Inaugural Award

Sarah Henry
Inaugural Award Commended

Sailboats

by Sarah Henry

“He’s a sales associate,” she said, liberally shaking more vinegar onto her fried fish. She added extra salt for good measure.

Her father carefully avoided making eye contact. He only did this when he disapproved of what she was saying. His parenting style was more laissez-faire than authoritarian.

He made a noncommittal noise, raised both eyebrows, and then gestured the waitress over for more oyster shooters, an appropriate way to get a little drunk before 5:00. Besides, she loved the tangy taste of cocktail sauce combined with the meaty oysters. That, or she had a zinc deficiency.

“We met at a friend’s wedding. It was great to find someone I was actually attracted to, you know? Weddings can be such a drag otherwise. Seems like everyone is getting married now.” She used her finger to wipe away the condensation marks left on the table by her warming beer.

Her father looked up at the mention of a wedding. He was currently on wife number five. Two before, and two after her mother. Symmetry.

“I just want you to be happy,” he said finally, his concession to her dating someone, in his opinion, below her status. Her father did believe in coincidental romances, having followed that fairy path several times himself.

Lily leaned back in the wicker chair, finally satisfied. She knew her father was right about this guy, that she was forcing him to be something he could be in her mind. She also knew that inevitably his dirty socks would gradually find themselves further away from the laundry hamper, and that beer rings on the coffee table wouldn’t seem so endearing when she was doing the dusting. She sighed, took a drink of her sweating beer and watched the sailboats make their slow progression out of the harbor.

About the Author

Sarah HenrySarah Henry is a high school English teacher living in Fort Collins, Colorado. She enjoys writing flash fiction because of the challenge it provides of saying so much in so little. Two of her stories, “Violet and Gray Teeth” and “Phyllis” have been shortlisted in Mash Stories Competitions 5 and 7. Her story “The Shadow Figure’s Philosophy” won The Other’s Award for Needle in the Hay’s writing competition, and her try at cyberpunk climate fiction, “Batteries,” was shortlisted there as well. She tweets @SAnnjelee.

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Damyanti Biswas
Inaugural Award Commended

Picasso Dreams

by Damyanti Biswas

Jezebel owned a blue betta fish. She’d named him Moby Dick, hoping one day an Ahab would seek him, and find her instead.

Moby Dick swam about, flashing his colour, surfacing to check on Jezebel with his rotating eyes, begging for food from time to time. When he thought himself ignored, he curled up and moped at the bottom, behind a plastic rock and a lime green plant.

Moby Dick didn’t know Jezebel lived in a world of Picasso dreams or that she’d imagined him into being. A girl who liked appearances as much as she hated responsibility, Jezebel loved the bowl because its water never grew dirty, and the fish didn’t need feeding.

She could easily have given Moby Dick a large aquarium of his own, with a harem of betta wives, swimming in circles around floating plants, but she kept him alone, waiting.

Jezebel didn’t know she lived in someone else’s dream, a tousle-haired young man who sat chewing his pen by the window, waiting for his Muse.

He wrote about Jezebel, her betta fish, because he himself owned one. It swam around its bowl, mocking his efforts at poetry. He slammed the notebook down and went out to seek his writing friends. He needed to gripe.

His didn’t open that notebook again. Jezebel waited for Ahab. Moby Dick didn’t get fed. His scales remained bright, and their blue clashed against the lime green of the plant in Jezebel’s dreams.

About the Author

Damyanti BiswasDamyanti’s short fiction appears at Bluestem magazine, Griffith Review Australia, Lunch Ticket magazine, The First Line, Ducts.org by New York Writers Workshop, and other journals in the USA, Singapore and India. She’s featured in print anthologies by Twelve Winters Press, USA (Pushcart Nomination), and by major publishers in Malaysia and Singapore. She’s currently hard at work finishing her first novel. She tweets at @damyantig.

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Inaugural Award Short List

We had intended a short list of ten pieces, but due to the high quality of submitted fictions, we have increased our list to twenty.

