Another leap year and another BFFA Award completed. Thank you all those who entered. 34 countries this time and 1010 entries.
Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia
As usual, there was a flood of stories near the end and a lot of writers picked up the Last Minute Club Badge on the final day, February 5th. Someone said it was the colour of a Cadbury’s Caramac bar. Tasty!
We appreciate everyone for submitting, early or later.
Our big thanks too to Susmita Bhattacharya who selected the short list and the five top stories for this round and wrote excellent comments on them. Working to a tight schedule, she chose as first prize ‘A Palimpsest of Cheerleaders’ by Mairead Robinson from the UK, second prize ‘All the things we are not’ by Jo Withers from Australia, third prizew ‘How to make a realistic paper rose,’ by Gayathiri Dhevi Appathurai from Mumbai, India, highly commended ‘Four Conditions of the Heart’ by Pilar Garcia Clarmonte from the UK; and highly commended, An experiment on a bird in the air pump (after Joseph Wright of Derby) by Sarah Gillett from the UK.
Read Susmita’s comments linked here. All the stories are linked from their titles. We’re thrilled that Mairead Robinson, who won second prize in the October round, 2023 has won first prize this time. Not only that, Jo Withers, who was a runner-up in our 2024 Novella in Flash Award with her NIF Marilyn’s Ghost, out with Ad Hoc Fiction this spring,has won second prize and Pilar Garcia claramonte, who was highly commended in the June round last year, has again been highly commended.
Congratulations to all! Such amazing examples of flash, varied in style and theme. We loved all the listed stories and are looking forward to seeing many of them in print in our 2024 BFFA anthology which will contain winners, shortlisted and longlisted writers from all three of the 2024 Awards. Thank you to those who have accepted our publication offer.
The next Award opens tomorrow, March 1st and the judge is Michelle Elvy.
