Congratulations to all the authors who have made our Award short list and huge thanks to all who entered.
February 2021 Short List
Author Archives: Jude
Pre-order Gaps in the Light, the new hybrid collection by Iona Winter
Our Small Press, Ad Hoc Fiction is privileged to be publishing Gaps in the light, the new book by poet and hybrid writer, Iona Winter from Aotearoa, NZ. Several of Iona’s flash fictions have been both longlisted and shortlisted in our Awards and published in the yearly anthologies and it is exciting to see a whole collection of her writing. In advance praise for the book, well-known NZ author Pip Adam, writes:
Gaps in the Light is an amazing work. It uses form in innovative ways to express deeply the experience of loss and joy in ways I can’t remember reading anywhere else.
We love the rhythm of the prose,the different forms used in the collection and the inclusion of the Maori language (with glossary) which adds a beautiful music and extra depth to the work. We’re looking forward to hearing Iona read the stories when she posts videos on her social media sites. In the very moving interview below, she tells us about the process of writing the collection and her son Reuben’s death soon after she had completed the manuscript. We are very glad that it is being published as one of the first books from Ad Hoc Fiction this year, on March 19th. Gaps in the Light is now available for pre-order at a 25% discount from Ad Hoc Fiction in paperback during the pre-order period, on pre-order at Amazon kindle. And it will also be available in paperback from Amazon worldwide on publication day. It is one of two new flash fiction collections published on 19th March and available for preorder now. The other is by US based writer Fiona J Mackintosh and it is wonderful to have new flash fictionbooks from writers in two different hemispheres.
Read in Full
Pre-order The Yet Unknowing World, new flash collection by Fiona J Mackintosh
We’re so delighted that Ad Hoc Fiction, our short-short fiction press, is publishing Fiona J Mackintosh’s debut flash fiction collection, The Yet Unknowing World. It’s one of two books open for pre-order today, 22nd February, with a 25% discount during the pre-order period, by authors from two different hemispheres, Fiona in the US and Iona Winter in New Zealand. Both brilliant examples of the range of variety of the flash fiction form.
In advance praise, well-known writer and teacher of flash fiction, Kathy Fish, one of the acclaimed authors quoted on the back cover says of The Yet Unknowing World:
“These stories by Fiona J. Mackintosh are miniature masterpieces, resonating far beyond the pages they inhabit. Mackintosh’s pen is assured, her vision clear-eyed yet compassionate. Like the paintings of Edward Hopper, The Yet Unknowing World invites us all to peer into the dark, quiet corners of human yearning and to connect with the flawed, aching beauty of our own hearts.”
We agree. We love the variety of Fiona’s writing and her beautiful use of imagery and detail. There are such treasures within this book. In the interview below, Fiona talks about how the book came about, its construction, the cover design, where the title comes from and more.
We hope you will be able to come along to the Zoom launch Jude is hosting on the first day of Spring, Saturday 20th March from 7.30- 9.30 pm GMT. Please contact her at Jude {at} adhocfiction [dot} com for a link.At the launch, Fiona will read several of the stories,there will be extra short readings from guests, time to talk to flash fiction friends from around the world and we’ll give away two copies of the book for those who win our quiz.
The collection is published the day before the launch on 19th March and the book will be also be available on Amazon Kindle and in paperback from Amazon Worldwide, as well as from our bookshop.
February 2021 Long List
Congratulations to all the authors who have made our Award long list and huge thanks to all who entered.
Launch of Restore To Factory Settings, BFFA Anthology Vol. 5
Jude Higgins is hosting the launch of Restore to Factory Settings on Zoom on Saturday evening 30th January from 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm GMT. There are 136 micros in the anthology from the three rounds of the Bath Flash Fiction Award 2020. We’ll hear many of the winning and commended pieces from each of the Awards plus some of shortlisted pieces. A fabulous evening of fun, flash and friendship from around the world.
