FUEL: An Anthology of 75 Prize-Winning Flash Fictions Raising Funds to Fight Fuel Poverty

 

I made a book! FUEL is an anthology of 75 flash fictions from authors around the globe that have all won first prize in a competition - with all proceeds donated to fuel poverty charities here in the UK! Publication date is Feb 15th, you can find out more and pre-order here - and please do join us at the online launch party, hosted by Writers HQ, also on Feb 15th, tickets pay-what-you-can, all proceeds donated to fuel poverty charities.

Copies are already out in the world - this photo is by one of the 75 brilliant anthology contributors, Sara Hills!

Get Gone - 2nd Prize

I'm delighted that my flash story, 'Get Gone', is 2nd prize-winner in Reflex Fiction's Spring 2020 flash contest! Here's a snippet:

Get gone, girl, she snarls and the girl, who never knows what she might be getting, goes. Galloping across roads, the girl feels herself small, feels herself dissolving. Giant clouds at the level of her shoulders try to make her laugh but the girl is not amused. Get gone, she herself says to the clouds, and to the snails that line the way, watching. Girls and snails never mix, this she knew from early on. 

Gathered in to herself later, after a day or week...

You can read the whole story here. 

Groceries - flash fiction prize

I've only recently started writing flash fiction again after a few years off, mostly writing poems. It's a joy to get back to characters, to making things up - and a true delight that one of my new flash stories recently won the Writers' HQ LGBTQ Flash Fiction contest! You can read the story, Groceries, here, if you'd like to. Thanks so much to the judges, Paul McVeigh and Kirsty Logan and the fab folk at Writers HQ.

Quantum shorts competition 2017

I'm honoured to once again be on the judging panel for the excellent Quantum Shorts competition alongside Brian Greene, oh my! So, what do you need to do to win? Well:

You have from now until 1st December 2017 to send us a story up to 1000 words long. We challenge you to open your imagination to the strange ways of quantum particles and anticipate a new era of quantum technology

There is much inspiration for your stories on the website, do check it out - looking forward to reading your quantum flashes!

Quantum Shorts Open for Entries

I'm delighted to be one of the judges for this competition for quantum-physics-inspired flash fiction! Here are the details:

Are you ready for the Quantum Shorts flash fiction competition?

Quantum physics is a crazy theory but every experiment done so far backs it up: the world really is a crazy place. Particles can be in more than one place at the same time and quantum computers really could solve in a flash problems that make today’s supercomputers stumble. Even teleportation isn’t science fiction. But fiction is what we’re looking for. After last year’s Quantum Shorts film competition drew some fantastic short films, this year we want stories.

We challenge you to take inspiration from quantum theory to write flash fiction: a short story no longer than 1000 words. Don’t think you have to make it full of explano-babble, weird science or quantum powered-gadgets: as long as it is engaging, and clearly linked to some aspect of the quantum world, we’d love to read your entry. To help, we’ve suggested some themes and styles you might want to explore - visit our inspiration pages to learn more. You have until 23:59 EST on 1 December 2013 to enter.

Find out more here >>

Upcoming deadlines etc..

I had a fantastic time leading a writing workshop on Sunday for Spread the Word on "Art breathes through containment, suffocates from containment", as Leonardo da Vinci said. We experimented with many different kinds of restrictions to see what opened us up. I will be writing a blog about this sort of thing for Writers & Artists shortly... when I have sorted out everything in my head!

In the meantime, it's been a while since I've done one of my "writers service announcement" blog posts with lots of places that want your writing, so here goes. The first place to point to has to be Paul McVeigh's excellent blog, which over the past few months has become an invaluable resource, with links to competitions and calls for submissions as well as interviews with writers and writing folk. Add that to your "must read" list!

And here are a few handpicked upcoming deadlines:

April 20th Litro Short Story Competition: Poland and Bruno Shultz

"In preparation for our Polish issue in June and in association with the Polish Cultural Institute London, we are running a short story competition inspired by Polish writer Bruno Schulz and his book The Street of Crocodiles. The winner’s work will be published in the June issue of Litro Magazine and showcased at a London Underground Station. The theme is “Poland,” with particular reference Schulz’s short story collection, The Street of Crocodiles. For inspiration, check out the Brothers Quay’s eerie 1980’s stop-motion animation of the same name or Jonathan Safron Foer’s adaptation, Tree of Codes on the Litro site" 300 words max, no entry fee, one entry per person.

