Author Archives: Jude

Pokrass Prize 2024

Winners’ stories posted now!

Meg Pokrass

One of our flash fiction festival founders, acclaimed writer and teacher,Meg Pokrass set a writing challenge for all festival participants and also judged the winners.
Results were announced to great excitment at the Flash Fiction Festival, 2024, 12-14th July, where the happy winners picked up their prizes. Thank you to all the festival partipcants who entered this year. A lot of you!

Meg’s general comments are copied below and her comments on the individual stories are with the stories (linked below)

Meg Comments: This time, pcking only one winner and a few honourable mentions from so many masterful stories felt like being asked to choose between seeing the Northern Lights and a full solar eclipse (both of which I missed this year, but that’s beside the point!). It was exciting and daunting, this job— given the high quality of writing from what are clearly some of the strongest flash writers in the world. Photographer Louella Lester’s startling house photo, with its contrasting shades and implied creepiness, brought out the most perfectly haunted narratives one could have hoped for.

Huge congratulations to the first prize winner, Suzanne Greene, from the UK who wrote the story ‘Something LIke A Promise.’
and three runners-up:
Susan Wigmore who wrote the story ‘LORCA THOUGHT THE DEAD IN SPAIN ARE MORE ALIVE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE; HE DIDN’T KNOW MY SISTER;’
Anika Carpenter who wrote the story : ‘The Best Friend I Ever Had’;
and
Philippa Bowe who wrote the story ‘The House that Harold Built’.

Prizes were £50 for the first prize winner, plus two Ad Hoc Fiction published books, three entries to Bath Flash Fiction Award, publication on this website and also in Flash Fiction Festival Vol 7, out at the end of this year. Two runners up receive a book, 3 BFFA entries and publication.

Here’s the prompt that inspired the winners and the many other excellent stories, which we hope will go on to find good homes.

Write a story about a family who may have lived in this house (photograph by Louella Lester) at one time (or still lives there now). See if you can include shades in the story of light and dark. Try to use one or more of the following prompt words:
glasses, greyish, trick, lamplight, dank, firefly

Pre-fest workshop with Kathy Fish

Kathy Fish

How Did They Do It? Master Moves in Flash Fiction: with Kathy Fish Friday 12th July, 2.00 – 5.00 pm

NB: This workshop is NOT ONLINE. It is an in-person extra to the the main festival workshops. It is also open to those who are not coming to the rest of the weekend. Workshop cost: £50.00 GBP

STOP PRESS (27th April) SOLD OUT. Contact jude (at) flashfictionfestival (dot) com to
to go on a waiting list.

Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. –William Faulkner

Kathy says:
I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of reading an exquisite flash story, one that leaves us deeply moved and in awe of its craftsmanship and artistry, only to ask ourselves, “how on earth did they do it?” This highly interactive and generative three-hour session is aimed at discussing and dissecting some of the very best flash fiction published in the past fifty years. We’ll look especially at style, emotional resonance, subtext, language, character development, voice, and innovation. In the spirit of growing our own art, we’ll tease apart and identify the craft moves of the masters. Then, inspired and energized, we will write to prompts designed to unlock our own unique genius. Expect to come away with newfound appreciation and understanding of what flash fiction can do, along with two fresh drafts you’ll feel good about.

Kathy Fish has published five collections of short fiction, most recently Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Copper Nickel, Washington Square Review, and numerous other journals, textbooks, and anthologies. Fish’s “Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild,” was selected for Best American Non-required Reading 2018 and the current edition of The Norton Reader. Her newsletter, The Art of Flash Fiction, provides monthly craft articles and writing prompts and is free to all. Subscribe here: https://artofflashfiction.substack.com.

Friday Paella!

You are welcome to arrive from 1.00 pm onwards on Friday 12th July for the in-person flash fiction festival, 12th -14th July at Trinity College, Bristol.

What’s happening on Friday afternoon this year?

From 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm another fantastic three hour pre-fest workshop by acclaimed teacher and writer from the US, Kathy Fish. Open to festival participants and those who can’t make the whole weekend (£50) This workshop is now sold out.

Cole Beauchamp at paella stall in 2023

We have arranged for Luciano from https://www.paellacaluciano.com/ in Bristol/Portishead to come and cook fresh paella for us again. Advanced booking for this is now closed (19th June) I will ask Luciano to make a few extra if any latecomers want one. Vegan paella, £12.00. Chicken paella £14. (both Gluten Free). Contact us asap if you would like one of these

There is no other catering on Friday afternoon, but you can also bring a picnic to eat in the extensive grounds. The bar will be open and free coffee and tea is available (please bring your own re-usuable mug) Thanks.

