Tag Archives: Nuala 0’Connor

Around the world with the third Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology

We posted out contributor copies of Bath Flash Fiction Vol 3 Things Left And Found At The Side of The Road at the beginning of December and the anthology has been arriving all over the world in the snail-like Christmas post. Here’s a selection in the gallery from a few of the authors who posted marvellous pictures on Twitter of the anthologies by and on roads, some with extraordinary landscapes in the background. We also see them on doorsteps, next to pipes, travelling on trains and down lanes, perched on postboxes, with flowery backgrounds or with sparkly lights and holiday greetings, or on bookshelves, in a duo with another lovely book, by a window with a cat and on a new rug.

Thank you to Adam Lock, Anika Carpenter, Christine Collinson, Emily Devane, Gail Anderson, Jane Westwell, Steven John,Tim Craig, Stephanie Hutton and Susanne Stich from the UK; Fiona Mackintosh, Molia Dumbleton, Joyce Wheatley, Mahesh Nair and A E Weisgerber from the USA; Louise Mangos and Marissa Hoffman from Switzerland; Charmaine Wilkerson from Rome, Italy, Shannon Savvas from Cyprus, Vineetha Mokkil from India and Simon Cowdroy from Australia for posting up your pictures. If you have a story in the anthology, do send us a picture to add to the gallery, showing where the book has landed. Or if we’ve somehow missed your Twitter photo, let us know. We’d love to see more.

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We’ve Canned Heat’s ‘On The Road Again’ to go with the gallery of pictures. Do listen!

Buy the anthology to read these and the other stories in this wonderful collection (133 stories of up to 300 words each,in total), from the Ad Hoc Fiction Bookshop.
And if you are in or near Bath on Saturday 19th January come to the anthology launch at St James Wine Vaults Bath. 7.30 pm – 10.00 pm with free wine and cake. Authors coming who will be reading their stories from the anthology include first, second and third prize winners from the June round of the Award, KM Elkes, Conor Haughton and Tim Craig together with Diane Simmons, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Thomas Mallock, Steven John, Steve Partridge, Bronwen Griffith and Rosamund Davies. We’ll also be launching the anthology of stories from the 2018 Flash Fiction Festival, Flash Fiction Festival Two, on the same occasion and you’ll be able to hear micros from some of those authors in that anthology too. Let us know if you can make it.
Bath Flash Award number eleven is now open for entries. Deadline February 10th. In six weeks. And all fifty longlisted pieces will be offered publication in our 2019 Anthology.

Interview with Zahid Gamieldien, Second Prize Winner, October 2018 Award

Zahid won second prize with his powerful story The Coast.The October Award judge, Nuala 0’Connor, said this about Zahid’s flash fiction:

“A harrowing and moving flash that immerses the reader entirely in the body of the main character, a wonderful feat. The menace and atmosphere of this piece carry it along brilliantly. This writer loves language and consistently reaches high for the perfect word and/or phrase.

Zahid is also a scriptwriter and a short story writer and tells us that attention to language is something he thinks about in every form in which he writes. We’re looking forward to reading his forthcoming short story in Platypus Press, a UK based publisher. Zahid, who teaches creative writing in Sydney, also offers online editing and critiquing services on all forms. We greatly value the international reach of the Bath Flash Fiction Awards and how writers allude to world-wide issues in the fictions they submit. In the 2018 anthology which is out at the end of November, there are writers from nine or more countries from around the world, and Zahid is one of six authors in the book living in Australia. It’s great that flash writers in another country can easily use his editing services and as well as writing feedback, get a different cultural take on their work Read in Full

Award Round Up October 2018

This was our tenth award and we thank everyone who entered. Nine hundred and thirty four fictions from thirty-two different countries:

Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Read in Full

Deadline Fever

At Bath Flash Fiction, we love the buzz around the end of the Award on social media. We’ve never quite worked out the psychology around writers and deadlines, so if someone wants to try an explanation, let us know. For our Awards, the pattern is always the same, 80% of entries come in the last few weeks even though discounted entries are available in the Early Bird deals which end half way through the contest. Some people buy their Early Bird entries and submit much later but not that many. A very large number of writers enter on the final day. Those writers are members of the Last Minute Club. Last time we introduced a badge for them, pictured here. And there will be another one for avid collectors on Sunday 14th October, which is the last day for this award. K M Elkes, the winner of the June round told us he is an up-to the-wire kind of guy. He said he entered not long before midnight on the final day. Just the one story. Read in Full