** April 30th Bristol Short Story Prize
The brilliant short story competition based here in bristol, open to writers worldwide! Max word count 4000 words, NO MINIMUM. Entry Fee: £8. First prize is £1,000, 2nd prize £700, 3rd prize £400 and 17 runners up receive £100. 20 stories will be published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 6. The winning story will, also, be published in Bristol Review of Books magazine. The 2013 Bristol Short Story Prize awards ceremony will be held as part of the 2013 Bristol Festival of Literature in October 2013. Enter now!

April 30th And We Were Hungry: Flying Elephants Short Story Prize
Judged by Edwige Danticat, no length restrictions, but longer manuscripts (8,000–10,000 words) or shorter manuscripts (less than 2,000 words) will have to be truly exceptional to be shortlisted. Entry Fee: None. Eligibility: Writers must eighteen-years of age or older, and short stories must be original and previously unpublished. Theme or Prompt: “And we were hungry…,” or “Hunger.” Grand Prize Theme: Consideration for the grand prize is reserved for stories that connect the theme with nature or the natural world. You may submit two short stories. Prizes: One grand prize winner ($2,000 + publication ), three finalists ($1,000 each + publication) and eight runners-ups (publication only).

April 30th Treehouse Unusual Lit Competition
"We’re interested in prose that does unusual stuff. In the past we’ve published stories in the form of to-do lists, invisible text with footnotes, survival guides, landlord-tenant correspondence, recipes, and also all kinds of inventive work that was linguistically, but not necessarily structurally, experimental. So if you think your story, essay, prose poem, or genrebender fits the bill, send it our way. (Sorry, no poetry with line breaks for this one.) Entries are to be a maximum of 750 words." No submission fee. Prize is set of subscriptions to a wonderful array of lit mags as well as books by Indie publishers, because, say the editors "One of the main things we’re trying to communicate with this contest is that literature is a community. We picked out the journals and publishing houses we’re most excited about because we wanted to share them with you—our favorite readers.". Open to all.

May 15th Paper Darts Short Fiction Award
"$800 for 800 words. Plus, the winning story will appear fully illustrated, all beautified and sexy on its very own custom website." Entry fee $6. Love this magazine.

30th April Lightship One-Page Prize
300 words max, £8 per entry, judged by Flash Fiction Day pioneer Calum Kerr!

30th June Lightship Flash Fiction Prize
1500 words max, £10 per entry, judged by Etgar Keret (yes, really).

30th June Booktown Short Story Competition
1. short stories between 1,000 and 3,000 words, submit online or by post, £5 for one entry, £9 for two entries and £13 for three entries, 14. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed authors will receive £200, £100 and £50 respectively and their work will be published on the Booktown Writers Website and in the Booktown Writers’ Anthology. Judge: Sam Kelly - Head of Creative Writing MA, Edinburgh Napier

30th June Scottish Short Story Competition
500-2000 words in length, entry free £10, stories can be any genre but must be Scotland-related,£300 First Prize, Inclusion in eBook Anthology of ten selected stories

That's all for the moment, enough to be going on with? I am off to do a little submitting myself. Happy writing!

A few things

It's been a while since I posted here, life has been so sad with the loss of my beautiful Zachary cat, it's difficult to do the blogging thing. It's getting a little easier each day, sort of, ups and downs, downs and ups. So I am distracting myself here by talking about other stuff.

Firstly, this year has been good to my stories, as well as prizes in the Fiction Desk and Salt flash fiction competitions, I found out last week that I won 3rd prize in the New Writer's microfiction prize. Congratulations to all the winners, especially my mates Rachael Dunlop, Dan Purdue, Pete Domican, Valerie Sirr, Danielle McLaughlin,  and Melissa Lee-Houghton. I am happy that my story has found a good home, and suffice it to say I already spent my prize money (all of it) on something rather nice while I was in America last week.

I love to present prizes too, and will be doing that next Tuesday in London at the Writers & Artists Yearbook short story competition awards ceremony, in conjunction with Liars League, whose actors will read the winning story and two runners-up, which I have just chosen from the shortlist. I too will be reading something, probably something very very short, I imagine. Do come along and celebrate with us! Details here.

Finally, I was asked to do something really interesting a few months ago: Faith Gardner at StorySwap asked me to video myself reading one of Norwegian writer Berit Ellingsen's short short stories and asked Berit to video herself reading one of mine. Despite the fact that I'm not keen on myself on video, I rather love the result, love hearing Berit read my story, and enjoyed reading hers. Watch our story swap here. What a brilliant idea.