Other Friday Events:

Bar (run by Trinity College)

Karaoke ready to go in 2019

Badger’s Pouch, the bar, will be open from 2.00 pm
After the Friday evening readings and mini-book launches, Karaoke entertainment will be available from 8.30 pm in the bar, organised by Helen Rye and Christopher Allen. Chill out room for quiet chats also available.
Bookshop
The festival bookshop will be open from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm in the Tyndall’s room, by Reception in the main building. There will also be a meet and greet session for newcomers in the bookshop and also the bar.
Official Welcome, Flash fiction readings and mini book launches 6.30 pm – 8.30 pm in Dining Room.

Accommodation options

Outside Trinity College

The 2025 flash fiction festival will be held at Trinity College, a Theological College, in the Stoke Bishop area of Bristol.

There are single budget bnb (basic breakfast) rooms at Trinity College to book as part of the festival package plus 20 camping spots with facilities in the grassy area in front of the college and we have blocked booked rooms for the festival place/accommodation package at Churchill Hall, a Bristol University Residence only a few minutes walk away from the college, in a lovely setting opposite the Bristol Botanical Gardens. You can see Churchill Hall and its proximity to Trinity on our location map on the menu.

The rooms are bnb (continental breakfast). An example of one is pictured below, along with a picture of the hall and an area of the shared bathroom. They are quite spacious and for single occupancy only.

You can also book your room for Thursday and Sunday nights in both Trinity College and Churchill Halls
More details and for a link to the booking form on our booking page

The Area and Other Accommodation Options (thank you to former festival director, Diane Simmons, for compiling this list originally. Updated by 2023 team member, Damhnait Monaghan 2023).
Stoke Bishop is a pleasant area not far from the Downs (a large open park land)) and is under two miles from the Clifton suspension bridge, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. If you don’t mind a walk, Clifton Village is about a 30 minute walk from Trinity College and is a beautiful area of Bristol to stay in. It has quite a few hotels and guest houses. Please note that areas of Bristol are very hilly.

The city centre too has lots of hotels to suit all budgets, as well as some hostels. It is particularly attractive round the waterside area. The city centre is approx 2.4 miles from Trinity College. Redland and Henleaze areas are also attractive parts of Bristol not too far away.
There is a plenty of free parking in the grounds of Trinity College. Please note that traffic can be very heavy in Bristol.

You may find this website helpful: https://visitbristol.co.uk/

Caravans, Campervans and Tents
There are 6 available caravan/campervan spots at Trinity College for people with their own caravans/campervans. There are electricity points. The cost is £20 per night. Toilets and showers available.

There is space for 20 tents in Trinity grounds (without electricity).The cost is £20 per night. Toilets and showers available.
If you would like to book a place for your van or wish to camp, you can book a space via our booking form.

Other Caravan sites:
http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/townlisting.asp?town=Bristol
Airbnb
Airbnb is a good way of finding affordable accommodation. If you are unsure about the area, please email for advice. The link for Stoke Bishop, Bristol is below: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/s/Stoke-Bishop–Stoke-Bishop–United-Kingdom/homes?adults=1&place_id=ChIJk_zJ1YSNcUgRD32b4q2v_3A&refinement_paths%5B%5D=%2Fhomes&checkin=2022-07-08&checkout=2022-07-10

Hotels, Hostels and Bed and Breakfasts
Please note that I have not visited any of these hotels listed below, so can’t vouch for them being any good, but the ratings system should help. Please check my estimated walking times are correct before booking. I would recommend going on www.booking.com, www.trivago.co.uk or www.expedia.co.uk as bargains can be found.
Hostels
Bristol Youth Hostel, 14 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA, United Kingdom. 2.5 miles, 55 mins walk https://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/yha-bristol Private rooms available. Dorms not available at time of writing, but may be open by July.
Couchsurfing:
https://www.couchsurfing.com/places/europe/england/bristol

Hotels, Bed and Breakfasts and Apartments

Nearest to Trinity College (within 2 miles)

The Washington, Clifton. 1.7 miles from Trinity – 35 mins walk. Available from booking.com. Described as ‘cheap and cheerful’. More info from booking.com & also available on visit Bristol site: https://visitbristol.co.uk/accommodation/the-washington-p7201