Readers include Sharon Telfer, Johanna Robinson, and Fiona Perry, the three first prize winners, Hannah Storm, Simon Cowdroy and Tara Isabel Zambrano; the second prize winners, Christina Dalcher and Jan Kaneen the third prize winners; commended writers Emily Harrison and Alison Powell plus shortlisted writers Kate Lee, Nancy Ludmerer, Christopher Allen, Alison Woodhouse, Giles Montgomery, Maria Alejandra Barrios Velez, Danny Beusch and Sara Hills. J A Keogh will also read his story. ‘Restore to Factory Settings’. which inspired the wonderful cover. We’re delighted that the judges for the three Awards, Santino Prinzi, Mary Jane Holmes and Nod Ghosh are all able to come and will say a little about their selections.
Please email me at Jude {at}adhocfiction {dot} com for a Zoom link. We’d love to see you there. The anthology is available to buy from adhocfiction.com bookshop plus in print and digital versions in Amazon if you want to buy beforehand.
The books were all posted out to the authors within the pages in the first week of December and now most of them have reached their destinations. The pictures in the collages show their locations — all different parts of the UK, the US, Canada, Australia,New Zealand, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, France, Switzerland and elsewhere. I asked people to place their books next to rusty things and we have a wonderful selection here from rusty wheels and ancient machinery, chairs, grills, bird baths, fences, rust coloured cats, sculptures, teapots, hedges garden ornaments and rusty coloured clothes, as well as festive shots and views of mountains and deserts! Thanks so much to everyone for obliging.
Round up for 2020. Thank you to all our supporters!
At the end of another decade this is the fifth year of the Bath Flash Fiction Award.Thank you very much to everyone who has submitted to our Awards over the years. It has been a wonderful experience reading so much exceptional flash fiction. In 2020, despite everything, even more writers from around the world entered the 2020 Awards. In total, there were 4235 entries from 49 different countries and people tell us we have been part of putting flash fiction on the map. Which is a lovely thing to hear.
In recent weeks, our fifth anthology, Return to Factory Settings. has been arriving in many different countries. And we hope all 136 contributors, writers who were longlisted, shortlisted or placed in the three Awards will have received their copies. We love the fact that writers new to flash fiction are published in the anthology as well as those who have been published before. The brilliant cover, designed by Ad HocFiction, was inspired by a story within the anthology by UK writer J A Keogh, who explained that it was last year’s Bath Flash Anthology that got him started on writing flash fiction. We think that’s a great circle to complete.
This year, the judges were Santino Prinzi from the UK, Mary-Jane Holmes who is based in the UK and the USA and Nod Ghosh from New Zealand. We’re very thankful to them for the hard work and comments on the listed and winning stories.
You can buy all five anthologies, pictured in the gallery here, from adhocfiction.com
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Q & A with author J A Keogh author of Restore to Factory Settings
We think Restore to Factory Settings the title from a micro by UK writer, J A Keogh, is a great headline for the fifth Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology. Here, he writes more about the story and about writing flash, which he’s had much success at, after only writing in this form for a year. He was hooked when he read last year’s anthology, With One Eye On The Cows. and it’s particularly gratifying that one of our anthologies inspired him. A goal of BFFA has always been to encourage writers to read and write flash fiction. His story is the last one of the 136 fictions in the anthology, which you can buy from adhocfiction.com and from Amazon in different countries in both paperback and ebook formats.
As the anthology cover picture has the rusty background, I suggested authors might take a picture of the book with something rusty. Justin’s found a great image of a rusty couple in a boat. We thought they might be the couple in his story, who, he says below, have ‘a mutual addiction to impermanence’. Read in Full
Interview with Johanna Robinson, 1st prize winner, BFFA October, 2020
We’re delighted to share an interview with Johanna Robinson, who won first prize in the October 2020 round, which was judged by Nod Ghosh. The story plus two other listed stories of Johanna’s is included with all the other winners and longlisted writers who agreed to publication in Restore to Factory Settings Bath Flash Fiction Vol 5. released this week from Ad Hoc Fiction. Johanna was a runner-up in our Novella-in-Flash award in 2019 with her wonderful NIF, Homing. It is now available as an ebook from kindle as well as in paperback from the Ad Hoc Fiction Bookshop. Links to worldwide kindle are on the bookshop page. So if you want to read more of Johanna’s work, it is instantly available. We’re so interested to learn that her win, ‘Blessings 1849’, another historical piece, is a story which had been submitted into various competitions previously in different forms and had actually also been sent to BFFA before and not been listed. Johanna describes here how she edited it and we’d love to take up her offer to show the various versions of the story, in a new post on the site. It also gives encouragement to others, as she said, not to lose heart over a piece you are dedicated to. It might need working on, but it can still be successful in finding a home as a competition winner or in a magazine.