Small Glimmers of Light

Although life is tough right now and nothing can help me through the loss of my beautiful Zac, there has been some nice news: I found out today that I am the winner of the Fiction Desk's first flash fiction contest, with my flash story, A Call to Arms. Now, it is no exaggeration to say that just this week I had decided to give up on finding a home for this story. I came to the conclusion that it's a story only its creator could love. Hmm. The universe had other ideas, and for that I am very grateful. Huge congratulations too to the finalists:

• Gavin Cameron, with ‘A Big Leap’
• James Collett, with ‘The Clever Skeleton’
• Damon King, with ‘Simmo!’
• Paul Lenehan, with ‘For Joy’
• Matt Plass, with ‘Invisible Them’
• Ian Shine, with ‘Love Stops at Ten Metres’

We will all be published in the Fiction Desk's next anthology, in the spring.

I also found a home for another story (a long one, almost 2000 words...) that I thought was perhaps too strange to get anywhere: The House of Meat was a finalist in the Words with Jam short story contest and will be published in their anthology. It takes place in a laboratory where they grow artificial meat. I said it was strange.

So, small glimmers at a time when I was having a few wobbly moments about writing in general. Wobbles are okay. Taking a break is okay (I spent a great deal of my recent writing retreat st. It's good to see if the yearning is still there. It's good to let the universe provide you with a few hints. Thank you, Universe. I think I'm getting the message.

Addendum: Another message
Today I found out I won 3rd prize in Salt's Flash Fiction contest, my story, A Song for Falling, will be published in their prize anthology. I hear you, Universe.

STILL anthology launch & short story competition!

This gorgeous creature arrived in the post this morning - ain't it beautiful? Of course, STILL is an anthology of short stories inspired by Roelof Bakker's photographs, so aesthetics are to be expected!

I'm delighted to have a short short story in there, Switchgirls - and I'm in great company, alongside Richard Beard, Andrew Blackman, SJ Butler, Myriam Frey, SL Grey,  James Higgerson, Justin Hill, Nicholas Hogg, Ava Homa, Aamer Hussein, Nina Killham, Deborah Klaassen, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Claire Massey, Jan Van Mersbergen, Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende, James Miller, Mark Piggott, Mary Rechner, David Rose, Nicholas Royle, Preeta Samarasan, Jan Woolf, Evie Wyld and Xu Xi. I can't wait to read the anthology.

STILL will be launched at Foyles bookshop in London on Sept 26th - I will be reading my story, as will many of the other authors, so please do join us! Here's the event's Facebook page. Foyles will also be exhibiting the photographs with story excerpts.

Now, you too have a chance to be part of this wonderful enterprise - Foyles and Roelof are running a competition:  write a short short story of no more than 500 words inspired by Roelof's photograph here, deadline Oct 10th.

The winning story will be displayed in the Gallery at Foyles, a week after the competition closing date, alongside the exhibition, which runs from Monday 17th September until Tuesday 30th October, as well as on the Foyles and Negative Press London websites. In addition, the winner will receive a copy of Still, a signed 30 x 30cm print of the 'The Stage (Piano)' and copies of Nicholas Hogg's The Hummingbird and the Bear and Evie Wyld's After the Fire, A Still Small Voice. (The competition will be judged by Roelof, Nick, Evie and Foyles Local Marketing Manager, Lisa Bywater)

Find out more details on the Foyles website - the photograph that is your inspiration is just stunning, like all Roelof's images. Go for it - good luck! Hope to see you on Sept 26th.

Upcoming deadlines

It's been a while since I did one of these, here are a few upcoming deadlines for short story competitions:

July 31st The Sean O'Faolain short story competition: An excellent contest not just for its amazing prizes but because one sole judge reads every single entry!  Up to 3000 words, open internationally. First Prize: €2,000 (*approx $2690.82/ £1685.27), publication in the literary journal Southword, AND a week-long residency at Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat in Ireland. Second Prize: €500 and publication in Southword. Four other shortlisted entries will be selected for publication in Southword and receive a publication fee of €120. Entry fee: €15, US $20 or £15. Enter online or by post. Open internationally.

July 31st Ink Tears Flash Fiction competition: 500 words or less, previously published okay. Winner: £300 • Runner-up: £50 • 4x Highly Commended: £25 Entry fee: £3 for first entry, subsequent entries at a discount. Enter online.  Open internationally.

Aug 15th Gigantic Sequins flash fiction contest: Submit 3 stories per entry, each up to 1000 words, open internationally. publication of the winning piece in issue 4.1, special feature of the writer on our website this fall, a Gigantic Sequins 1-year subscription, $100 cash, and more! Entry fee: $5. Enter online. Open internationally.

Aug 26th Stringybark flash fiction and microfiction contests: Flash fiction: up to 1000 words, with link to Australia. Microfiction - 100 words, no Aussie link needed. Open internationally. First Prize - A$350 cash + publication + certificate + e-book + paperback (Value $368) Second Prize - A$150 cash + publication + certificate + e-book + paperback (Value $168) Third Prize - A$75 cash + publication + certificate + e-book + paperback (Value $93) Entry fee: AUS$9 per flash fiction. Microfiction - free entry with entry to flash fiction competition. Enter online. Open internationally.

