Flash Slam & Bristol Short Story Prize Longlist

 I had a fantastic time as the guest "commentator" at the National Flash Fiction Day flash fiction slam last Wed in Oxford! Thanks so much to the inimitable Dan Holloway for organising, lovely to meet Twitter friends Pete Domican (who blogged about it here), Emily Cleaver and Sue Howe and see old mate Jon Pinnock, all of whom read beautifully, and Rebecca Emin, who judged beautifully! And huge congrats to flash slam winner Kevlin Henney - who read beautifully too, and entertained us immensely! He was in a very good mood the whole way home to Bristol, where he kindly dropped me off. A wonderful night had by all! Roll on next year's NFFD!

In other good news, the longlist for the Bristol Short Story Prize was announced today: 40 stories were longlisted out of a total of 2,304 entries. Some familiar names, many new to me!
  2012 Bristol Short Story Prize longlist:

Eugenia Will Come Back To You Someday – Kaj Anderson-Bauer (USA)
Naked As Eve – John Arnold (Australia)
Running to Nuthin’ – Lewis Bardsley (England)
Unearthed – Catherine Bokkers (The Netherlands)
The Swimmer – Lizzie Boyle (England)
Between Sea and Shore – Darci Bysouth (Scotland)
Dreams of Flying – Alexandra Carey (England)
Lobster – Alys Conran ( Wales)
Inked – Neil Durrant (Australia)
The Angel of the Warmth – Rachel J Fenton (New Zealand)
Time – Clare Fisher (England)
Battleground – Lisa Frank (Ireland)
Keith Morris is a Royal Plum – Martin Cathcart Froden (Scotland)
Something Somewhere Went Wrong – Sarah Gilmartin (Ireland)
People Like Her – Kerry Hood (England)
Apple Shot – Tracey Iceton (England)
Nice Blokes – Brian Jennings (England)
Meat – Avril Joy (England)
Dark Matter – Magda Knight (England)
Last Days of the Unicorn  - Danielle McLaughlin (Ireland)
On The Day Weldon Kees Disappeared – Alan Mumford (England)
Flashpoint – Susan Murray (England)
Heaven on the Horizon – Noel O’Regan (Ireland)
Ghost in the Machine – Christopher Parvin ( England)
Sharks, Choices – Matt Plass (England)
Horses – Thomas Pyner (England)
Yoki and the Toy Surprise – Angela Readman (England)
Going Grapefruit – Ian Richards (England)
Beekiller – Ethel Rohan (USA)
Forty-Five RPM in Chicago – Derek Routledge (Wales)
Senile – Safia Shah (England)
The Bird – Samantha Short (England)
The Attack at Delium – William Telford (England)
Mackerel for Tea – Rhoda Thompson (England)
Jelly Feel Real – Ellie Walsh (England)
After the Flood – Melanie Whipman ( England)
I Once Knew Salman Rushdie - Hilary Wilce (England)
The Life of Ethan – Emily Williamson (England)
Flowers on the Flagstone – Mairi Wilson (Scotland)
Symmetry – Samuel Wright  (England)


Highly Commended:
Crik Crak – E.L. Appleby ( England)
The Homecoming – Cait Atherton (Thailand)
And the Sea Gave Up Its Dead - Faith Barnes (Wales)
The Swanrite – Phillip Belcher
Last Wednesday – Cristina Burduja (England)
Stillness Comes – Michael John Burrows  (Canada)
Transition – Holly Corfield Carr (England)
Beautiful Horizon – Sharda Dean (England)
White – Mark Dixon (England)
Living – Samuel Dodson (England)
For Gracie – Ruth Driscoll (England)
Glimmer – Kat Ellis (Wales)
Vitiligo – Jo Else (England)
A Death in the Family – Kathleen English (England)
The Beginning – Louise Gethin  (England)
Where Steamers Wait... – T.D. Griggs (England)
Soap Opera in a Red Camaro – Norma Harrs (Canada)
A Young Country – Joanna Herrmann (England)
Angel Eggs – Nydia Hetherington ( England)
The Genitals and the Soul – David B Huebert (Canada)
Confessions of a Pigeon Feeder – Charlotte Humphries (England)
Puddings in the Park – Clair Humphries (England)
Lally – Tina Jackson  (England)
The Wish Improvement Mechanism – Amy Kellam (England)
Detective Noir – Ryan Anthony Licata (England)
Yellow River – Karen Lindsay
The Lady Bandit – Kelly Matsuura (Japan)
The Novel Factory – Luke Melia (England)
Geminids – Will Miles (England)
Sweetness – Lorraine Nevin (South Africa)
You Always Hurt – Michael Nicholson (England)
The Elephant Sun – Emyr Payne (Wales)
Frank Has Weeds – Mike Pym (England)
Greasbys – Olivia Rana (Northern Ireland)
Flight of Fancy – Mary Reynolds ( Ireland)
White Witch – Don Roy (Canada)
Afternoon Lullaby – Susha Chandra Ryner  ( England)
Craving – Erics Sail (England)
Moving In – Janet Swinney (England)
A Dance in the Bomb Shelter – Steven Tizzard


Congrats to all, fingers crossed for the shortlist!