Author Archives: Jude

Pre-orders open for the 3 winning NIFS from our 2024 Award!

Up for pre-order from Ad Hoc Fiction now, three marvellous prize-winning novellas-in-flash from our 2024 NIF Award, to add to your collection, Hereafter, by first prize winner, Sarah Freligh from the USA and the two runners up, Nose Ornaments by Sudha Balagopal from the USA and Marilyn’s Ghost by Jo Withers from Australia. Three amazing writers who have also won prizes in our single-flash Awards. You can pre-order all three novellas now from Ad Hoc Fiction at a 25% discount on the full price until publication on 27th June. These brilliant novellas were selected by our 2024 judge, John Brantingham and you can read what he said about them here in his report. We’re really excited that Sarah is coming to the Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol, UK (12-14th) July and her winning novella will be launched there. John Brantingham will also be at the festival
We’ve included descriptions or quotes from other readers here, so you can see how special and intriguing they are

Hereafter is a gorgeous and devastating triumph. This award-winning novella follows Pattylee’s journey from early motherhood through the fog of bereavement after she loses her teenage son to brain cancer. Infused with surprising imagery and textured, poetic language, Sarah Freligh guides us through the oft-fractured landscape of grief and memory, time and hope. This is prose that sparks with remarkable depth and emotional honesty. In her signature micro-style, Freligh delivers a true masterclass of the novella-in-flash form.
— Sara Hills, author of The Evolution of Birds

When Sudha Balagopal describes food, you get hungry. When she describes sadness, you feel tears in your own heart. And so it is with Nose Ornaments, this finely crafted family saga of Lakshmi, and her daughter, Savi, and Savi’s daughter, Mini. Spanning years and geographies and cultures, we see how each woman lives in her particular time. So much changes in terms of men and marriage and work life. It’s a testament to how women adapt and blossom. But even more than that, it is the exquisite detail of Balagopal’s writing which is so precise and sensory, you may very well feel that you are not just reading this beautiful story, but living it as well.
— Francine Witte, author of RADIO WATER and The Way of the Wind

A reporter who sees her as nothing but a meal ticket
A rookie cop dazzled by her fame
A seasoned police inspector who’d seen it all before
A man’s voice on the phone
Pills and champagne on the nightstand
Photographs from a disconnected life
Stories from the death scene of Marilyn Monroe – daughter, wife, starlet, legend, ghost…

The 2025 Novella in Flash Award for novellas inbetween 6000 and 18000 words will open for entries in July. And closes at the end of September this year. Results out in January, 2025.

Our single flash award closes on June 2nd. And sometimes, that single flash can spark off a whole series culminating in a novella.

Jude Higgins

More 3rd prize and commended BFFA writers!

I’m posting stories from writers who have won third prize or been commended in previous awards ahead of the closing date for the 27th Award on Sunday June 2nd. Still time to be inspired and write a new story or to work on a draft. £1460 in prizes.

You’ll have heard it said that it helps to read your own stories out loud before you declare them finished. But do you read other people’s flash fictions out loud too? I heard a podcast last week by Michael Moseley, a broadcaster who hosts a series on BBC Sounds called ‘Just One Thing’ to promote heatlh and well-being. In this recent podccast be brings in researchers to show that reading poetry out loud boosts your mood and relaxes your body Of course, flash fiction with its careful attention to language is going to do the same.
And what better place to start reading aloud than with the brilliant stories I have linked today, by Stephanie Carty and Elisabeth Ingram-Wallace.