Aug 31st Nanofiction flash fiction contest: Submit 3 stories per entry, each up to 300 words, open internationally. Prize awards publication and $500  - all entries considered for publication, all entrants receive a one year subscription to NANO Fiction and winners will be announced in September. Entry fee: $15. Enter online. Open internationally.

Sept 7th Costa short story award: Stories up to 4000 words, one entry per author. The winner will be announced at the Costa Book Awards ceremony in late January 2013 and will receive a cheque for £3,500. Two runners-up will each receive £750. No entry fee. Enter online. Residents of UK and Ireland only.

Sept 21st Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short story award:  "The judges are looking for an outstanding English-language story of 6,000 words or under from a fiction author from anywhere in the world who has been published in the UK or Ireland. Stories can be unpublished or first published after 1st Jan 2012. The winner will receive £30,000, and the five shortlisted writers will each receive £1,000 as well as having their work published online. A longlist of 16 will be announced in January." No entry fee. One entry per author. Online or postal entry.

And a little further off...
Oct 1st  StoryQuarterly short story comp Open to short stories and novel excerpts of 8,000 words or less. Grand Prize of $1000 and publication in StoryQuarterly 46 First Runner-up $300 and publication in SQ Online Second Runner-up $200 and publication in SQ Online. $18 contest fee includes subscription toStoryQuarterly 46, to be published in the late Fall, 2012.

Oct 31st  The Salt short story and flash fiction prizes (there is also a prize for poetry). The Short Story Prize: max 5,000 words. 1st PRIZE £1,000 plus publication in The Salt Anthology of New Writing. 2nd PRIZE £500 plus publication in The Salt Anthology of New Writing. 3rd PRIZE £50 book token for use in Salt’s online shops plus publication in The Salt Anthology of New Writing. SEVEN RUNNERS-UP A further seven finalists will be published in The Salt Anthology of New Writing. Open internationally. Entry fee £10 for first entry, discount for subsequent. Enter online or by post.
The Flash Fiction Prize: Max 350 words. 1st PRIZE £500 plus publication in The Salt Anthology of New Writing. 2nd PRIZE £250 plus publication in The Salt Anthology of New Writing. 3rd PRIZE £50 book token for use in Salt’s online shops plus publication in The Salt Anthology of New Writing. SEVEN RUNNERS-UP A further seven finalists will be published in The Salt Anthology of New Writing.Open internationally. Entry fee £5 for first flash, discount for subsequent. Enter online or by post.

Nov 15th  Willow Springs fiction prize No word limit. The winner of the contest will receive a prize of $2,000, plus publication in Willow Springs.Open internationally. Every entrant receives a one year subscription to Willow Springs. Entry fee $20, or $25 for non-US. Enter online or by post.Open internationally.

Good luck to all!

New story and some upcoming deadlines

I have a new story, The Tragedy of Tragic Men, (which was a finalist in PANK's 1001 Awesome Words Competition) published today in the February issue of the excellent PANK magazine, which just got a fabulous mention in the New York Times Style magazine's feature on literary magazines, one of the intello-chic, apparently! 

I am planning a blog post talking about the wonderful-so-far experience of working with my new publishers, Tangent Books, a small press based here in Bristol, on my new collection, but not quite ready yet - we're still choosing fonts and the illustrator is working on some ideas! (Wow, so exciting to be involved in the whole process!)

In the meantime, here are some upcoming deadlines for you...

BBC International Short Story Competition - closes Feb 27th

Open to international entrants for the first time this year, in honour of the London Olympics! Story: 8000 wds max. Prize: £15,000/£2500/8x£250. Rules: Strictly one entry per person. Open only to writers who have been previously published by an established UK publisher or an established UK magazine (no self-publishing or online publishing) Email entries allowed but must be accompanied by entry form from website. If posting entry you must send 8 copies of your work. No entry fee. Enter here.

The Binnacle Ultra Short Competition - closes March 15th

"We are looking for prose and poetry: all works should be 150 words or fewer; poetry should be sixteen lines or fewer and fewer; all works should have a narrative element." All submissions should be made via email to ummbinnacle@maine.edu. No entry fee, a minimum of $300 in cash prizes awarded. And all the finalists are published in a beautiful publication! Enter here.

Fish Flash Fiction Prize - closes March 20th

"This is an opportunity to attempt what is one of the most difficult and rewarding tasks - to create, in a tiny fragment, a completely resolved and compelling story in 300 words or less." 1st prize 1000 euros and publication in winners anthology. 9 runners-up. Entry fee 14.00 euros for first entry, 8 euros for each subsequent entry.  Enter here.

