News

Shortlist, 2023 Novella-in-Flash Award

Congratulations to all ten authors who have made our 2023 Novella-in-Flash award shortlist, selected by our judge, John Brantingham.

Judging is still in progress so while it is fine to share that you are on the short list, please do not identify yourself with your particular work at this stage. Thank you. The winners will announced early in April.
Below, John writes about the process of selecting the shortlist from the longlist of twenty-six novellas we sent him. So many wonderful novellas to choose from in the longlist and there were many more in the over 100 entries we received. Best wishes to all for future publication and thank you to everyone for entering.

Judging this year’s novella-in-flash contest has been a joy. I’m thrilled to see so many writers doing innovative work. People have been using new and effective approaches to point-of-view, structure, and voice. They are using the form in ways that I had never thought of, and I am gaining a new education on new approaches to flash and the novella-in-flash. I have narrowed the field down to the top ten, but as I’ve been reading, I have been imagining the publishers who would pick these works up and publish them as stand alone books. I am not talking about only the manuscripts in the short list either. The novellas on the longlist all have a special something. If you are included on the longlist, I would suggest submitting to a publisher for your work. If you would like help with that, please reach out to me. I will give whatever help or advice I can.

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Launch of Dandelion Years And Flash Fiction Festival Vol 5 in Bath

On Saturday 18th March, on the cusp of spring, we returned to St James Wine Vaults, Bath for the first live reading event there since February 2020 to launch Dandelion Years, the seventh Bath Flash Fiction Anthology and Flash Fiction Festival Vol Five. Thank you so much to everyone who came to read and to listen. It was a wonderful evening. The event was hosted by Jude Higgins and Diane Simmons. Writers came from all over the UK and it was such a treat to hear nineteen in all read their flash fiction stories and to meet them and their friends and family in person. We also had a photo cover cake (proudly made by Jude), other nibbles, wine and a raffle. Such a lot of fun! You can buy both books in paperback from Ad Hoc Fiction. Read in Full

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Q & A with Tim Craig, judge for 24th Award


Originally from Manchester, Tim Craig lives in London. A previous winner of the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction, his short-short fiction has placed or been commended four times in the Bath Flash Fiction Award and has also appeared in the Best Microfiction 2019 and 2022 anthologies. His debut collection Now You See Him was published in 2022 by AdHoc Fiction.

A big thank you to Tim for being our judge. Our small press, Ad Hoc Fiction was honoured to publish Tim’s fantastic debut collection, Now You See Him last June. You can read more about the book here in an interview we did with Tim prior to publication. Christopher Allen, of SmokeLong Quarterly wrote on the back cover:

‘Tim Craig is a master of microfiction. With enviable confidence, Craig spins the most varied, playful and poignant tales. The stories in this collection, most a single tight page of killer prose, all deserve revisiting again and again and again.’

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Fuel: An Interview about the new flash fiction anthology, compiled and edited by Tania Hershman

It’s Valentine’s day next week and what better way is there to celebrate your love for flash fiction than buying the new Fuel Anthology a selection of first prize winning flash fiction, compiled, edited and published by Tania Hershman. Read Tania’s really interesting answers to Jude’s questions about the anthology below. If you buy the book now, you may have it in your hands ready to attend the launch on Wednesday, February 15th, hosted by Writers HQ. Buy your ticket to hear readings from the book and more!

Since Tania sent Jude the answers to these questions she has already raised over £1000 for Fuel Poverty charities from sales of the book. At the flash fiction festival weekend in Bristol, UK we’re sponsoring July 14th to July 16th there will be a further live launch of the book with contributors reading from it and Tania is also running a workshop based on the book. The festival always has a raffle and we’ve been inspired to donate the proceeds this year to Fuel Poverty charities. It’s all very exciting. It’s a brilliant iniative of Tania’s all round. It gives winning flash fiction writers a further boost for their stories and adds a great resource for all writers, as well as raising money for charity.

Follow twitter.com/fuelFlash and Instagram instagram.com/fuelflashfictionanthology/ for updates. Read in Full

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Guess the 23rd Award Last Minute Club Badge colour!

Thanks so much flash fiction writers, for your fantastic support for our Bath Flash Fiction Awards. Our readers are very busy reading your entries for the 23rd Award, this time judged by award winning writer from the US, Sudha Balagopal. Have a final read of my interview with her to get you fired up to write or edit some last minute flash

To remind everyone, The Last Minute Club, for intrepid flash fictioneers is open only on the final day of this Award, Sunday 5th February. Anyone entering on Sunday will receive a (virtual) Last Minute Club badge. Everyone loves badgges don’t they? My first badge which I am sad to have recently lost was for entering a competition at Butlins holiday camp, when I was about nine. Our Bath Flash Badges are equally collectible. We’ve a mini competition beginning now over on Twitter where the first person to guess the colour of the new badge will receive a Bath Flash Fiction anthology.You won’t know the colour until first thing on Sunday morning.

We know posts on Twitter are disappearing into the shadows these days, but if you enter on Sunday and receive your badge, do share it there. We love that. It makes it such a fun day!

The first badge was introduced in June 2018. And the one you can collect on Sunday will be the fifteenth badge.Here they all are in the gallery. Many different colour combinations.

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Best wishes for all your entries. It’s always wonderful to receive stories from around the world.

Results out by the end of February.

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Hide, Show, Expand: Story Revision

Our 23rd Award ends this coming Sunday, 5th February. Results out by the end of February, when the snow drops will certainly be out, if they are not already. And we’re heading again for the Last Minute Club. Those submitting on the final day, get a (virtual) badge. There’s still six days to finish a flash but many of us flash fiction fans frequently ignore the best ways of getting a story ready for submissions. I certainly do. It’s not as if I say a stubborn ‘no’ to a great idea. It’s just that good advice seems hard to remember. Read in Full

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Happy 2023 News!

First up in our lovely 2023 news is that along with Ad Hoc Fiction, we are sponsoring the fifth in-person Flash Fiction Festival weekend, again taking place in Bristol UK, at Trinity College, 14th to 16th July For seasoned and beginner Flash Fiction enthusiasts from around the world. We have 28 flash fiction workshops/talks to choose from, led by well-known flash fiction writers and teachers from the UK, the US, Ireland and Germany, plus flash fiction readings, book launches, bookshop, a Friday daytime flashy fringe fete where there will be fun activites plus authentic paella to order in advance, and a Friday afternoon pre-festival three-hour workshop led by acclaimed writer and teacher Kathy Fish. We also have a bar where Smokelong Quarterly editors Helen Rye and Christopher Allen will be hosting evening karaoke (not to be missed!). The Pokrass Prize for stories of up to 300 words is judged by Meg Pokrass and is open to all those booked.
Booking opened six days ago and places with accommodation included are going fast. We do also have camping options on site. Hope you can come to meet flash fiction friends and make new ones It is very friendly and fun. All details and booking on the website flashfictionfesival.com Read in Full

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