I hosted a free evening of flash fiction readings in Bath last Saturay 27th September and here is a picture of those reading/ Writers travelled from many different parts of the UK to be there.

From right to left in the photograph, Kevlin Henney from Brstol, Roz Levens from Dartmoor, Marie Day from Bristol, Letty Butler from Brighton, Tim Collyer (back row) from Chippenham, Diane Simmons (front row) from Bath, Jude Higgins from near Bristol, behind her Sara Hills from near Rugby, next to Jupiter Jones from Wales,Cole Beauchamp at the back from London, Abigail Williams in the front, from Devon, Deborah Tompkins from Bristol benind her and next to Caner Akin from Bristol, Flemming George from Oxfrod and Ken Elkes from Clevedon. (Alison Woodhouse from near Bath also read but isn’t pictured here).

It was fun! Such a variety of fabulous stories, several published in previous Bath Flash Fiction Award anthologies such as the Constancy of Woodpigeons and The Weather Where You Are, Flash Fiction Festival anthologies and a couple of stories forthcoming in the new flash fiction festival anthology (red cover again) which Ad Hoc Fiction sponsors and I have just finished compiling, along with Diane Simmons.

If you want a chance of being published in our 10th anniversary anthology, the latest round of Bath Flash Fiction Award for up to 300 word micros closes this Sunday 5th October. It will be judged by Kathryn Aldridge-Morris. Results out by end of October. £1460 in prizes. Those longlisted are offered publication in the anthology, which should be out at the end this year or early next.

Jude, October 2nd 2025.

Thanks to everyone from around the world who has already entered our 31st Award. Deadline this coming Sunday. October 5th.

You may have a tweakable story in your archive that could still flower amazingly like this sunflower and be ready to submit in time. Why not consider changing the title? I found a few stories in my archives recently and realised the titles weren’t right. They added nothing and one of them was too abstract. I’d written one of the stories a couple of years previousy It was easier to see an alternative title after this time. I gave a more mundane title to the other recent story. The orgiinal was too fancy for the subject. For your story, can you write a shorter and simpler title? Or, would a longer one suit the subject better. Could either new title give the story more depth? What is likely to grab a reader’s interest?

It’s interesting to look at the title word count for the Bath Flash winning stories since the inugural contest in 2015.. In February this year, I studied the word count of all the first prize winner titles.

Below is a list of the different word count for the second prize winners. It’s a little different from the first prize winners. The longest list is for two word stories. More of the second prize winning stories have three word titles. There are five stories each for two and five word titles. Have a look through the lists from the first and second prizes. Which titles interest you? Read the stories too, to see how the title fits.

One Word

‘McDonalds’ by Sarah Freligh October 2022
‘Pack’ by Dawn Miller, February 2025
‘Edging’ by Iona Rule, February 2022
‘Between’ by Madeline Bryne June 2022

Two words
‘Butterfly Effect’ by Mairead Robinson, October 2023
‘The Mothers’ by Jo Gatford October 2021
‘Mother Before’ Tara Isobel Zambrono, October 2020
‘Rags,Riches’ by Shelley Woods, June 2016
The Coast by Zahid Gamieldien, October 2018

Three words
‘Failure to Thrive’ by Sara Hills June 2023
‘Walking to Wollongong‘ by Nikki Cruthley Feburary 2023
‘Snow Falling Upwards’ Fiona J Mackintosh, February 2019
‘The Perfect Fall’ by Christopher M Drew, February 2016
‘The Undertakers’ Jolly’ by Conor Houghton, June 2018
‘The Wild West’ by Francis McCrickard October 2019
‘There You Are’ by Alys Hobbs October 2024
‘Strong Like Carp’ by Emma Phillips, JUne 2021
‘The Cool Box’ by Nod Ghosh,June 2017

Four words
‘Psalm (after the animals)’ by Joseph Randall, June 2025
‘The Hierarchy of Substances’ by Catherine Edmunds October 2017

Five words
‘This is how we drown’ by Eileen Merriman 2015
‘Car Trouble, Spartenburg, August 2002’ by K S Dyal, Fenruary 2021
‘The Peculiarity of Space Objects’ by Nicholas Cook, February 2017
‘The Dissolution of Peter NcCaffrey by Simon Cowdroy February 2020
‘When the Rubber Hits the Road’ by Lee Nash, February 2018

Seven Words
All The Things That We Are Not by Jo Withers, February 2024

Nine words
‘The Species of Pangolin Compromise Their Own Order Pholidota’ by Hannah Storm, June 2020
‘A God and his Famous Digging Stick Dug This, by Anita Arlov June 2019

Ten words
You have so many more choices than fight or flight by Al Kratz, Feburary 2016

Twelve words
Driving my Seven Year Old Nephew to Visit His Mother at Rehab by Emily Rinkema, June 2024

Our 31st Award, judged this time by Kathryn Aldridge-Morris from the UK,closes on Sunday 5th October at midnight GMT. For stories up to 300 words. Prze fund of £1460. 1 entry £9.00, two entries £15.00 and three entries £18. Results out by the end of October. Offer of publication in our tenth anniversary anthology for all 50 longlisted. Thanks very much to all who have entered so far.