Fish Poetry Prize - closes March 30th, judged by Billy Collins!

Poems of up to 200 words. 1st prize 1000 euros, 2 prize a week at heavenly Irish writers retreat Anam Cara. Entry fee 14.00 euros for first entry, 8 euros for each subsequent entry.  Enter here.

The Bristol Short Story Prize - closes March 31st

One of the most prestigious short story comps around (yes, I am biased!) Stories up to 3000 words - can be much shorter (was won by a 300-word story a few years ago). Entry fee: £7. Prizes: £1000 + £150 Waterstones gift card/£700 + £100 Waterstones gift card/£400 + £100 Waterstones gift card. Winner and shortlisted published in the prize anthology. Enter here.

Short Fiction Short Story Competition - closes March 31st

Stories up to 5000 words. Entry fee: £10 for 2 stories and includes a copy of the next issue of the excellent SHORT Fiction lit mag. Prizes: £500 + publication, 2nd prize £100. Enter here.

Good luck to you all!

Flash...and more flash!

So, it was a week of good flash fiction-related news for me last week - a win at the Light Reading comp, semifinalist in another comp which hasn't declared yet, and then a shortlisting for the 2012 Unbound Press/Spilling Ink Holiday flash fiction Prize. My shortlisted flash story, Into the Waiting Arms of God, will be published in the prize anthology.

Huge congratulations to the winners and other shortlistees, especially Gail Aldwin, who tweeted me and Vanessa Gebbie to thank us, because she had taken part in the flash fiction workshops we ran in November as part of the Bridport Open Book festival. Most of the participants had not written flash fiction before, so Gail's shortlisting is really heartening, congratulations! And congratulations also to another of the workshop participants, Juliet West, whose flash story, Deep Hum, a draft of which was written during the workshop, has just been published on Ink, Sweat and Tears!

This leads me on to say that Vanessa and I will be running another flash fiction workshop for New Writing South in April, more details soon. But in the meantime, you have a chance to win copies of Vanessa's fabulous novel, The Coward's Tale, by entering the flash fiction competition on the Writers and Artists website. Here are the details:

To coincide with our recent interview with Vanessa Gebbie, author of The Coward’s Tale, we’re hosting a competition for you to showcase your literary skill.
We’re asking you to write up to 300 words (as a reference, not much longer than this page!) of flash fiction to be judged by Vanessa Gebbie. The best entries will win some very exciting prizes:

• First place winner will receive a signed copy of The Coward’s Tale in hardback, a copy of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2012, and also have their work featured on our website.
• Second place winner will receive a signed copy of The Coward’s Tale in hardback and also have their work featured on our website.
• Highly Commended- two highly commended entries will also have their work featured on the website.

If you think you are up to the challenge, read Vanessa Gebbie’s flash fiction article for inspiration and submit your entry to writersandartists@bloomsbury.com by the 22^nd February 2012. Winners will be announced on the 7^th March – good luck!

Happy flashing!

Synchrotron-inspired flash fiction comp

I had some lovely news waiting for me when we landed at Heathrow last night: I won the Light Reading flash fiction competition run by Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron. Don't know what a synchrotron is? Neither did I! It's a kind of particle accelerator, it whizzes subatomic particles around at very high speeds... and it's in Oxford. I'm thrilled...! You can read my 300 word story on the Light Reading web site along with the other entries. There was also a short story contest, for stories up to 3000 words. The results of that will be announced soon, and an anthology of the winning stories will be published, along with, I have been assured, other celebratory events! Thanks to everyone at the synchrotron, I learned a lot about what they do, it's absolutely fascinating. Maybe I'll get some high-speed electrons as part of my prize... (OK, that's a silly joke for someone with a physics degree, I apologise!).

Got some other nice news which I can't share yet, I've been shortlisted for another competition, which I had completely forgotten I entered! That's the way to do it, eh?

Vote for your favourite particle-accelerator-inspired flash story!

So, this UK particle accelerator, Diamond Light Source, held a short story and a flash fiction competition. And I went in for both. And now the flash fiction entries are all posted on the website, and you can vote. For your favourites. Not that I'm saying anything. Not that I'm happening to mention mine is called The Beam Line. (Others I know on the list are Pete Dominican and Kevlin Henney). This is just for your information. Right? Ok. Here's the website. (You do have to very quickly register to vote. Just so you know. In case... ) I'll be quiet now.

