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Author: Ingrid Jendrzejewski

Published on Leave a comment on Micro-Fiction Competition 2013 – The Longlist

Hello all,

Pleased to announce that we now have our longlist for the Micro-Fiction competition. The judges are whittling it down to the winners and so I don't want to reveal who wrote which story, but here is a list of the authors who made it to the top. Congratulations to them all!

Oliver Barton
Alan Beard
Joanna Campbell
Stephen Carragher
Donald Chegwin
Amber Dodd
Lindsay Fisher
Glenys Grey
Kit Haggard
Eva Holland
Susan Howe
Anouska Huggins
Clare Kirwan
Debbie Kinsey
Chelsea Covington Maass
Amy Mackelden
Pauline Masurel
Andrea Mullaney
Jo Norris
Tim Stevenson,
Pete Walsh
Barbara Weeks
Alison Wells
Selina Siak Chin Yoke

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Published on 1 Comment on NFFD2013 Bulletin 12/03/13

Hello everyone,
Just a quick update from NFFD Towers about a couple of opportunities and some of the things which are happening over here.

First of all, as you probably saw, we clarified the guidelines on the micro-fiction competition, confirming that you can submit more than one piece (though we’ll only let you win once!). To give you time to send those stories in, we extended the deadline, which is now midnight (UK time) on Monday 18th March, so you still have nearly a week to get your stories to us. We have also updated the page with details of the fabulous prizes. Full details can be found here: http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/competitions.html
In other news, we have submitted our application to the Arts Council in the hope that they will once again support the day. However, just in case, and to ensure that we can keep the website up and running and will be able to produce another anthology for this year, we are dipping our toes into the world of crowd-funding. Our page is up at http://www.sponsume.com/project/national-flash-fiction-day-2013 and if you could support us we would be immensely grateful! You also get something for your money, so check out the possible rewards (including the chance to have a bespoke story pamphlet crafted by yours truly!)
Even if you don’t want to send us a story and aren’t in a position to support our funding, it would be great if you could share the two links above, plus some details, on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, your blog, or wherever else you think it might reach other interested people. Thank you!
Also, as promised, there are some opportunities we need to tell you about.

First, we have an international call for submissions from Flash Frontier for their April issue. The theme is high tide and the deadline is March 31. Send your 250-word stories to flashfrontier@gmail.com, along with a brief bio. More submissions info here. 

Second is also international, and comes to use from Raging Aardvark Publications for their Twisted Tales Flash Fiction anthology. The closing date is Midnight (Australian EST) 7th of July 2013. More details are here: https://ragingaardvarkpublications.submittable.com/submit and 2012's Twisted Tales is on Amazon if you want to have a look. http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Tales-Flash-Fiction-twist/dp/0987138383/
And, that’s it for the moment. There are plenty of plans afoot, but none that can be revealed just yet. Remember to keep spreading the word about NFFD2013, telling people to sign up for this mailing list and to join our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday) and plotting and planning those events and competitions for the day.

As usual, any queries and questions can be sent here (though, be warned, there is a backlog, so it might take a little while to hear back), and we love to hear from you.

Take care,

Calum Kerr

Director, National Flash-Fiction Day

Published on Leave a comment on Bulletin – 6th February 2013

Dear All,

Hello and welcome to the first bulletin of 2013. 
We are now getting underway for another great National Flash-Fiction Day to be held, this year, on 22nd June.
The website at http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/ has now had a lick of paint and we have put up details of the first event of the year, a return of our micro-fiction competition. The closing date is 8th March, so get writing and please spread the word as far and wide as you can.
We also want you to start thinking about events for the day, as we want to make it even bigger and better than last year. Contact us with the details of your events and we'll list them on the website. If you have any questions or suggestions, email us here.
We already have some writers, organisations and events which we will be adding to the website soon, but if you would like to add anything, please send that over as well.
In other news, FlashBang, the crime competition, is also now live, and you can get all the details of their competition over at http://flashbangcontest.wordpress.com/.
If you have other, flash-related events you would like us to share, send those over too.
And, that's about it for now. We're just getting started, but it's time to start looking forward to June (and not just for the chance of some warm sunshine!) and thinking about how to celebrate this tiny form that brings so much joy.
So, please spread the word about our competition, our website, our facebook page and NFFD in general, and I look forward to hearing from you.
All best
Calum Kerr

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Published on 2 Comments on Bulletin – 3rd October 2012

Well, hello there, and how are you? 

