National Flash Fiction Day is volunteer-run. A huge number of people are involved every year in making NFFD what it is; here are just a few of them.
Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Co-Director.
Ingrid received a BFA in Creative Writing and BA in English Literature at the University of Evansville before going on to earn a BA and MSci in Natural Sciences (Physics) at the University of Cambridge. At the University of Evansville, she served as non-fiction editor, then editor-in-chief of the Evansville Review. Since graduating, she has worked as everything from researcher, copy-editor, researcher, arts administrator, producer, researcher and game content developer for a popular mmorpg, where millions of players interacted with the content she wrote and coded.
Ingrid has published over 100 shortform pieces and has won multiple flash fiction competitions, including the Bath Flash Fiction Award and the A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Orlando Prize for Flash Fiction. Her short collection Things I Dream About When I'm Not Sleeping was a runner up for BFFA’s first Novella-in-Flash competition. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Vestal Review’s VERA Award, and multiple times for Best Small Fictions.
Diane Simmons, Co-Director.
Diane Simmons is Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day, UK. She has been widely published in magazines such as New Flash Fiction Review, Mslexia, Splonk and FlashBack Fiction and placed in numerous writing competitions. Finding a Way, her flash collection on the theme of grief, was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2019 and shortlisted in the Saboteur Awards in the Best Short Story Collection category. Her historical novella-in-flash An Inheritance was published by V. Press in 2020 and shortlisted in the Saboteur Awards Best Novella category. Her new novella-in-flash, set in 1970s Scotland, A Tricky Dance was published by Alien Buddha Press in January 2024. You can read more about Diane on her website www.dianesimmons.co.uk and connect with her on X @scooterwriter.
Karen Jones, Anthology Editor
Karen Jones is a flash and short story writer from Glasgow, Scotland. Her flashes have been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Micro Fiction and The Pushcart Prize, and her story Small Mercies was included in Best Small Fictions 2019 and BIFFY50 2019. In 2021 she won first prize in the Cambridge Flash Fiction Prize, Flash 500, Reflex Fiction and Retreat West Monthly Micro and was shortlisted for To Hull and Back, Bath Flash Fiction, Bath Short Story Award and longlisted for Fractured Lit Flash Fiction Prize. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. Her novella-in-flash, When It’s Not Called Making Love is published by Ad Hoc Fiction. She is Special Features Editor at New Flash Fiction Review.
Jeanette Sheppard, Artist-in-Residence
Jeanette Sheppard’s collection Seventy Percent Water won the 2020 Ellipsis Zine Flash Fiction Collection Competition. Her flash fiction appears in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including the Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, Reflex Fiction, Mslexia and four National Flash Fiction Day anthologies. One of her flash fictions pops out of a vending machine in Canada. She is currently redrafting her novella-in-flash that was Highly Commended by Ellipsis Zine in their 2019 competition.
As an artist, Jeanette creates artwork for small press book covers. In 2020 she created the cover for her own collection of flash fiction. Her work can be also be seen on the covers of Alison Woodhouse’s, The House on the Corner and Diane Simmons’ Finding a Way, both published by Ad Hoc Fiction. Jeanette is in her third year as artist-in-residence for National Flash Fiction Day. The 2019 and 2020 NFFD anthologies, And We Pass Through and Root, Branch, Tree, feature her artwork on the front covers. In 2021 she created the social media banner for the ten year anniversary celebrations and she will once again be creating the cover for the annual anthology due to be released in June.
You can find Jeanette online at jeanettesheppard.com and on Twitter @Inklinked.
Previous Directors
Calum Kerr founded National Flash Fiction day in 2012 and served as Director until 2018 when he passed the baton on to Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Santino Prinzi, and Diane Simmons. Calum is a writer, lecturer, editor, typesetter, book designer, and generally someone who spends a lot of time with words. He has written over a thousand flash fiction and lives in Southampton with his wife, stepson, and two cats.
Santino Prinzi served as a Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day in the UK and one of the founding organisers of the annual Flash Fiction Festival. His debut, full-length flash fiction collection, This Alone Could Save Us (2020), is available from Ad Hoc Fiction. His flash fiction pamphlet, There’s Something Macrocosmic About All of This (2018), is available from V. Press. His writing has been published in various magazines and anthologies, including Best Small Fictions 2019, Best Microfiction 2020, SmokeLong Quarterly, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, Jellyfish Review, and many more. To find out more follow him on Twitter (@tinoprinzi) or visit his website: santinoprinzi.com