Dublin Review of Books flash contest

While I am contemplating my follow-up blog post on revising short stories, here, thanks to the excellent Nuala, is news of a flash fiction contest well worth entering: 

The Dublin Review of Books has announced its second Flash Fiction Contest. They say: "The prize will bring recognition to distinguished flash fiction writing from within Ireland and around the world."

Winner receives €1,000. Second and third place will each receive €100. The top three stories will appear in The Dublin Review of Books.

Final judging will be made by authors James Ryan, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and an editor from the drb.

GUIDELINES:

•           Submit up to 3 flash fiction stories of no more than 500 words apiece. Work must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted. Copyright will remain with winning authors. The drb reserves the rights to use winning entries up to one year after publication.

•           Manuscripts must include a cover letter containing name, address, e-mail address and/or telephone number, and the title of each work.

•           Entry fee is 10 Euro per story. Payment can be made through our PayPal account when submitting an entry.

•           Deadline for submissions is June 5, 2011 at 5 pm Dublin time. Entries received after this date will not be read. Only winning authors will be contacted.

•           Winning stories will be announced September 30, 2011.

•           Writers may submit through our online form (see details at www.drb.ie) .

•           Submissions may also be made via email. Please include surname and first name in the subject line. If submitting via email, please paste stories in the body of the email AND send as an attachment in one of the following formats:

.DOC (Microsoft Word)

.RTF (Rich Text Format)

EMAIL ADDRESS

flash@drb.ie

Nice short story and flash news

The loveliest news is that I got a reply from Professor John Mullan in response to my email about the Culture Show's 12 New Novelists program - asking whether it might be possible to do it for short story collections (see earlier blog post). He said:

"I do sort of agree with you - at least with the idea that it would be great to do a programme on the contemporary short story. From my point of view, it rather depends on whether the BBC want me to any more such book programmes. If and when they come to me for ideas, the short story is one thing that I'll suggest. I'll let you know if it ever happens."

I think that's very positive - now we just need the BBC to step up. Am awaiting a few more email replies from those who might be able to take it further. Fingers crossed!

And on a more personal note, I just found out that I'm a semifinalist in the Vestal Review Ten Years in Flash Fiction contest and my flash story, Maneouvres, for which I have been trying to find a good home for about 2 years, will be read by the final judge, Steve Almond! There's nothing like the feeling that a writer you greatly admire will be holding your work (or staring at it on screen, of course). Lovely. Winner announced March 31st but this is a great boost, especially for an older story I had almost given up on. Congrats to my fellow semifinalists: Doug Cornett, Tessa Mellas, Greta Schuller, Ronald Jones, Cynthia Litz, Lili Flanders, Bruce Rogers, Tasha Cotter and Madhu Narayan.

Sinus update:

Half face is still slightly swollen but I was recommended Neilmed through Twitter (thank you, you know who you are!) and started using it this morning, things seem to be improving.

Write a flash, win a picture...new online lit mag, and more...

A few interesting things that have dropped into my email Inbox recently that I wanted to pass on. Firstly, here's a lovely idea: Kenney Mencher, a painter and professor of Art History and Studio Art in California, is offering a piece of his artwork as a prize in a flash fiction competition he is running on his blog. In his email to me, he said: " I have tons of drawings and I thought it might be nice to give some away." What a wonderful prize, take a look at his artwork, it is really stunning. You have til Oct 25th to post the flash story in the comments on his blog.

Two new short-story-focussed venues: 

Launched by the University of Chichester, UK, Thresholds is "the home of the international  postgraduate short story forum" but it definitely isn't just for postgrads, it is full of wonderful interviews and articles about different aspects of the short story. For example, Thresholds will run a live online Q&A on Oct 21st with Adam Marek, author of the short story collection Instruction Manual for Swallowing, shortlisted in the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story award, and author of the brilliant essay in Short Circuit: A Guide to the Art of the Short Story in which he talks about the "short story gland".(This is their glorious homepage pic, by Natalie Miller. Love it.)

Out of Print is a new short story lit mag, founded by Indira Chandrasekhar who I was delighted to meet because she writes fiction and she has a Ph.D. in Biophysics! The aim of the magazine is: "We seek original writing in English or translated into English that is strong, well-crafted and reflects the pace and transition of our times. Based out of India, we view writing with a connection to the subcontinent with particular interest but are open to submissions from around the world. We encourage new writers and we encourage writing that tells a story." The first issue includes a story by the excellent Kuzhali Manickavel, and I look forward to exploring the rest of it in more detail.

Best of luck to both these ventures! And... I've just posted a post on the Science Faculty blog in which I interview PhD student Becky Jones about her time in Austria for the Roche Continents: Arts and Science program, so head over there to find out what that's about.

A short short story contest - win books!