Keeping well I hope, now that the evenings are drawing in and winter is looming over the horizon.

Here in NFFD Towers we are using the cold outside as an excuse to seclude ourselves in darkened drawing rooms and start plotting for next year's Flash-Fiction Day, and I thought I would bring you up to date on current developments.
First, just to let you know, the plan at the moment is to make it Saturday 22nd June next year, the shortest night in the northern hemisphere (yes, I know I got it wrong last time), and the shortest day in the southern. This will help us to tie the globe together to make it an international event. (And a 36 hour long one, at that!)
Speaking of which, I am in talks with the organiser of New Zealand's day to hook up with them, but we want more than just our two countries involved, so, if you are somewhere else in the world (Ireland, USA, or Australia, South Africa, France, or Peru, Portugal, Japan, Jersey or wherever) and want to join in with the 2013 day, we'd love to hear from you. 
We've also been talking to the Arts Council of England about next year, and they're keen to help us out again, which is great news. It will allow us to make the day even bigger and better for 2013, improve the website and repeat some of our triumphs, like the anthology and the story cards. In order to help us with our bid to the Arts Council, it would be great if we can include some indication of our support. We don't need any definite plans at the moment, but a statement of intent to join in would be great. So, if you ran an event this year - a reading, a competition, a slam, a flash-mob, whatever - we'd love for you to join us again. If you didn't, but would like to for 2013, then we'd be delighted to have you on board too. Please get in touch so we can register your interest.
We'd also like your help to get in touch with those organisations who might be able to help, or who would like to be involved. So, if you are part of a writing community, work for or with an arts organisation, have a publisher who might be interested in promoting their flash-fiction titles, are on friendly terms with a librarian, or whatever, we'd appreciate it if you could either ask them to get in touch with us, or send us their details so we can contact them directly. We managed to reach a huge number of people this year, and spread the flash word, but we could do a lot better, and with their help we hope we can do so.
Additionally, in order to raise the money that all of this costs, we will shortly be launching a crowd-funding project, and it would be great if you could keep your eyes peeled for that and spread the word to help us reach our target. 
And what are we offering in return. Well, you remember how much fun NFFD was this year, don't you? Imagine that but... you know... more!
However, we thought you might need something to jog your memory, so I'm pleased to be able to announce that we are running another of our FlashFlood pop-up journals. Submissions open today, and close next Wednesday, 10th October, at 23.59 (BST). The journal will run next Friday, 12th October, from midnight to midnight. We had a huge response to this in May, so let's see if we can do it again! Send your best flash-fictions (max. 500 words, limit of 3 stories per author) to flashfloodjournal@gmail.com and let's make it even bigger and better! Please use all your social media tools to spread the word.
And, if that's not enough, here are some other things you need to know about:
  • A display of flash-fiction books is working its way around South Glos libraries as part of the Discover festival: www.southglos.gov.uk/discover.
  • The successors to my flash365 project, Mrs Flash365 (Kath Kerr) and Son of Flash365 (Chris Bissette) are over the 150-story mark and will hit the halfway point at the end of the month. Please have a read, leave some comments, follow, share, like the Facebook page or follow them on Twitter. Your support is what keeps them going.
And finally, on a sadder note, we heard last week that Brian George, whose story 'Chemoids' was included in Jawbreakers, passed away at on the 23rd September. I'm sure you'd like to join us in sending out condolences to his wife, Chris, and to his family and friends, and to express our thanks for the pleasure his writing brought while he was with us.

