It’s the final day of our 30th £1460 prize fund Award, this time judged by award winning writer and editor, Marie Gethins .

As always, a lot of people enter today which is the reason we created the Last Minute Club and the badge as a fun ending. (We appreciate everyone who enters at different times too).

The first badge, was created in June 2018 so this is the 22nd badge. Let us know if you have entered each time and have collected 22 badges!

We always run a guess-the-colour-of-the-badge contest on the Saturday before the deadline. This time Tracy Upchurch, a writer from the UK won. She guessed Dove Grey and the rim of the badge is Woodpigeon Grey, chosen to match the Woodpigeons on our just published 2024 Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology, The Constancy of WoodpigeonsTracy gets a copy of this anthology as a prize.

And here’s a last minute tip for any story you have waiting in the wings to enter, especially any that have been out and about but haven’t found a home yet. Try a different title. An arresting title often gets the attention of our readers, especially if it enhances the story.

Thank you everyone for your support. Results out by the end of this month.

Jude, June 8th, 2025.

The Constancy of Woodpigeons our ninth anthology since we began in 2015 is back from the printers, just in time for the deadline of our 30th Award, this Sunday June 8th.

There are 137 flash fictions by writers from all over the world, who were listed in the 2024 Awards in the anthology. We’re so happy it is now ready to be posted off to contributors (or handed to them directly at the National Flash Fiction Day event in Bath on 14th June, or the Flash Fiction Festival weekend 18-20 July) We’re launching it at the festival with readings from some of the contributors attending.

The title story is by award winning writer from the UK, Tracy Fells. And she will be reading her story at the launch.

We love the picture of the Woodpigeons on the cover. The colours have come out beautifully on the printed copy. This is the fourth anthology we’ve produced with animals or birds used for the cover image. The others are The Lobsters Run Free BFFA Vol 2, With One Eye on the Cows BFFA Vol 4 and Snow Crow BFFA Vol 6.

You can buy a copy directly from adhocfiction.com or from Amazon.

Thanks to everyone who has entered our 30th Award judged by Marie Gethins so far. We look forward to reading your stories and at the end of this year also look forward to selecting one from the to inspire the cover for our 10th anthology.

With one week to go until our 30th Award closes on Sunday June 8th, we’re excited to announce we have two new books for sale, up today, June 1st, at adhocfiction.com!

In the Dark Eyes of the Rabbit the wonderful first prize winning novella in flash by Debra A Daniel from the Bath Flash Fiction Novella-in-Flash Award, 2025, is on pre-order on the bookshop at a 25% discount until publication day on July 6th. It is also available on Amazon worldwide in paperback (not at a discount but you may save some postage costs). We love the cover art also by Debra and can highly recommend the novella as a fantastic read, both moving and humorous with completely compelling characters.

Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology Vol, 9, The Constancy of Woodpigeons with fantastic flash fictions from 137 international contributors who were placed, short or long listed in the 2024 Awards is for sale on adhocfiction.com and it will be also shortly available to buy in paperback on Amazon worldwide. Free paperback copies are being dispatched to contributors from all over the world,later this week.

Both books are being officially launched at the flashfictionfestival.com in Bristol 18th- 20th July. Debra will be talking about and reading from The Dark Eyes of the Rabbit and several contributors, placed or listed, will be reading from The Constancy of Pigeons, including Tracy Fells, who wrote the title story.

It’s quite amazing to think it’s ten years since we began this enterprise to promote flash fiction around the world! Our 30th Award deadline is coming up in two weeks, on June 8th. £1460 in prizes Judge Marie Gethins. Results out by the end of June.

Here’s a summary of BFFA’s journey in the last ten years:

• Diane Simmons, now co-director of National Flash Fiction Day UK, was one of the people who prompted me to begin a flash fiction award. I was (and still am) one of the team running the Bath Short Story Award and she thought there was room for a Bath Flash Fiction Award too. I’d begun to write flash two years previously and so I took the challenge. Thanks Diane. She isn’t a member of our BFFA team but has been very supportive of the Award since

• With help of John O.Shea, a free lance adminstrator, who still works for me, I opened up for the very first Award in February 2015. Our BFFA team thought we had an excellent idea — to close it as soon as 1000 entries were reached. We imagined people would love this and flock to enter straightaway as there was a £1000 first prize and it would all be over in a couple of weeks! Of course, writers need to get used to something new and also like to plan out in advance what they enter. Eventually we reached 1000 entries in
  October 2015. And the first winner was William Davidson from the Uk who also won for a second time in 2023.

• In April 2015. under the umbrella of Bath Flash Fiction, we also opened a free weekly contest called Ad Hoc Fiction for micros of 150 words or less There was a form with a counter to check the word count and stories had to include a word prompt. Winners of this contest were published in the weekly ebook and received a free entry to the main award. This weekly contest, judged by public votes, ran extremely sucessfully for about four years with entrants from around the world, until it became too much work for our admin in 2019. Many writers, like Nick Black and Louise Mangos, won several times and winner Sharon Telfer, used her free entry when she won Ad Hoc with her micro Telegraph to submit to the main Award, which she won in 2016 with Terra Incognito
  Scroll down the archive of posts at Ad Hoc Fiction and you will find the weekly stories there. Lots of them also illustrated.