I was delighted when Red Room, the wonderful site for authors, asked if I would give away three copies of my book as part of the prizes for their first short short story contest for Red Room authors. Here are the details, if you're a Red Room member, why not enter?

This week, Red Room author Robert Olen Butler, who won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his collection of short stories, A Good Scent from Strange Mountain, will guest judge a short story contest for us. So write a short story and post it on your blog this week. There's no entry fee or run to the post office involved. Everyone will get to enjoy reading your story whether you win or not, since you enter by posting it on your blog. (For contest rules, please see below.)

Our esteemed guest judge, who will select a first, second, and a third place winner, has published eleven novels and five volumes of short fiction. The magazine Short Story recently published a retrospective of his work, which led him to unearth "Moving Day," his first published short story, which appeared in Redbook in 1974. His most recent novel is Hell, just released in paperback. It's a comic fantasy about a news reporter who dies and finds himself still delivering the evening news, this time in Hell.

Definitions of a "short story" include "fiction less than 10,000 words," "a brief, highly unified piece of fictional narrative," and "an essay written under the guise of fiction to protect the writer's family." Many literary journals and contests prefer 3,000 to 5,000 words for submissions.

We're calling this Red Room's "Scandalously Short Story Contest" because the word limit is only 1,000 words. That's something someone like Joyce Maynard could write in an hour but we'll give you two days to write, edit, and post it. When you're done, you might say: "It's so short, I can't believe it's a story!"

We hope you'll participate. The first prize winner gets a trophy mailed to them. (Yes, an actual trophy!)

The first-, second-, and third-place winners will each receive a set of three books by Red Room authors. Margo Berdeshevsky's Beautiful Soon Enough (2009) is a collection that captures the lives of twenty-three arresting women. Robert Olen Butler called it a "thrillingly cutting-edge work of photos and short short stories flowing together." Tania Hershman founded The Short Review, a short-story collection review website. Her debut collection, The White Road and Other Stories, was published in 2008 by Salt Publishing. N. M. Kelby writes both nonfiction writers guides and fiction; her most recent book, 2009's ATravel Guide for Restless Hearts, collects stories "for those of us who suddenly find ourselves tourists in our own lives."As always, we'll feature all winners and other notable entries on the homepage the following week.

So post your scandalously short story contest entry as a blog entry today

For help on how to blog, please see the directions here. We'll choose one of these blog posts to be featured on Red Room's homepage next week. Post your entry by Friday at 10:30 a.m. PDT (GMT-08:00).

Contest Rules: Only Red Room authors and members who joined before October 6^th, 2010, are eligible. Entries will only be considered if posted on your Red Room blog by the deadline of Friday, October 8, 2010, at 10:30 a.m. PDT (GMT-0:8:00), and tagged correctly with the keyword term "short story contest" in the Blog Keyword Tags field so we can find it. (Please don't forget the tag. For more information about tags, click here.). Please do NOT post the story as any other content type (such as "story, article, or poem"). You must enter it as a blog entry or it will not be considered. Judging is at the sole discretion of Red Room. Your entry must consist of a short story that is 1,000 words or less. Email us if you have questions or need help with the contest.

A prose poem and some upcoming deadlines

I am now officially a writer of prose poems! My first one has just been published by the Prose Poem Project, and that's how I found out that it actually was a prose poem. Sometimes it's wise to leave the labels to other people.

I wanted to say enormous congratulations to my writer friends - online and offline - who have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in all three categories, short story, flash fiction and poetry. The official shortlists won't be unveiled til Oct 31st, so for the moment, you know who you are!

On that note, a few upcoming deadlines, in all three of those categories:

Opium magazine's Shya Scanlon 7-line contest, October 4th: "The rules? Write a story or prose poem that is seven lines or less (8.5" x 11" paper with 1" margins). The winning story along with runners-up — and as many as 10 finalists — will be featured in Opium11, slated for release in March 2011. (We will not accept previously published work.) Grand prize of $1,000 (or the second- and third-place prize of $100)"  The wondrous Amy Hempel is judging!


Genomics Forum Poetry competition, Oct 7th:  "Write a poem of no more than 50 lines on the theme of ‘improving the human’. First prize is £500, second prize is £200, and third prize is £100." This sounds like fun, I might even have a go, prose poems count too, don't they?

PANK magazine's 1001 Awesome Words contest - new deadline 15th October: "Any form or formlessness, 1,001 words or less. You know who you are. Now go to it. 1st Place: $650* and publication in PANK 5.2nd Place: $150 and Publication in PANK 5 ." PANK loves wierd stuff, so if that's what you write, send it in!