The Rodney House Hotel, 4 Rodney Place, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4HY – 1.7 miles and 35 mins walk from Trinity College. Available from booking.com. Their own website here: https://cliftonhotels.com/bristol-hotels/rodney
The Regency Bristol Hotel, 40-44 St Pauls Road, Clifton BS8 ILR
35 mins walk, 1.7 miles

The Channings Hotel, Clifton Bristol – 31 min walk. You can book direct from their site or on booking.com etc. https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/avon/channings-hotel/

Number 38, Clifton, 38 Upper Belgrave Rd, Bristol BS8 2XN. Less than a mile. Also available from booking.com About a 17 min walk. Hotel website: http://www.number38clifton.com

Victoria Square Hotel, Clifton. 1.8 miles. 37 mins, http://www.victoriasquarehotel.co.uk/en/default.html
Also available on booking.com etc.

Beaufort House apartments, Clifton. 1.2 miles and a 25 min walk – on booking.com etc

The Alma Tavern, 18-20 Alma Vale Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2HY
Rooms are bookable through Airbnb. 29 mins walk. 1.4 miles. Rooms also available through booking.com

Within an Hour’s Walk (or nearly)

Holiday Inn, Bristol city centre https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186220-d1983528-Reviews-Holiday_Inn_Bristol_City_Centre-Bristol_England.html 52 mins walk. 2.9 miles.

The Bristol Hotel https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186220-d191631-Reviews-The_Bristol-Bristol_England.html 56 mins walk. 2.6 miles.

Best Western Henbury Lodge Hotel, Station Rd, Henbury, Bristol BS10 7QQ,
https://www.bestwestern.co.uk/hotels/best-western-henbury-lodge-hotel-83915 2.7 miles, 58mins walk.

Bristol Marriott Hotel, https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186220-d192930-Reviews-Bristol_Marriott_Royal_Hotel-Bristol_England.html
51 mins walk. 2.3 miles. www.marriott.co.uk

Travelodge, Anchor Road, Bristol. 52 mins, 2.4 miles. One of a chain of basic hotels. https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/78/Bristol-Central-hotel

Mercure Bristol Holland House Hotel & Spa. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186220-d628111-Reviews-Mercure_Bristol_Holland_House_Hotel_Spa-Bristol_England.html
3 miles, 1 hr 4 mins walk. https://all.accor.com/hotel/6698/index.en.shtml

Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel 2.3 miles, 51 mins walk. https://all.accor.com/hotel/A0I2/index.en.shtml

Brooks Guest House, Bristol, St Nicholas Court, St Nicholas Street, Bristol
Looks cool accommodation – retro roof top caravans. 53 mins and 2.4 miles.

The Ibis, Explore lane, Bristol BS1 5TY
https://all.accor.com/hotel/5547/index.en.shtml
2.5 miles. Around 53 mins walk to Trinity.

The Crafty Cow, 65 Gloucester Road, Bristol BS7 08J. 53 mins walk, 2.7 miles.

Norfolk Guest House, 575 Gloucester Road, Bristol BS7 0BW. Booking.com 2.5 miles, 50 mins walk

Other Options
For budget options, there are Premier Inns: https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/home.html May not always be in the most scenic parts of the city. None are particularly close. Premier Inn has one in Filton, but traffic can be busy around there

January 8th Flash Fiction Festival ‘Throwdown’ Winners

For the New Year, there were two contests for the Great Flash Fiction Festival Throwdown challenges on January 8th. Thank you to Electra Rhodes and Karen Jones for setting the challenges and judging the entries. Electra’s writing challenge was based on the painting ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh and Karen’s was based on Claude Monet’s ‘The Poppy Field’. Mugs, shown in the stack here, featuring these paintings, form part of the winners prize and both our judges created great prompts. Our winners also receive £30 cash and publication and two runners-up a book from Ad Hoc Fiction plus publication in the Flash Fiction Festival Anthology due out soon.

Electra and Karen have now chosen their winners
Electra said:

photo by Serge Van Neck on Unsplash

“It was a pleasure to read this collation of stories and to pay them all some thorough attention. There was lots of rich and evocative language, some delicious description, and some clever characterisation. I really enjoyed reading them aloud to see how they sounded and landed. Thank you for making it so hard to choose.