So, that's it for this time. Lots for you to think about, get involved with, and lots of 'yes, I want to join in and so do all of my friends' emails to send us. We'll be waiting!
Until next time, take care.
Calum

-- 

Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day

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Published on 2 Comments on Bulletin – 22/08/2012

Dear All,

Well, can you believe that it's been 14 weeks since National Flash-Fiction Day? That's more than one quarter of a year. And do you know what means? It means that it's time to start thinking about next year!

So, here's where we are at the moment:
First, we are looking at moving the date back a little, towards the shortest day, in June. Partly this is logistical and partly, well... the SHORTEST day... you know? We'll let you know the exact date as soon as we've organised it.
Also, following on from the interest from other countries in this year's NFFD we will also be aiming to make it a much more international event and spread the flash-fiction word around the world. If you're outside the UK and want to get involved, please get in touch.
For the new year we will be revamping the website, updating the content and hopefully adding some new features. If you, or anyone you know, knows how to build/maintain websites - in particular using something like WordPress or a similar Content Management System - please do drop me a line as we could really do with your help!

On the day itself, and in the lead up, we will be aiming to do some similar activities to those that we did this year - including another anthology if the funding is in place - but we also want new events and activities to make it even bigger and better. So, time to get your thinking caps on and come up with some possibilities. Email me with your ideas and I'll start cataloguing them.
Speaking of funding, we are hoping to be able to secure the support of the Arts Council once again, but alternative sources would also be of real help. So, if you are in a position to sponsor the day, or know someone who is, or any bodies that we really should apply to, please get in touch and let us know.
All of the events of NFFD2012 couldn't have been done without the help of hundreds of you who pitched in on the day. We hope you will be able to help out again next year, but NFFD is one of those cases where more is definitely merrier. So, do please keep spreading the word about our Facebook page (at https://www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday), our Twitter account (@nationalflashfd), our blog (http://nationalflashfictionday.blogspot.co.uk/) and, of course, this mailing list!
And finally, to keep your appetite whetted, here are some things of note for you:
I'm sure there are many other events and activities going on, so if you are up to anything, be sure to let us know and we will spread the word for you. In the meantime, get your thinking caps on, and let's start looking forward to next year's bigger, brighter and better Flash-Fiction Day!
All the best, and happy rest-of-the-summer.
Calum

--

Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day
National Flash-Fiction Day 2012 is proud to be funded by Arts Council England. 
If you no longer wish to receive these bulletins, please email to tell us and we will remove you from the mailing list. 

Published on Leave a comment on NFFD NZ and Write-In 2

Hello everyone,

Hope you're having a nice, if wet, summer, and that you enjoyed some of the International Short Story Day activities that took place yesterday.
This is just a quick message to remind you that 22nd June is National Flash-Fiction Day in New Zealand. All the info about what's going on is online at  http://nationalflash.wordpress.com/ so tune in and see what's going on.
To celebrate, we're launching another Write-In. This will start to coincide with the start of the 22nd in NZ (about 45 mins at time of writing) and finish at midnight on the 22nd here (about 35 hours and 45 mins...)
How this will work is that we will provide a prompt for you, over at the The Write-in ( http://thewrite-in.blogspot.co.uk/ ) which will go live at 1pm BST and we will be accepting submissions of flash-fictions on that theme (max word count of 500, no limits on style or genre) until it closes at midnight tomorrow. Submissions outside that time will not be considered. 
So, get your brains back in gear, and get ready. Oh, and please spread the word. We'd love as many stories as possible, from all over the globe!
Let's do that antipodean flash thing!

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Published on 1 Comment on NFFD Report

I just had to write a roundup of the day for the Arts Council. I was amazed to re-explore all that went on, and thought you might like a read. So here it is!

The intention for National Flash-Fiction Day (NFFD) was to encourage writers, publishers, readers and the general public of the UK to engage with the form of flash-fiction in a diverse range of ways through print, spoken-word performances and online.

