It’s always exciting when we reach the end of the latest Award – and this one was no exception. Nine hundred and three entries from twenty-nine different countries.
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States
As a fun thing on the last day of the Award, we introduced Last Minute Club ‘badges’. And there were plenty of writers out there who received their badge, emailed to them after their submissions were received on the last day. So thank you all for entering and supporting the competition. We are always awestruck by the range and variety of inventiveness among the stories submitted.
Flash Fiction truly is a great form for allowing innovation and giving readers the opportunity to travel far beyond the confines of the story. It is a hard task choosing a the long list of fifty from so many very good flash fictions. In his report, David Gaffney referred to the variety of subject matter within the long listed stories – the fertile imaginations of writers out there. We agree. Many of the long listed writers have already said ‘yes’ to being published in our third anthology, which will be published at the end of 2018 so you will be able to read them, along with stories from the February award and from the forthcoming Award. Thank you very much to our team of readers for their steadfast commitment to reading the entries throughout the award and in particular for scheduling in solid reading time on the last weekend. And finally huge thanks to David Gaffney for working to our tight schedule to choose the short list and the winners two weeks after the closing date and for producing a wonderful report on the process and insightful notes on the winning stories.
The next and tenth Award opens on July 1st and ends October 14th 2018. We’re very happy that acclaimed Irish writer of the short and longer form, Nuala 0’Connor has agreed to judge this round. We hope you would like to enter again and look forward to receiving and reading your entries. In the meantime, we will see some of you at the Flash Fiction Festival 20-22nd July in Bristol. Both David and Nuala will be there presenting workshops along with many of the best teachers and writers of the form including Bath Flash Award winning and listed writers from this and other rounds. There will be several chances to hear them read and plenty of opportunities to be inspired to write more flash fiction. Book now by July 6th to join in the fun.
Jude Higgins
Founder Bath Flash Fiction Award