Stephanie won third prize in June 2019 with her story ‘Cosmina Counts’ ( published in the 2019 BFFA Anthology,With One Eye on the Cows and was commended, a year later,in June 2020, with her re-working of the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, The Price of Ginger Bread in print in the 2020 anthology, ‘Restore to Factory Settings’

Ad Hoc Fiction also published Stephanie’s excellent book, Inside Fictional Minds‘,in 2021 available from Ad Hoc Fiction and from Amazon. It’s a guide on how to create characters with psychological depth in fiction. Read the Q & A about it here. And you can find out more about her new writing guide books and other books on her website

Elisabeth Ingram-Wallace, SmokeLong Quarterly tutor and another extraordinary multi-award-winning writer won third prize in June 2016 with The Baby Came Early, Screaming in print in the first anthology, To Carry Her Home
and was commended in February 2017 with My Thirty-Eight Step Korean Cleansing Routine i which is published in the 2017 BFFA anthology The Lobsters Run Free. She was also commended in 2018 with Satin Nightwear for Women Irregular published in print in the 2018 anthologyh. Things Lost and Found on the Side of the Road.
Read more about Elisabeth Ingram Wallace’s work on her website

Please do read the stories linked out loud. There is a fantastic use of language in them.

If you are entering this time round, we are heading for the Last Minute Club. Virtual club badges for those who enter on the last day, Sunday June 2nd at midnight BST.

Jude, May 22nd 2024

BFFA 3rd prize & Commended from South West, UK

Our 27th Award, judged by Michelle Elvy, closes two weeks today,Sunday June 2nd. £1460 in prizes. Double and triple entries reduced. Results out by the end of June.

For inspiration I’m gathering up the BFFA 3rd and commended writers from our Awards. So far, I’ve posted winning and commended stories from Tim Craig and Debra A Daniel. This time, I’m posting stories from the third prize and commended writers who live in the South West of England. (which is where I live in between Bristol and Bath). Sometimes, these writers have been able to come and read in the reading evenings I organise in Bath. Others come to the Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol.. All these stories are published in our yearly anthologies, which you can buy either from Ad Hoc Fiction or from Amazon.(Links to Amazon for buying in your country on the Ad Hoc Fiction bookshop page).

They are all amazing stories of 300 words or under, on different subjects and in different styles.

Michael Fitzgerald from Bath was commended in June 2016 for his story, Faulkland Island Walk
Anita MacCallum from Bristol was commended in June 2016 with her story ‘Boobless’

These two are published in the first BFFA anthology. To Carry Her Home

Alison Powell from Somerset was commended in October 2020 for her story Our fathers, who we have strewn like seaweed behind us
Sam Payne from Devon won third prize in June 2020 with The Man You Didn’t Marry

These two are published in the 2020 anthology Restore to Factory Settings

Chloe Banks from Devon was commended in October, 2021 with her story If Everyone was a Superhero

This story is published in the 2021 anthology, Snow Crow

Kathryn Aldridge Morris from Bristol was commended in February 2022 with her story Rip Tide

Abigail Williams from Devon won third prize in June 2022 with her story Don’t mistake me for your crabapple

As well as winning third prize in 2020, Sam Payne from Devon,was also commended in February 2022 with her story
When a Youtube clip of Diego Goes Viral

These stories are published in the 2022 anthology, Dandelion Years

More third prize winners and commended writers coming in the next two weeks

Thanks to everyone who has entered the 27th Award so far. We look forward to reading all your stories and seeing who reaches the top five this time round!

Jude, May 19th, 2024

Debra A Daniel another 3rd prize BFFA winner & highly commended writer

For inspiration for our 27th £1460 prize fund Award, closing Sunday June 2nd, in just over two weeks (flash fictions up to 300 words) I posted the three third prize winning stories and one commended story by Tim Craig earlier this week. This post features more inspirational stories by award winning poet and prose writer, Debra A Daniel ,who won third prize in February 2022. She has also been highly commended twice, once in June 2021 and once in October 2022.

In addition, Debra has twice been successful in our Novella in Flash Awards and her wonderful novellas-in-flash The Roster, highly commended in our NIF Award in 2019 and A Family of Great Falls, shortlisted in the NIF Award in 2021. (are published by Ad Hoc Fiction and available on Amazon or Ad Hoc Fiction. (A Family of Great Falls is sold out on Ad Hoc Fiction bookshop)

Read Debra’s third prize winning story in February 2022 Grand Canyon Official Form 477D,her highly commended story In The Darkest Dark She Takes My Sleep in October 2022 and her highly commended story Across The Street The Old Man Clears Out His House June 2021

For Novella in Flash Inspiration, read the interview with Debra about The Roster. Our next NIF Award will open for entries in July with a closing date of September 30th 2024. Results January 2025. Judged by Jude

It’s 3 weeks before our 27th Award ends, on June 2nd!