At the time of making the original bid a number of events were already organised, all of which took place, but in the time between the bid and the actual day on 16th May, a large range of extra activities emerged.
Physical events took place in Edinburgh, Carlisle, Leeds, Hartlepool, Manchester, Liverpool, Abergavenny, Cardiff, Shrewsbury, Derby, Oxford, Trowbridge, Winchester, Southampton, Brighton and Dublin. These included reading/open mic events, workshops, flash-mob-flash-readings, slams, exhibitions and competition finals.

Eighteen competitions were run to coincide with the Day, including events in USA, New Zealand and Australia, with many announcing their results on 16th May itself. Another five have also been created, inspired by the day, with deadlines to come during the year. Many of the competitions provided prizes, and all have involved some sort of online publication, physical presentation on the day, or publication in printed anthologies. In many cases this publication was not limited to a small number of winners but has seen the publication of dozens of the entries. The top three pieces from most of the competitions are also being gathered together for publication in a free e-book which will shortly be released by NFFD, entitled I Can Show You The World and other stories.

In the southwest of England a group was created by Rachel Carter especially for the Day, called Flash-Fiction South West. The results of their competition were turned into a print anthology entitled Kissing Frankenstein and other stories. This group will continue beyond the day running flash events and competitions and creating publications.

Likewise, the Once Upon a Time competition, run in the UK by Susi Holliday and in the USA by Anna Meade, having collected 88 flash-fiction fairy tales, will soon be available as a print anthology.
NFFD itself also created an anthology which came to be titled Jawbreakers after the submitted story from Jen Campbell. This featured a number of paid commissioned pieces, including Tania Hershman, Vanessa Gebbie, David Gaffney, Jonathan Pinnock, Valerie O’Riordan, Simon Thirsk and Jenn Ashworth. It also included freely donated work by Ali Smith and Ian Rankin, as well as over thirty pieces gathered by an open call for submissions. As a result of the way it was put together this book now features writers at all stages of their careers, from those seeing their work in print for the first time, to established names, and everything in-between. It is now available in paperback from the NFFD website, as a print-on-demand edition from CompletelyNovel, and as an e-book from all branches of Amazon. The book was launched at the Southampton event on 16thMay, has had a subsequent launch event at Blackwells in Manchester on 8thJune, and further events are currently being planned to be held in Foyles in Bristol and London later in 2012. It is also currently stocked in Waterstones in Brighton.

In addition to the print anthology, NFFD organised a number of online publishing opportunities for writers. These started, in the build-up to the day, with prompts being provided through Facebook, Twitter and the NFFD blog, to which writers had just a few days to respond. The resulting pieces were published on our NFFDFlashes blog. Pieces created at NFFD workshops were also uploaded to this blog.

In the week leading up to the Day, we opened up worldwide submissions for a ‘pop-up journal’ called FlashFlood, also hosted on a blog. Seven editors took a day each to read and approve submissions, resulting in 144 pieces being posted on the 16th May, one every 10 minutes from midnight to midnight. The editors have subsequently agreed to make this publication a regular one throughout the year, on a 3-4 monthly basis.

On the day itself, a four hour window was devoted to writing and publishing stories on a blog entitled The Write-In. Over 200 prompts were provided by a number of volunteers and were uploaded for writers to respond to as many as possible in the time allowed. All submitted pieces were then posted. This produced over 100 pieces of flash-fiction from all over the UK and the world. The prompts have been left-online for writers and workshop facilitators to use.

Additionally, a number of online projects were set-up, initially in support of the day but with the intention of continuing on afterwards, as well as FlashFlood, these included 1000words (providing images as prompts for stories) and Flashpoints(site-specific writing).

As well as producing new work, NFFD sought to promote the existing work of flash-fiction writers. As such, the website has expanded to over 150 pages, featuring profiles of more than 70 writers (64 from the UK and 9 internationally) with samples of their work and links to their publications, blogs, websites etc. This includes both high-profile and the unknown writers making no discrimination between them, and has helped to create a real community of flash-fiction writers. The site also includes pages for 18 magazines/websites/publishers, video clips of writers reading their work and links to flash-fiction e-books,

On the day itself, we were also able to promote the e-book publications of our writers with Jawbreakers and eight individual e-book collections being provided for free download on Kindle throughout the day. This resulted in the download of approximately 1200 e-books. We were also able to provide a copy of the Brisbane-produced pamphlets compiled by Photocopier Press for the day on the NFFD website, which is still freely available.

