We’re completely over the moon that the Flash Fiction Festival 2018 is short listed in the new category, ‘Literary Festivals’, in this year’s Saboteur Awards! Thank you very much to everyone who nominated us. It is such a great honour. We’d also be honoured if you would vote for us in the second round, adding what you liked about the weekend festival to give us a good chance of winning. That would be so amazing! A real boost for flash fiction around the world.

The Saboteur Awards announcements are taking place in Birmingham on Saturday evening, May 18th and representatives from all short listed events are asked to attend. Our director, Jude Higgins is on a flash fiction writing retreat with Kathy Fish and Nancy Stohlman in Italy in May, where, on the day, we will be tuning in on social media to see what’s happening. We’re very pleased that Festival Hospitality Co-ordinator, Diane Simmons, pictured here sorting out some food at last year’s festival, will be there to represent us. She’s also there on her own behalf, having been short listed in the short story category for her marvellous flash fiction collection, Finding A Way. Many congratulations to her.

We’re particularly happy that a festival totally dedicated to flash fiction has been short listed in this category. Now in its third year, as far as we know, it’s still the only Flash Fiction Festival in the world and certainly the only one in the UK. Thanks to all the 2018 team Diane Simmons, Meg Pokrass, Santino Prinzi, K M Elkes, Michael Loveday, Matt Thorpe Coles and Karen Jones and our volunteers for making it such a success. We’ve included a few pictures here and there are lots more on a gallery of photographs from last year We had a lot of lovely comments on our feedback sheets last year and very much appreciated them. Here’s a few:

“Learning from other writers/workshop leaders;
The warmth and inclusiveness of all the participants. Everyone a peer and accessible;
Workshops, readings and meeting other flash fiction writers;
The enthusiasm and encouragement of the presenters and organisers;
Meeting so many other writers;
The positive and encouraging atmosphere;
I thought the organisation was excellent. Loved the range of speakers. The venue was fabulous and the food was fantastic – thanks for catering so wonderfully for special diets;
The talented facilitators running workshops;
The camaraderie, everyone was helpful and friendly
Location superb, wonderful house and gardens, Food and company lovely. so it was all great..

This year, we are hoping it will be equally as much fun. It’s taking place 28-30th June at the same venue Trinity College. We have places left, writers coming from all over the world, and lots of fantastic workshops from extraordinary writers and teachers. We love Flash Fiction!