For those that haven’t entered, here’s your two-weeks-to-go prompt. It’s the autumn equinox this weekend, and in the UK, there is a glut of apples this year. I have a couple of laden apple trees in my garden. But I was still happy to receive the gift of two huge and perfect apples, from a visiting friend. Who has also made lovely blush-pink juice from some of them.

You will see from the picture that they are proper story-book apples, such a gorgeous red. For the prompt here’s an apple metaphor. Find a beautiful rounded idea or two, your very best ones. Juice them up and make them into sweet and poigannt short fictions. Or make your stories a little tartif you want. But not too tart. This apple is called Katie Delicious. So you could have a character called Katie in your story.

Happy writing!
Jude

Just three weeks until our 31st Award closes on October 5thl .Thank you to everyone who has entered so far. We’re getting pretty busy.

To remind you, the prize fund is £1460. All 50 longlisted writers are offered publication in our tenth anniversary anthology and a free copy of the anthology will be sent to all contrinutors. Judge is muliti-award winning writer and tutor, Kathyrn Aldridge-Morris. Read my interview with her, (which also mentions her reaently published collection, Cold Toast here
Results are announced on this website by the end of the month and the long and short lists before that.

Here are three tips for you for creating new flashes or revising old ones. Yes, many of you know all these sort of things but every one forgets at least one of them.

1.Consider entering three stories. Readers have different tastes. Entries for three are discounted to £18

2.To make your story standout, go for your 3rd, 13th or even 33rd idea on a theme. So many editors and judges make the point that within competition entries there are many, many stories on familiar themes. You might not even realise how many dozens of stories can be about relationship break ups, dementia, or the end of the world. Many of these are excellent but the best ones add something new and arresting.

3.To add unusual departures in your stories pick three random words from three different pages in a non-fiction book, with the number three included, if you get stuck with your story. This activiy will be your personal version of ‘Word Cricket’, the exercise popularised by well-known writer and teacher, Vanessa Gebbie which she offers each year at the Flash Fiction Festival Bath Flash Fiction sponsors in Bristol in July each year. Vanessa starts off the whole group writing with the same phrase and bowls in random words at intervals which can make strange and wonderful things happen in a story. Often festival participants bravely read their new stories to the whole assembly. It’s extraordinary the drafts people write in a very short time, emboldened by the words and how differently the writers make use of these words.

I am suggesting a non fiction book to pick the words from because they often have a number of interesting words on any page. For eg. I just found up a copy of Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald a book of essays about the natural world and chose disarticulated, qualms and nightjar from three different pages. Including such words could make a potential story about a rocky relationship, for example, go in unexpected directions.

Best wishes everyone. The picture shows a lucky four-leaved clover! Three leaved clovers are far too common of course. So just add one extra extraordinary thing to your story for luck. A great title, a fantastic ending. Something oddly amusing.

Thanks

Jude
September 14th, 2025

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.

Our 2026 Novella in Flash Award, judged by me, Jude Higgins, is now open for entries until 31st October 2025. Results out in January 2026. For novellas-in-flash in between 6000 and 18000 words. First prize: £300 plus publication with Ad Hoc Fiction and five free copies. Two runners-up, £100 each plus five free copies and publication. Published in late spring, 2026.

All our three prize-winning novellas in flash from the 2025 which were launched at the flash fiction festival in Bristol in July are now available to buy from Amazon in paperpack as well as from our UK online bookshop, adhocfiction.com

They are all wonderful! Read more about them here

I’ve linked to Amazon below. Or buy from Ad Hoc Fiction

First-prize winner: In the Dark Eyes of the Rabbit by Debra A Daniel

Runner-up: The Lives of the Dead by Fiona Mckay

Runner-up: Spin of the Triangle by Stephanie Carty

We’re excited that the top three novellas-in-flash from the 2025 Bath Flash Fiction Novella-in -Flash Award are back from the printers, just ready to be brought to the Flash Fiction Festival weekend 18-20 July where they are going to be launched. It’s even more exciting that all three authors will be at the festival, to receive their books and briefly talk about and read from them. Debra A Daniel won first prize with In the Dark Eyes of The Rabbit and the runners-up were Fiona McKay with The Lives of the Dead and Stephane Carty with Spin of the Triangle. Congratulations to all! It’s wonderful to see these novellas published now in paperback with Ad Hoc Fiction in the UK. In the Dark Eyes of the Rabbit is also already published worldwide by Amazon in paperback and the other two novellas will also be published by Amazon in paperback soon.

Read about the authors here and what I said about them in my judge’s comments.

Jude Higgins, July 10th, 2025