We were pleased to secure a wide range of press coverage including articles in local and national papers including The Guardian, interviews and features on BBC Radio Solent and BBC Radio Bristol and coverage on BBC Radio 4’s iPM programme. Added to this, we received a huge amount of coverage on websites and blogs – both personal and professional.

The response to National Flash-Fiction Day was over-whelming, with the majority of the activities listed above being organised and run by volunteers who were simply happy to be involved in such an exciting event. As a result of the day flash-fiction has raised its profile in the general consciousness, and it has been commented by the people involved that they feel as though flash-fiction writers have finally come together in a community of their own. With this now formed, moving forward to other events and publications is now easier and more likely.

Also, as a result of the day, there has been a lot of interest internationally. As commented above we had events and publications created to coincide with our day occurring in Ireland, USA, Australia and New Zealand, and NZ are now holding their own NFFD on their shortest day, 22nd June, for which we will be hosting another online writing event. In addition we received expressions of interest from France, Portugal, Cyprus and Hong Kong. As such, plans for next year are to make the UK’s NFFD part of an International Flash-Fiction Day.

With that in mind, we are very much looking forward to making this year’s Day an annual event, with many of the volunteers who were involved this year making plans for 2013 already. The aims of the Day have not just been met, but greatly exceeded, with hundreds of writers seeing their work published, performed and publicised, and the general public being made aware of the form through print and broadcast media as well as in person. The enthusiasm generated for flash-fiction, in the writing community and beyond, has been much larger than our expectations. In this respect, this year’s event has created a bedrock on which future years can build. 

Published on Leave a comment on NFFD New Zealand

Did you know that 22nd June (next Friday for those not paying attention) is National Flash-Fiction Day in New Zealand? We thought it was far too good an opportunity to pass up, so we're going to hold an online writing event to celebrate.

At midnight on the 22nd, NZ time (1pm on the 21st here in the UK), we shall release a prompt to inspire you to write a flash-fiction. You will then have 35 hours, (until the end of 22nd here in the UK) to write something and submit it for us to publish on a special blog.

And, we hope, this global write-in will be just the first of many as we start to look forward to next year's INTERnational Flash-Fiction Day!!

(PS. If anyone wants to help out with administering this, please drop me a line through the usual ways... Thank you!)

Published on Leave a comment on NFFD Bulletin – 7/06/2012

Hello again, everyone,

Not a full bulletin for you today, but just bringing you up to date with what's happening and some events you might be interested in.
  • We are also currently planning to hold a launch in Bristol later in the year, with possibly a London one to follow. But if you have a friendly bookshop or other venue near you which would be ideal for a launch, do please get in touch and we'll organise something.
  • NFFD has snuck it's way into the Worcestershire Literary Festival this year and I have been judging a competition for them. The winners will be announced and I will be talking, reading and selling/signing books there, and it would be great to see you if you can make it. Details here: http://www.worcslitfest.com/flash-fiction-event-23-june-2012/
  • AND, as if that wasn't enough, I shall also be reading and talking NFFD at the Summer Wordfest held by the Vale Royal Writers Group and Dead Good Poets Society of Liverpool. It's held at the Blue Cap pub in Sandiway on Tuesday 26th June. (http://vrwg.co.uk/how-to-find-us/).
  • If you'd rather write than listen, don't forget we still have open competitions listed on our site at http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/competitions.html. And, we are now putting together some hasty plans for a way to help celebrate New Zealand's NFFD which is being held on 22nd June (the shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere). We have an idea brewing, but if you think of something that would be ideal, please send over your idea.
  • And it doesn't end there. This is a busy summer for the short story with International Short Story Day occurring on 20th June (http://www.internationalshortstoryday.org/). A number of events will be happening, including the collaborative creation of short stories, against the clock and team against team.(http://shortstorydayafrica.org/) I'm exteremely happy to be part of the UK team along with 5 other wonderful writers including NFFD writer Sarah Hilary (aka Sarah Frost Mellor) and Stella Duffy. So, do keep your eyes on that one.
And, I think, for now, that's about it. I'll keep you up to date as best I can over the coming weeks and months, and there will be updates to the website and blog posts and all the usual stuff. So, have a great summer, and keep flashing!
All the best
Calum 
--

Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day
National Flash-Fiction Day 2012 is proud to be funded by Arts Council England. 

Published on Leave a comment on A report from the Oxford Flash Slam

Oxford celebrated National Flash Fiction in style with its first ever Flash Slam (http://eightcuts.com/events/flash-slam/), which showcased this fabulous format with some of the performance and pizzazz of a poetry slam. Fourteen fabulous writers came from as far afield as Birmingham, Bristol, and Gloucester, and included the likes of Jonathan Pinnock, bestselling author of Mrs Darcy vs the Aliens (http://www.mrsdarcyvsthealiens.com/), and Gloucester poet Laureate candidate Sarah Snell-Pym (http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/sarah/). They each performed for four minutes to a packed Albion Beatnik Bookstore, and subjected themselves to the scrutiny of expert judge and our headline reader Tania Hershman (http://www.taniahershman.com/), one of the UK’s most celebrated flash fiction writers, who delighted us later in the evening with readings from her book My Mother Was an Upright Piano. They were then scored out of 100 by a panel of judges comprising Paul Askew (http://paulaskew.tumblr.com), poetry slam winner and editor of Ferment Magazine, author of short story collection Knowing Look Rebecca Emin (http://ramblingsofarustywriter.blogspot.co.uk/), and leading Oxford cultural blogger Ingrina Shieh-Carson (http://aicarson.wordpress.com/). All presided over by yours truly.

The top three performed again in a final that demonstrated perfectly the dazzling diversity of the form. The pieces that got them there couldn’t have been more different. Joe Briggs (http://somedaysthethundergetsyou.blogspot.co.uk/) is a music blogger whose semi-autobiographical pieces have the energy and edge and sense of imminent eruption of those underground punk gigs you heard about but never seemed to go to. Anna Hobson (http://makewordsnotwar.wordpress.com) is one of the leading figures in the Oxford literary scene, coordinator of poetry (and many other things) at Oxford International Women’s Festival and MC of spoken word at Oxford Pride. Her first round flarf (an alternative form of literature achieved by pasting quotations from the internet into a formal structure) was the highest scoring piece of the night by a long long way and it took the audience several minutes to regain their composure after her exquisitely-crafted and breathtakingly delivered look at the strange world of internet dating. But the winner, fittingly, was Bristol’s Kevlin Henney (http://asemantic.blogspot.co.uk/), an award-winning die hard practitioner of the flash form who married superb storytelling with effortlessly engaging delivery to carry off the spoils.




I should add a postscript that shows just how successful this whole endeavour has been, and illustrates the debt we all owe to Calum and NFFD. On Wednesday of this week, I took a troupe of my fabulous eight cuts gallery regulars to the Poetry Cafe to perform at London Literature Lounge. Anna reprised her flarf to equal acclaim, and we were joined by Marc Nash, master of flash (sorely missed on NFFD). Literature Lounge host Anjan Saha was so buzzed by the vibrancy of the flash community that he and I will be running a flash slam at the Poetry Cafe on September 19th. And that’s not all. Thanks to NFFD, the Warwick Words festival organisers got in touch with me and have asked me to put on a flash slam for their festival, on October 4th. The format will be the same as Oxford – only this time our judge and headliner, for his sins in Oxford (and he thought he was just coming for a jolly night out), none other than Kevlin Henney.
So, thank you all who took part. A special thanks to Tania, and our judges on the night. And biggest thanks of all to Calum – new worlds are opening up.

 - Dan Holloway