Our June 2024 Award, judged by writer and editor of Best Small Fictions, Michelle Elvy, ends on Sunday June 2nd, So you have today and three more Sundays until the deadline at midnight BST. And thank you to everyone who has entered their up to 300 words stories so far. There’s a £1460 prize pot and an opportunity for all 50 longlisted to be published in our 2024 anthology.

The judges for our awards very often say that there is a hair’s breadth between the top five stories A while ago, I made a list of all the first and second prize winners from the award and arranged them according to themes. It is very interesting to read the stories and to see what people are writing about. For the final three weeks, I will list the third prize winners and commended since 2015.

Now You See Him by Tim Craig,

To begin here are three third prize wins by brilliant author, Tim Craig plus one by him which was highly commended
Tim’s first win was in June, 2018 with Northern Lights, also included in Bestmicrofictions in 2019, the second time was in February,2021 with ‘Now You See Him’, the title story of his collection, which was longlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize, last year and shortlisted for the International Rubery Award and for the Saboteur Awards. Tim won third prize again in October 2021 with That’s all there is, there aint no more, which is the final story in his collection. In June 2019, Tim was highly commended by judge Christopher Allen with The Falling Silent, which I remember him reading at the 2019 Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol, just after the winners were announced. This story is also included in his collection Tim Craig June 2019 Commended If you haven’t got it, have a read of all four stories and support an author friend by buying the book or reviewing it on Amazon if you already have it. Thank you

Six Novellas-in-flash from Two Different Publishers

The three novellas-in-flash from the 2024 BFFA Award will be published soon by our small press, Ad Hoc Fiction. You can look forward to excellent and very different takes on the form by winner, Sarah Freligh and runners-up Sudha Balagopal and Jo Withers. Find out a little more about them on John Brantingham’s judge’s report.Jude is judging the BFFA 2025 Novella in Flash Award. It will be open for entries in July 2024 and will close at the end of September 2024.

In the meantime,here are some links to and descriptions of other NIFS recently out from two different publishers, so you can see the variety within the form if you want to try your hand at writing one. You can also read the array of novellas in flash published in previous years by Ad Hoc Fiction Read in Full

Novella-in-Flash Award 2026: Judge: Jude Higgins

Jude Higgins is a writer, writing tutor and events organiser and has stories published or forthcoming in the New Flash Fiction Review, Flash Frontier, FlashBack Fiction, The Blue Fifth Review, The Nottingham Review,Pidgeon Holes, Moonpark Review, Splonk, Fictive Dream, the Fish Prize Anthology, National Flash Fiction Day anthologies and Flash: The International Short Short Story Magazine among other places. She has won or been placed in many flash fiction contests and was shortlisted in the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize in 2017, 2018 and 2023. Her debutflash fiction pamphlet The Chemist’s House was published by V.Press in 2017. Her micro fictions have been included in the 2019 and 2020 lists of Best Flash Fictions of UK and Ireland and she has been nominated for Best Small Fictions 2020, Best Microfictions, 2023, a Pushcart Prize, 2020 and Best of the Net, 2022. Her story ‘Codes To Live By’ was selected for Best Micro Fictions and was longlisted for Wigleaf in 2022. Her story ‘Spinning’ is published in Best Microfiction 2024. She founded Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2015, directs Ad Hoc Fiction, the short-short fiction press, co-runs The Bath Short Story Award, founded and directs the Flash Fiction Festival, UK, organises reading events and teaches flash fiction sessions online. Her full collection, ‘Clearly Defined Clouds’ is available from Ad Hoc Fiction

