Submissions for National Flash Fiction Day 2018 are NOW OPEN!

Posted February 27, 2018

Now in it’s seventh year, National Flash Fiction Day will be on Saturday 16th June 2018 and we’ll be celebrating with events and readings and submission opportunities! We’re currently open for our micro-fiction competition and our annual anthology, so get writing!

Micro Competition

From now until Saturday 17th March 2018, you can send us up to three micro fictions on any theme for our Micro fiction competition. These must be 100 words or fewer, and can be on any theme.

More details about the micro completion can be found here: http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/comp.html

Anthology

This year’s anthology theme is one you’ll be able to sink your teeth into, and we’re hungry for your flashes! From now until Saturday 31st March 2018, you can send us up to three 500 word flashes on this year’s theme: Food! The anthology will be edited by award-winning writer, Alison Powell, and National Flash Fiction Day Co-Director, Santino Prinzi. Your stories must be 500 words or fewer.

We’re looking for stories inspired by and about whatever’s on your plate. We’re ready to salivate over your sentences, to savour the subtle flavours of your subtext, to devour your delicious dialogue. Sweet, sour, savoury, sharp, tangy, rich, or rotten. Serve us up some scrumptious tales and tantalising treats with tasty twists. Are we all becoming too healthy? Or is suet the main dish of the day? Has a friendship been ruined by raw chocolate? We’re looking for full-fat, jam-packed flash fiction with an aftertaste we won’t forget. Feel free to interpret the theme of “food” however you wish, but your flashes must fit the theme in some way.

More details about the anthology submissions can be found here: http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/anth.html

We can’t wait to feast upon your words!

January 2016 Round-Up I

Posted January 4, 2016

Filed under round-up

Happy New Year!

A year full, we hope, of short stories to read and listen to, a plethora of places to send your stories – lit mags, live lit, competitions etc…, and many and wonderful workshops and classes to hone your words. We’ll start with our fortnightly round-up below. Here’s to a wonderful year!

Tania x

Lit Mags

The A3 Review is looking for an editor for Issue 5. Bunbury issue eleven is here – a crime and Edinburgh Fringe special and Jotters United has a new issue, Vintage. Confingo No 4 is also outnow, as is Structo no 14 and The Nottingham Review‘s second issue.

Spelk wants your flash fiction, and Holdfast magazine is calling for submissions.

Live Lit

Story Sunday in Bristol is calling for submissions for its next event on Feb 21st. White Rabbit offers you a podcast of ghost stories recorded at its Midnight Feast Christmas Eve event.

Contests

Short Fiction Journal has launched its 2016 short story prize, deadline March 31st. Ouen press has published an anthology of the winners of the Working Dogs international short story competition.

November Fortnightly Round-Up I

Posted November 2, 2015

Filed under round-up

Hello story-lovers,
Feeling wintry? Keep warm with some short stories…Here’s what’s been going on on our blog over the past few weeks!
Best,
Tania x

Live Lit
We’re delighted to welcome a new event to our Live Lit list: Story Sunday Bristol: “live performances of short stories, flash fiction (and sometimes poetry) … on the first Sunday of every month.” Tonight (November 2nd) in Edinburgh is the “Gone But Not Forgotten – Extraordinary Tales of Extraordinary Folk” storytelling night. The Short Story Slam in Chorley on Nov 14th is looking for entrants, as is White Rabbit, who are looking for ghost stories for their winter event! Stand-Up Tragedy announces its autumn events.

Lit Mags
We’re thrilled to welcome Avis magazine to our Lit Mags list: “run by MA students at Manchester Metropolitan University… our aim is to discover the voices of new and emerging writers”. Avis has blogged already with a call for submissions on the theme of migration.

Short Fiction issue 9 is now out and The Ghastling has launched its third issue, as has The A3 Review, along with new writing contests. Claire Hennessy, writer of October’s short story over at Long Story Short, is interviewed by Laura Perrem.Boundless Magazine has a very successful launch in Bristol.

