Thank you to everyone who entered the February round of Bath Flash Fiction Award. You kept our readers busy during the four months of the competition and as usual we had a deluge of entries at the end, which made it all very exciting. We received nine hundred and thirty-two submissions, from thirty-three countries:
Australia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam
It was a tough call to select a long list of fifty from some very good flash fictions covering all sorts of themes and subjects and many different styles. You will be able to read the long listed stories in our 2018 anthology which will be published at the end of the year.
In this round, the winners come from four different countries/continents. The first prize goes to Jo Gatford from Brighton, UK, the second to Lee Nash from France, the third to Molia Dumbleton from the US, one commended to Tracy Slaughter from New Zealand and the other commended to Elisabeth Ingram Wallace from Edinburgh, who also has another story in the short list.
Our heart felt thanks go to our judge Tara L Masih for scheduling in the time to select the short list and winners in the couple of weeks from the end of the Award to the announcement of the winners. We very much appreciate her encouraging comments to us as the organisers and to the winning and listed writers. Her remarks on the long and short list and the winning stories, which you can read in her report, are very useful to anyone who wants to create a unique flash fiction to submit to magazines and to competitions.
Our next Award opens on March 1st 2018 and is judged by well-known, writer and tutor from the UK, David Gaffney. It closes on June 10th 2018 and, keeping to our quick turn-around, results will be out at the end of June. We hope you would like to enter again. In the reading team, we are all flash-fiction addicts and love reading your work. Thanks again to all regular entrants and to those new to the contest for your continuing support.
For more flash fiction inspiration, do check out the fantastic programme at our Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol this year from Friday evening 20th July – Sunday afternoon 22nd July. It opened for booking last week and places are going fast.
Jude Higgins
Founder Bath Flash Fiction Award