• In November 2015 we shifted to traditional style of Award with a set deadline. It continues to be a rolling award with deadlines three times a year — in February, June and October. At that time, we also offered a print anthology with a publication offer for winners, and short and long listed writers This has continued ever since. With the delayed 2024 anthology, The Constancy of Pigeons out in the next couple of weeks.

To Carry Her Home Bath Flash Fiction Volume One
• Also in October 2015, we opened a small fiction press under the name of Ad Hoc Fiction with an online bookshop to sell the books. About 80 books focussing on Flash fiction have been published since.
  The first anthology and our first Ad Hoc Fiction publication is To Carry Her Home ;,(title from a wonderful story by Christopher Allen) was published in March 2017. It includes stories from the 2016 Awards and some from the 2015 Awards. We published a second anthology from the 2017 Awards (The Lobsters Run Free) at the end of 2017.

• In 2017 Bath Flash Fiction Award (along with the Arts Council) sponsored the first Flash Fiction Festival and we, along with Ad Hoc Fiction, continue to do this.

• We opened the yearly Bath Flash Fiction Novella-in-Flash Award in 2016 and Ad Hoc Fiction has published nearly fifty novellas mainly from these awards since. This year’s novellas will be launched the Flash Fiction Festival Uk, this July. Several of these novellas have won or been shortlisted in prizes including the Saboteur Awards and the Rubery Prize.

I think I have all the main points. If we can continue for another ten years, that would be wonderful! But the last ten have been such an exciting ride and we are very happy to have published so many different writers and got them interested in Flash Fiction!

Jude, founder, Bath Flash Fiction Award
May 2025.

First Up – It’s three weeks until our 30th Award closes. Our judge this time is award winning writer and editor Marie Gethins from Cork, Ireland. Read our Q & A with her where she also quotes tips (with links) from flash legends Stuart Dybek and Lydia Davis, who she interviewed for the irish flash fiction magazine, Splonk We have £1460 in prizes, double and triple entries are reduced. Results out fast, by the end of June, due to our super-honed judging process. All 50 longlisted authors have a chance to be published in our 2025 Flash Fiction Anthology.

Second up – Our 2024 anthology, which was delayed because of our production editor’s illness, will be back from the printers before the end of the 30th Award and posted out fast to contributors. It contains winners,shortlisted and longlisted stories from the February, June and October Awards. The title story ‘The Constancy of Pigeons’ is by Tracy Fells, award winning writer, editor and reader for major competitions. Tracy is also a team member for the Flash Fiction Festivals UK and she will be reading her story at the festival, where the anthology will now be launched with other readings from contributing authors who are attending which leads me neatly to…

Third up – It’s not long until the Flash Fiction Festival weekend in Bristol we sponser on 18-20th July. Currently there are two places with accommodation left, several camping places and some places without accommodation. Check out the amazing array of workshops, panels and book launches by well-known international writers and teachers We have presenters and participants coming from all over the world, including UK, Ireland, US, Cnada, Australia, United Arab Emirates, India, France, The Netherlands, Cyrpus, Germany There’s a book shop, a bar, good food and it’s held at Trinity College in beautiful grounds in Bristol, pictured here. To book, just fill in a registration form on the booking page of the website and we will send payment details. We’d love to see you there!

Finally, Did you know there’s another fabulous flash fiction event in the South West coming up in June? National Flash Fiction Day UK is launching their Anthology on June 14th which is National Flash Fiction Day (when the legendary FlashFlood also happens. It’s in a handy-to-the-railway station venue in Bath. Hosted by Directors Diane Simmons and Ingrid Jendzrejewski and Anthology Editor Karen Jones. They have a faboulous line up of readers and would love more people to come and listen. Familiar with Flash or not. It is FREE! A Whole Day of Flash Fiction! As well as readings, there are also workshops with Susmita Bhatthacharya and Ingrid Jendzrejewski and a panel hosted by Diane with Kathryn Aldridge-Morris, Karen Jones and me (Jude). Find out more here

In the meantime, happy writing
Jude Higgins
May

It is now just four weeks until the 30th BFFA closes on June 8th 2025 we are very happy to announce that the much-delayed 2024 Bath Flash Fiction Award anthology, is now at the printers and will be published within the next few weeks and before the end of this latest award.

The beautiful cover of woodpigeons created by Ad Hoc Fiction was inspired by’The Constancy of Woodpigeons’, a story by contributing author, Tracy Fells from the UK. It is a very moving story, which has an ambiguous ending and illustrates the precariousness of relationships. We thought, as well as a tender story about a couple, it also had resonances with the precarious state of the world. Tracy is an award winning short story, flash fiction and novel writer and also team member for the Flash Fiction Festival. and we are launching the anthology at the festival, this year. We’d love to hear her read it at the event along with readings from other contriubutors attending the weekend in-person event which takes place on the weekend of 18-20th July in Bristol, UK

We sponsor the flash fiction festival and are now able to offer some free and half price festival passes for writers on low-incomes who would be able to pay for accommodation. (We have a few rooms left at Churchill Halls ten mins walk from the venue). Contact jude(at)flashfictionfestival(dot) com if you would like to apply. One day tickets are also availble, some camping spots and a few places for those who want to stay elsewhere. Hope you can come! All welcome if you are familiar with flash fiction or not.

Thank you to everyone who has already entered our 30th Award. We look forward to reading your stories! There is still time to write a new story. Read the interview with judge Marie Gethins for inspiration as well as interviews with all our winners. We posted up an interview with our Februrary winner, Sara Hills, last month.