Interview Read in Full
Nominations: Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions 2021
It’s that time of year again! As always, we are nominating from our winners in the Bath Flash Award over the year – fictions selected by our judges Santino Prinzi, Mary Jane Holmes and Nod Ghosh. We are allowed to nominate six stories for the Pushcart Prize and five for Best Small Fictions. Many congratulations and best wishes to all!
You can link below to read all these stories and they will also be published on December 4th in our 2020 Bath Flash Fiction anthology Restore to Factory Settings, pictured here, which will be available to buy from Ad Hoc Fiction, Amazon and Waterstones, UK.
Pushcart prize,
Sea Change by Fiona Perry, first prize flash fiction, selected by Mary Jane Holmes in our June 2020 Award.
The White Dwarf, Jan Kaneen, third prize winner, selected by Nod Ghosh for the October Award.
The reallocation of a child’s atoms by Jim Toal, commended by Nod Ghosh in the October Award.
The Man You Didn’t Marry by Sam Payne,third prize in our June 2020 Award, selected by Mary Jane Holmes
The Price of Gingerbread, by Stephanie Carty commended in our February Award by Santino Prinzi
Our fathers, who we have strewn like seaweed behind us by Alison Powell, commended in our October Award by Nod Ghosh
Best Small Fictions 2021
Eight Spare Bullets, by Sharon Telfer first prize selected by Santino Prinzi in our February 2020 Award
The Dissolution of Peter McCaffrey by Simon Cowdroysecond prize selected by Santino Prinzi in our February 2020 Award
Blessings, 1849, first prize selected by Nod Ghosh in our October 2020 Award
The species of pangolin compromise their own order:Pholidota, by Hannah Storm, second prize in our June 2020 Award, selected by Mary Jane Holmes
Mother,Before, by Tara Isabel Zambrano second prize in our October 2020 Award selected by Nod Ghosh
Note: We can’t nominate for Best Microfictions as they just accept stories published online and not in anthologies.
Coming soon! Restore to Factory Settings, Bath Flash Fiction Vol. 5
We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of the fifth anthology from Bath Flash Fiction Award published by Ad Hoc Fiction. The title, Restore to Factory Settings, is from a story by UK writer, J A Keogh and is the last story printed in the book. We thank him very much for the inspiration. Previously, our covers have featured an Art Deco style plait, lobsters, an echo of the Highway Code in the UK, the head of a wonderful cow and we think this might be our favourite cover yet, again designed by Ad Hoc Fiction.
The book, of course, is also amazing inside with 136 stories from the three 2020 Awards, the selections by our three judges, Santino Prinzi, Mary Jane Holmes and Nod Ghosh at the beginning of the book and our editor’s choices,the rest of the longlisted stories arranged after these. Such a wonderful variety of flash fictions to read.
Restore to Factory Settings will be released on Friday 4th December and available to buy from Ad Hoc Fiction and Amazon in paperback and ebook formats. Complementary copies will be posted to all the authors who have stories in the book.There are many countries represented in the anthology and we hope writers will send pictures of them in their different locations when they arrive. It is always really fun to see those pictures. We’ll make a New Year’s Gallery and hope they will all get to their destinations by January 1st.
Our 17th Award is judged by Charmaine Wilkerson and closes February 7th. Earlybird reduced cost entries are available until December 13th. Buy now and enter later for a chance of being in our 2021 anthology.