Congratulations to all who made it through to our long list, and huge thanks to everyone who entered from all around the globe.
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October 2016 Award Long List
Flash Fiction
Interview with Michael Fitzgerald
June 2016 Flash Fiction Commended
Michael Fitzgerald tells us more about his trip to the remoter parts of the Falkland Islands, which inspired his piece. An architect, he explains how architectural work, like writing, goes through a constantly evolving process and includes “a finite palette of components”. When writing flash fiction he says to ignore the rules and experiment, which is what he does to great effect in ‘Falkland Island Walk‘. We also like his tip to save your work under a different title if you are struggling, then “go mad on it”.
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Q and A with John Saul
June 2016 Flash Fiction Commended
John Saul told us he likes interviews, reading them especially. Matching the condensed nature of flash fiction, he’s given us some brief answers to our questions. We like his one word answer – ‘read ‘ – to our question about a tip for writing flash fiction. There’s lots of opportunity for reading a variety of short-short fiction on this site. John’s commended story, ‘Tearful‘ which came to him in the middle of the night, all the winners and commended in the June round and the other winning pieces from the first two rounds of Bath Flash Fiction Award, plus many links to fiction from writers around the globe and, of course, all the pieces on Ad Hoc Fiction, our weekly free micro contest, where you can read and vote for your favourites. You can also read John’s longer fiction – he’s published several collections – including Call it Tender, published by Salt.
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Interview with Anita Macallum
June 2016 Flash Fiction Commended
Anita Macallum commended by Michelle Elvy for her flash fiction Boobless, tells us how a prompt from her writing group kick started this piece and how keeping things simple is her biggest lesson when she performs her work.
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Interview with Shelley Wood
June 2016 Flash Fiction Second Prize
Shelley Wood won second prize with her flash fiction Rags,Riches in our June 2016 award. Her story took an unusual perspective on a photograph of a carefree moment she was given in a writing group. Read more about how she began writing flash and take note of her writing tips when you are editing a longer piece. She tightened her winning story so much she ‘almost had to use a wrench.’ The result was certainly worth the effort.
Interview with Sharon Telfer
June 2016 Flash Fiction First Prize
Our first prize winner for June, 2016, Sharon Telfer, nearly didn’t enter her winning piece because she thought it wasn’t ‘the right sort of thing.’ So her advice is to cast aside such judgements, take the leap and enter. Read more in our interview about her writing methods, which include getting away from the desk to solve knotty problems.
Interview with Robert Vaughan
Flash Fiction Award Judge
July – October 2016
Robert Vaughan teaches workshops in hybrid writing, poetry, fiction, and hike/ write. He has facilitated these at locations like Alverno College, UWM, Fox Valley Technical School, JMWW (online), Red Oak Writing, The Clearing and Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos. He leads writing roundtables in Milwaukee, WI. He was twice a finalist for the Gertrude Stein Award for Fiction (2013, 2014). His short fiction, ‘A Box’ will appear in the Best Small Fictions 2016 (Queen’s Ferry Press). Vaughan is the author of four books: Microtones (Cervena Barva Press, 2012); Diptychs + Triptychs + Lipsticks + Dipshits (Deadly Chaps, 2013); Addicts & Basements (CCM, 2014). His newest, RIFT, is a flash fiction collection co-authored with Kathy Fish (Unknown Press, 2015). He blogs at www.robert-vaughan.com.
Interview
- You’ve been senior flash fiction editor for JMWW literary journal for six years and have also been fiction & poetry editor for Lost in Thought Magazine and guest editor for Smokelong Quarterly. What makes a piece of flash fiction stand out for you?