Holdfast is still open for submissions for Issue #8: Love, Sex & Romance, Tube Flash is back and wants your flash fiction, as does the London Journal of Fiction. Issue 1 of the Nottingham Review is now available, as is Bunbury’s Issue 10 – Politics Special.

Competitions
The Less Than 100 Words short story competition runs weekly. Shoreline of Infinity magazine is running a science fiction competition, deadline 21 Dec.

Other
The third Northern Lights Writers Conference is being held on 14 November in Sale.

Festivals & Workshops
Paul McVeigh is running another That Killer First Page- Submitting To Journals and Competitions workshop in London on November 7th. Ethel Rohan is running aBrilliance of Brevity workshop at the Abroad Writers Conference in Dublin in December.

Last Minute & Gentle Reminders
Nov 15th is the deadline for both the Galley Beggar Press short story prize and Words and Women’s 2015 writing competition (women writers only).

If you are eager for even more short-story-related news, do follow ShortStops on Twitter where, when we should be writing, we spend (far too) much time passing on news from lit mags, live lit events, short story workshops and festivals! If you’d like to review an event or a publication, drop me a line.

Happy reading, writing, listening and performing!
Tania x

July Fortnightly Round-Up I

Posted July 16, 2014

Filed under blog, round-up

Happy July, short story lovers!
Here’s all the short story news from the ShortStops’ blog over the past fortnight.

Lit Mags

Welcome to our lit mag list Firewords Quarterly, “a new independent magazine packed full of powerful fiction and poetry from the best emerging writers” – who got busy straight away on the blog to call for submissions for Issue 2 by July 11th!

The Manchester Review Issue 12 is now live and they are also calling for submissions for Issue 13; Issue 2 of Control magazine has just been published. There is also a limited window of opportunity to submit to the Transportation: Islands and Cities anthology – the project is being launched on Tues 12 July at an event in London.

Popshot is open for literary submissions on the theme of Time. Here Comes Everyone would love to consider your short stories for the Boy/Girl issue and, starting early, The Casket of Fictional Delights is calling for your Christmas stories! HeadStuff wants your writing, as does The Cro Magnon, for their website and perhaps for their travelling show.

If you haven’t already checked them out, new issues of the following mags are there for your reading pleasure: Issue 7.1 of Flash! is out now, as is Spontaneity’s Issue 4, Only Human, Jotters United’s Retro Issue, the June issue of Long Story, Short: The Art of Losing and Don’t Do it magazine’s Issue 4: Translations.

Competitions

Congrats to Colin Barrett, winner of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award!

There’s a new short story competition from VCLL, aimed at those from Leicester and the surrounding areas, deadline 12th Sept, and Magic Oxygen are running a new short story and poetry contest to create a tropical word forest, deadline 30th November.

More competitions: The 3rd annual A Spot of Hysteria Writing Competition run by the UK Hysterectomy Association (deadline Aug 31); the RAC’s national short story competition on the theme of Driving in Europe, deadline 11 Sept; Creative Industries Trafford’s flash fiction competition, deadline Sept 15th; and the Historic House Short Story Comp (26 Sep) wants stories inspired by or set in a historic house.

For inspiration, read Stinging Fly editor Thomas Morris’s short essay Beautiful Animals: Theorising and Defining the Short Story (In Under 1000 Words).

Live Lit & Short Story Events

As mentioned above, the Transportation: Islands and Cities anthology project is being launched on Tues 12 July at an event in London. Word Factory #25 is being held on July 26th in London – a masterclass, short story reading group and live reading in the evening.

Workshops

The Berko Summer School is holding a series of one-off masterclasses, including a short story masterclass with Adam Marek on July 29th.

Last Minutes & Gentle Reminders

The Sean O’Faolain short story competition and Writeidea’s national short story contest, The Writeidea Prize both close on July 31st.