9th Bath Novella in Flash also closes in October (October 31st). For novellas in flash in between 6.000 and 18,000 words. Winner receives £300 and publication plus 5 free copies. And two runners up £100 plus publication and five free copies. I’m selecting again for this round. Read what I like here

Finally I’m hosting a FREE evening of readings in the Gallery room at St James Wine Vaults Bath on the evening of 27th September from 7.30 pm to 10.00 pm . Around 15 flash fiction writers reading. Plus raffle, free snacks and bar. All welcome.