Inaugural Bath Flash Fiction Award Short List
Fiction Title Author
A Life Lived in Colour Vanessa Savage
Animals Molia Dumbleton
Bait Trap Chrissie Cuthbertson
Blaze of Glory (The big Crunch) Richard Scarsbrook
Celebrating Jack Kirby Wright
Circus Simon Turner
I’m going to Tecumseh’s Point to pick up our
new dining room table I’ll be back soon
Gabriella Buonassisi
In the Final Analysis Richard Newton
John Ruskin and Turner in the Bashkirian Age Tom Offland
No Second Date – Explanation 5 Xanthi Barker
Picasso Dreams Damyanti Biswas
Radio Alarm William Davidson
Sailboats Sarah Henry
Scarlet Letters Lucy Lapinski
Stuck Veronique Kootstra
Synaesthesia Adam Trodd
Talc Nick Black
The Most Amazing Mark Ralph-Bowman
This Is How They Drown Eileen Merriman
To The Men I Have Tried To Seduce With Prose Lucy Durneen

BathFlash

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Inaugural Award Long List

With huge thanks to every writer who entered our Award from all around the world.

Inaugural Bath Flash Fiction Award Long List
Fiction Title Author
1492 Harold Bauld
A Life Lived in Colour Vanessa Savage
Animals Molia Dumbleton
Bait Trap Chrissie Cuthbertson
Blaze of Glory (The big Crunch) Richard Scarsbrook
Bread Peter Watson
Carousel Cheryl Nicol
Celebrating Jack Kirby Wright
Circus Simon Turner
Closing The Door Diane Simmons
Clowns Amanda O’Callaghan
Colours of Love Anna Nazarova-Evans
Crack Yuval Maoz
DVD Day Michael Botur
Emergency Broadcast System Richard Scarsbrook
Grace Filipa Komuro
Humbuggery Jan Kaneen
I Live Near A Baked Bean Factory Graeme Dart
I’m going to Tecumseh’s Point to pick up our
new dining room table I’ll be back soon
Gabriella Buonassisi
In the Final Analysis Richard Newton
John Ruskin and Turner in the Bashkirian Age Tom Offland
Lemons Jacqueline Pye
Never Seen Before Alex Vrettos
No One Sees Him Anymore Neil McOnie
No Second Date – Explanation 5 Xanthi Barker
No Smoke Without a Pyre Richard Newton
Outside Dame Judi’s Victoria Barry
Picasso Dreams Damyanti Biswas
Premium End Jo Bradshaw
Radio Alarm William Davidson
Sailboats Sarah Henry
Scarlet Letters Lucy Lapinski
Shadow or Shade John O’Connor
Song of The Harpa Jo Riccioni
Stuck Veronique Kootstra
Synaesthesia Adam Trodd
Talc Nick Black
The Bespoke Fortune Cookie Company of San Marco Bay Jacqueline Haskell
The Boots Are More Important Alexia Bartlett
The Gift Susy Churchill
The Mermaid Dagmar Seeland
The Most Amazing Mark Ralph-Bowman
The Muse Emily Devane
The Rodeo Rider’s Wife Orla Donoghue
The Ship Jenni Fagan
This Is How They Drown Eileen Merriman
To The Men I Have Tried To Seduce With Prose Lucy Durneen
Welcome Home Josh Bunt
What My Love is Like Ahlissa Eichhorn
What Was True Molia Dumbleton

BathFlash

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Interview with our Judge
Annemarie Neary

annemarieneary2014 was a successful year for our judge,  Annemarie Neary. She won the Michael McLaverty short story competition, achieved joint second place in the KWS Hilary Mantel international short story competition, and was joint runner-up in the Sean O’Faolain international short story competition.

Emma Mitchell, senior editor at Hutchinson (Penguin Random House UK), bought world English rights to her novel, Siren, as well as one other book. About Siren she said:

“This brilliant novel grabbed me right from the dramatic opening scene. Annemarie is an outstanding storyteller and builds the tension, page after page, to an exhilarating denouement. I’m delighted to have her for the Hutchinson list.”

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Annemarie Neary
Our Inaugural Judge

annemarienearyAnnemarie is an Irish-born novelist and short story writer, now living in London. Her awards for short fiction include both the Bryan MacMahon and Michael McLaverty short story competitions (Ireland) and the Columbia Journal fiction prize (US). She has also been a prizewinner in the Bridport, Fish, UPP Short FICTION, and KWS Hilary Mantel short story prizes, amongst others. Her novel Siren is forthcoming from Hutchinson (Penguin Random House UK) in Spring 2016.

www.annemarieneary.com
@AnnemarieNeary1

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