In the end I plumped for one where I liked the way the piece accreted new layers throughout, and built and built and built. The language was clean and the characters effectively drawn in few words, and it was laced with a melancholy and regret which was subtly done but which stayed with me afterwards. So ‘The Lost Man in Van Gogh’s Starry Night’ is the winner”
(This story was written by Marzia Rahman from Bangladesh.
Marzia Rahman is a Bangladeshi fiction writer and translator of short stories and poetry. Her short fictions have appeared in many magazines and journals worldwide. Her novella in flash, Life on the Edges, was longlisted in the Bath Novella in Flash Award in 2018. She is also a painter.

“The runner-up is the one that made me laugh, I’m a bit of a sobersides and I went into the reading of all the entries ready to experience a range of emotions but without an expectation I’d find something I thought really funny. I admit it’s quite a dark humour and I’m not entirely sure whether or not it’s an unreliable narrator telling a tall tale, or what exactly did or didn’t happen, but, again, the story stayed with me afterwards. I admit too, to being a bit of a sucker for punny titles so, ‘Poetic Justice’ is my runner-up.”
(This story was written by Marie Gethins from Ireland)
Marie Gethins’ flash fiction is widely published in magazines and journals and she has won or been placed in many short fiction awards. Marie is a Pushcart and Best of the Short Fictions nominee and an editor for Splonk literary magazine in Ireland.

Karen said:

photo by Corina-ardeleanu-sWlxCweDzzs-unsplash-1

The stories for the prompt were amazing – I really struggled to choose a winner and runner up.

First place: ‘Restoration’ a great take on the prompt and I loved the way the sections slotted together, just like the bowl in the story. The use of colours was beautifully done.
(This story was written by Corrine Leith from the UK)
Corrine Leith lives in rural England with a cat, a dog and two ponies. She writes a mix of flash fiction, poetry and children’s stories which have been published in print and online. She is a previous winner of The Potteries Prize for Flash Fiction and was runner-up in the latest annual Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition.

Runner up: ‘I See Red’. Using different shades of this colour was a perfect way to tell this story. The anger and hurt builds through the sections and I felt I could really see and feel everything the mc went through.
(This story was written by Sudha Balagopal from the US)
Sudha Balagopal’s short fiction has been published in journals around the world, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fiction and will be included in Best Micro Fictions in 2022. Her novella in flash, Things I Can’t Tell Amma was highly commended in the 2021 Bath Flash Fiction Award and published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2021. When she’s not writing, she’s teaching yoga.

Many congratulations to all four writers! We’re looking forward to seeing them all in print in Flash Fiction Festival Anthology Vol Four.

Winners from the November Great Flash Fiction Festival Throw Down Contest

Photo by Billy Huynh, Unsplash

We’re delighted that Sara Hills, an award winning writer and editor based in the UK who won the Winner of Winners with her story ‘Blue’ for the Showstopper Challenge in our Spring and Summer series of flash fiction festival days agreed to judge the November ‘Throwdown’ Challenge.

Sara based her prompt on the well-known picture ‘The Kiss’ by Gustav Klimt’ and following Sara’s excellent instructions, entrants were asked to write a story involving a kiss of some sort. Read in Full

Winner of The Great Flash Fiction Festival Throwdown, October contest

Participants at the first of the new series of flash fiction festival days in October had the opportunity to take part in a mini flash fiction contest. Our contests for this round of the five day series are inspired by the British TV show – The Great Pottery Throwdown. It is renowned for one of the judges, who is moved to tears by the wonderful creations the amateur potters make. Read more on our post about the contest.

We are giving away mugs and a £30 cash prize plus publication for a winning story each month plus a book giveaway from Ad Hoc Fiction for the runner up. We ask people to write stories that make an emotional impact.

Our first judge from the October festival day was Diane Simmons who based her prompt on a mug featuring Van Gogh’s sunflowers. She selected ‘Inside My Father’s Head’ by UK writer Ali McGrane. Ali McGrane won one of the Signature contests in our last series with her story ‘This is Not A Story About A Rainstick’ and was selected The Winner of Winners of the Signature Challenge for the same story by our judge team at the end of the series. Many congratulations to Ali who co-incidentally will also have her novella in flash The Listening Project up on preorder with Ad Hoc Fiction later this week. The Listening Project was shortlisted by Michelle Elvy in the Bath Novella in Flash Award in 2020.
Bio
Ali McGrane lives and writes between the sea and the moor. Her work has appeared in anthologies and online, including Ellipsis Zine, FlashBack Fiction, Janus Literary, Splonk, and on shortlists including the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Her Bath shortlisted flash novella, The Listening Project, is forthcoming from Ad Hoc Fiction Find her on Twitter: @Ali_McGrane_UK. Read in Full

Flash-Off Festival Challenges: Winners of Winners !