Sunday Times EFG Private Bank short story competition, Oct 30th:  £30,000 first prize (yes, really! that's what happens when you run a competition in partnership with a BANK). "The award aims to honour the finest writers of short stories in the UK and Ireland. It is open to authors with a previous record of publication in creative writing. Entries may be previously unpublished, or first published or scheduled for publication after 1 January 2010. All entries must be under 6,000 words and entirely original."  And... entries by POST only. They publish the longlist, so if you're eligible to enter, it's worth it. I know two of those who were longlisted so it's not all star-studded Big Names, and in fact almost all the BNs didn't get from the longlist to the shortlist, so there.

Writers Digest short story competition, Dec 1st: "We're looking for fiction that's bold, brilliant...but brief. Send us your best in 1,500 words or fewer.First Place: $3,000 and a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in New York City Second Place: $1,500 Third Place: $500 Fourth Through Tenth Place: $100 Eleventh Through Twenty-Fifth Place: $50 gift certificate for Writer's Digest Books" Lots of prizes on offer here and "only" 1500 words to wow them with. Get your entry in early, that's my ex-judge's tip. Who knows if it helps!

That's all for now, folks. Good luck to you all!

Addendum:

Thank you to Sarah for this: Troubadour Poetry prize, deadline 15 Oct: "Poems must be in English, must each be no longer than 45 lines, must fit on one page of A4, must be the original work of the entrant and must not have been previously broadcast or published (in print or online)- shortest turnround of any major competition: poems in on/by Fri 15th Oct, winners know by Mon 22nd Nov, results by e-mail to everyone else after announcement on evening of Mon 29th Nov;- no sifters/chuckers-out, both judges read every poem;- not just £1000 top prize but 22 other prizes and the chance for every prizewinner to read at Troubadour Prize Celebration on Mon 29th Nov;- every submission, whether one poem or ten, supports our fortnightly Monday night readings in London's liveliest, longest-running and best-loved literary landmark venue, now surviving without Arts Council support and relying increasingly on poets around the country and around the world to keep literature 'live' in London."

Addendum 2: And thanks to Nuala for this: Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize, Dec 15th deadline."first prize of €1,000 (on 1 October 2010 approx. US$1365 or UK£850) and publication in Southword Literary Journal. If the winner comes to Cork to collect their prize in February 2011, we will lavish them with hotel accommodation, meals, drinks and VIP access to the literary stars for three days during the Cork Spring Literary Festival. There will be a second prize of €500, third prize of €250, and ten runners-up will each have their poems published in Southword and receive Southword’s standard fee of €30. The current judge is Leanne O'Sullivan, who will read each and every entry herself". This competition is being run by the Munster Literature Centre, for whom I judged the Sean O'Faolain prize, so I can vouch for them - and I can say that Leanne's poetry is absolutely breathtaking, so even if you don't enter, check her out.

Cold cold cold

Ok, so England has a lot going for it - every week I am delighted to find an invitation in my Inbox asking me to read here or there, talk about short stories, eat cake. What more can a girl want? But it's COLD and I have my second cold in a month, just after having recovered from 3 weeks of flu. Feeling rotten.

The nice things are: two stories in this month's Climate issue of Litro. I've long wanted to crack this one, the literary mag that's distributed on the London underground, and in Cafe Rouge too, apparently! Let me know if you see it around. Feel free to leave a comment on the online version, if you are so moved.

Also: I'm reading at Short Fuse's Hair-themed event tonight  in Brighton, which I am so excited about. Luckily I'm reading Plaits, which is very short! For a sneak preview (or post-view), here's my reading it at the Frank O'Connor fest in sept 2008:



Instead of me moaning about my cold, which could go on and on, let me get excited about friends' achievements instead. Whoo hoo to Adam Marek, getting onto the shortlist for the £25,000 (yes, that's 000) Sunday Times EFG short story award! Kudos to the Sunday Times for several things:

1. They published a longlist of 20 stories, thus giving 14 writers a chance in the spotlight, not just the 6 who were shortlisted.
2. The longlist was a mix of Booker-Nominated Names and Real People - and the shortlist had no BNN, and almost all Real People so clearly this is a prize that, while not judged anonymously, was not just about using BNNs to publicise the prize.

Congrats to all the shortlist: Will Cohu, Joe Dunthorne, Petina Gappah, CK Stead and David Vann!

A Few Deadlines:

March 20th FISH One Page prize: 300 words.

March 30th Short FICTION's New Writer competition: open to writers who haven't published a collection of fiction. Any length short story is accepted.

***March 31st Bristol Short Story prize: 3000 words max, no min. I am one of the judges for this comp.

March 31st Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Short Story Competition: 600 words, general, or children's story or story about science, tech & society


March 31st Yellow room Short Story Competition: 2500 words, prize for best story under 800 words.