The 2026 Award

The 2026 Novella in Flash Award, this year judged again by me, Jude Higgins, is now open and will close on October 31st 2025. Results out in January 2026. If you are writing/or thinking of writing a novella-in-flash, here’s some information and FAQ’s. To help write and understand the form, we recommend reading Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash: From blank page to finished manuscript Michael Loveday’s multi-award-winning guide on the subject. Read in Full

Q & A with Mairead Robinson, 1st Prize winner, February 2024

Read Jude’s spring equinox interview with first-prize winner Mairead Robinson to find out, among other very interesting things about her writing, how she wrote her stunning winning flash selected by our 26th Award Judge Susmita Bhattacharya. You’ll also find links to more of her brilliant stories, and you can try out writing flash to all permutations of the colour ‘yellow’, Mairead’s prompt for a spring-based flash fiction now the celandines, daffodils and primroses are out. Earlybird discounted entries for our 27th Award finish on April 14th. Final deadline 2nd June. Judge Michelle Elvy Read in Full

27th Award Judge, Michelle Elvy

We’re delighted to have Michelle Elvy back to judge the single flash fiction award again in the year that she is also judging the Fish Flash Fiction prize. Michelle judged our Novella-in-flash award in 2021 and 2022 and she first judged BFFA in June, 2016, when she selected Sharon Telfer as the first prize winner, for Sharon’s amazing historical flash fiction Terra Icognita. Read more about Michelle’s latest projects and writing services below and tips for writing great flash. Read in Full

Mairead Robinson February 2024 First Prize

A Palimpsest of Cheerleaders

by Mairead Robinson

Mel’s in the bleachers, inspecting her shattered shin-bone, pantyhose around her ankles, thighs like a pair of suckling pigs. Sadie reckons Mel would’ve been crowned, but I think Sadie herself; even with her stomach bleeding out, she has that poise, that prom-queen pout. ‘Why d’you even care?’ I say, ‘We’re dead, remember?’

‘Posthumously,’ she snaps. Her tear-brim gaze moves beyond Mel, and I know she’s seeing the blue silk draped wraith-like on its hanger, the strappy shoes, the simple silver locket. I’ve seen her touching fingers to the hollow of her throat, mouthing, ‘Me?’

The field’s Elysium green. Palimpsest. Miss Ingram chalked it on the board; a parchment erased, marks beneath still visible; squeak of plimsols on the locker room floor, jocks charging out, ball flying high, crowd on their feet, and us, mid-routine, twizzling pom-poms on the T-stretch, hearts wide open to Danny Markham’s bullets as he riddled the squad, taking us all out.

Mel was sweet on Danny, mistook dark-eyed hatred for love-sick brooding, and hoped for his corsage on prom night. ‘Fat chance,’ says Sadie as she lunges, hands on hips, elbows out. I joined because Mom said college, and who knew cheerleading scholarships were a thing? So, there I was, and here I am, effaced by kite-high Danny, his Pa’s M16 spitting fire. He was troubled, wailed Mel, blasted leg a right angle, fatal bullet lodged in her heart like Cupid’s flinty arrowhead.

Shadow-shapes stand in the dug-outs. Our mothers, so small, wispy as smoke. Mel hops over and suggests we do the lead-in, so we’re high-kicking, pike jumping, pom-poms razzle-dazzling as we holler the chant, as if they could hear us, as if we could scribe ourselves anew beneath the yearbook obituaries, as if there was anything left save all this ache, this longing.

About the Author

Mairead Robinson writes and teaches in the South West, UK. Her work has appeared in Ellipsis Zine, Crow and Cross Keys, The Molotov Cocktail (Flash Monster 2023), Free Flash Fiction, Full House Literary, Voidspace, and in various anthologies too. She is supposed to be working on a novel, but has become hopelessly addicted to Flash Fiction. She won second prize in BFFA, October, 2023. Mairead tweets at @Judasspoon and skeets @maireadwrites.bsky.social