Photo by Billy Huynh, Unsplash

For those of you in the know, in our last series of Festival Days, March to August this year, we cloned the TV show,The Great British Bake Off and, instead of baking tasks, different judge duos gave festival participants the tasks of writing flash fictions to signature, technical and showstopper challenges.

Monthly judges duos were:Diane Simmons and Robert Barrett; Karen Jones and Tim Craig; Damhnait Monaghan and Alison Woodhouse; Ken Elkes and Helen Rye;, Jeanette Sheppard and Matt Kendrick and Ingrid Jendrzejewski and Neil Clark. These judges chose winners for each challenge. And eight of them kindly agreed to vote for their winner and winners for each category.Each winner receives £50 in cash. Stories were neck and neck in the points scored, but we did end up with three clear winners.

So, many congratulations to Ali McGrane who was voted winner of winners in the Signature Challenge for her story ‘This is Not a Story About a Rainstick’; Rosaleen Lynch was voted winner of winners in the Technical Challenge for her story with ‘Recipe for Sustenance to avoid the end of the world as we know it, served with fresh roles’ and Sara Hills who won winner of winners in the Showstopper Challenge for her story ‘Blue’. Read in Full

The Great Festival Cupcake Contest Results!

photo by vy huynh on Unsplash

Thank you very much to everyone who entered The Great Festival Cupcake Contest. Entrants were asked to write a 150 word Hermit Crab Story in the style of a recipe for a cupcake. This challenge was related to the theme of our last series of flash fiction festival days, The Great Festival Flash-Off. The series was partly inspired by writer, teacher and editor Nancy Stohlman’s fun definition of flash fiction as the ‘cupcake of literature’, in an interview with her at Smokelong Quarterly,and the reality TV show The Great British Bake Off. The cupcake contest was an extra mini competition open to the public, not just those who came to the festival days.

We had forty entries in all, which we thought was a good result for the challenge of writing a hermit crab micro so short on a the very exacting subject! Half the money raised from the entry cost of £5.00 goes to the winner and half to the Huntington’s Disease Association Charity. The festival has covered paypal charges to round up the funds received to £200.
and we are delighted to give the winner £100 and £100 to the charity.

The runner up receives books from Ad Hoc Fiction, a flash fiction festival tote bag and a free entry to Bath Flash Fiction Award. And the other three writers writer and co-director of Flash Fiction Festivals UK, Diane Simmons, selected for her top five have been offered publication in the festival anthology and will receive a free copy.

Our thanks to Diane for judging this competition. She read all the micros blind and said she greatly enjoyed the variety of recipe stories served up and was impressed with how people managed to use this structure. Her comments on her top five stories are below and bios of the writers are coming soon. Read in Full

The Great Festival Flash-Off Results – August

photo by Serge Van Neck on Unsplash

Thank you to everyone who entered the writing challenges for the August Great Festival Flash-Off, the last day of our first series. (check out our new festival series beginning Oct 30th). In August, the challenges were set by judge duo, writers and editors, Ingrid Jendzrejewski and Neil Clark. Thank you very much to them for their brilliant prompts and for judging all the stories which were sent to them blind. The prompts from all the judges will be included in our fourth Flash Fiction Festival Anthology. The first three anthologies were published after the yearly face-to-face Festivals and it is wonderful to be able to publish a new one containing all the competition winners, runner-ups and other stories from judges, presenters, Cup Cake Contest Winners and a selection of stories submitted by participants, prompted by workshops from the festival days.

Three books, red, orange and yello with Flash Fiction Festival written on the cover

first 3 anthologies

Prizes for The Challenges
As well as anthology publication, the winners of the Signature, Technical and Showstopper challenges receive a copy of an anthology of flash fiction published by Ad Hoc Fction; a free entry to Bath Flash Fiction Award; a flash fiction festival tote bag and two free sessions on the weekly Tuesday flash fiction sessions run by Jude Higgins.. In addition the winners will be entered into our winner of winners prizes to be announced by the end of this month. Cash prize of £50 for each category.
Our judges this month also chose runners up and we are very happy to offer the writers publication in the anthology. Read in Full