Workshop with Kathy Fish, November 30th

More details soon.
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. Subscribe here: https://artofflashfiction.substack.com.

Ekphrastic Writing prompts for the three competitions, October 26th, November 30th and January 11th with Jude Higgins

As in past online festivals, Jude uses terminology from the UK reality show ‘The Great British Bake Off’ to introduce writing challenges on each of the trio of festival days. Using visual prompt,s she will get you to write a ‘signature’, t’echnical’ and ‘showstopper’ writing challenges. There are prizes each time of books from adhocfiction, free entries to Bath Flash Fiction Award and publication online and in the festival anthology. Diane Simmons (see details below) will judge each competition. Entries, drafted on the day, have to be submitted a week after each day.

Jude Higgins founded Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2015, co-runs The Bath Short Story Award since 2013 and directs the short short fiction press, Ad Hoc Fiction. She has read thousands of short fictions and hundreds of novellas over the past eight years for Bath Flash Fiction Awards and Ad Hoc Fiction and has been final judge for Mslexia flash fiction. Jude has also been placed, shortlisted and longlisted in many contests. Her chapbook The Chemist’s House was published by V.Press in 2017 and her full collection Clearly Defined Clouds was published in July 2024 by Ad Hoc Fiction

Yoga for Writers with Sudha Balagopal, October 26th, October 30th and January 11th

We’re delighted that once again Sudha is offering her invaluable 15 min sessions offering yoga stretches for writers. A refreshing interlude in a long festival online day. She offered these sessions for us all through the pandemic and since.

Sudha Balagopal’s fiction straddles continents and cultures, blending thoughts and ideas from the east and the west. She is honored to have her writing in many fine journals including The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, CRAFT, The Maine Review and Bureau Dispatch. Her highly- commended novella-in-flash, Things I Can’t Tell Amma, was published by Ad Hoc fiction in 2021. She has stories included in Best Small Fictions, 2022 and 2023. Her novella in flash Nose Ornaments was a runner up in the 2024 Bath Novella in Flash Award and is published by Ad Hoc Fiction in summer, 2024. When she’s not writing, she teaches yoga. Find her on Twitter @authorsudha or at www.sudhabalagopal.com

The Historical and the Fantastical in the Novella-in-Flash, October 26th

A discussion, readings and a Q & A, chaired by Jude with Diane Simmons and Karen Jones. Diane will read and talk about her new historical NIF, William Pritchard & Co, and Karen will talk about and read from her Ekphrastic NIF based on paintings by Andrea Kowch. Both NIFS were published by Arroyo Seco Press recently.

We’re delighted that once again, Diane is judging each of the three festival contests. Writing challenges set by Jude on each day.

Karen Jones is an editor for New Flash Fiction Review where she recently wrote a very useful guide on submitting and the National Flash Fiction Day Anthology. She has judged many flash fiction contests, including The Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2022 and The Propelling Pencil Award and has won first prize in Reflex Flash Fiction Prize, The Cambridge Flash Fiction Award, as well as being shortlisted and placed in numerous awards including the Bath Short Story Awards and Bath Flash Fiction Awards on many occasions. Her new novella-in-flash Burn it All Down was published by Arroyo Seco Press in 2024.

Diane Simmons has been Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day since 2018, administering the anthology submissions and micro contests. She has been an editor for FlashFlood, judge for Flash500 flash fiction contests, Micro Madness for National Flash Fiction Day, New Zealand and Flash Fiction Festival competitions and was an editor for the flash fiction festival anthologies Vols 1-7. She won second place in the Reflex Fiction Prize in 2022 and has been placed or short listed in numerous flash fiction Awards, both for novellas and individual flashfictions. Her flash fiction collection Finding A Way on the subject of grief, was published in 2019 by Ad HocFiction and shortlisted for the Saboteur Awards for Best Short Story Collection. She has had three novellas-in-flash published An Inheritance by V.press in 2020, which was also shortlisted for the Saboteur Awards Best Novella category A Tricky Dance by Alien Bhudda Press in 2024 and William Pritchard & Company, Arroyo Seco Press, September 2024.

Workshop with Alison Woodhouse. January 11th

Details coming soon

Alison Woodhouse is a writer and teacher. Her flash fiction and short stories have been widely published and anthologised, including In the Kitchen (Dahlia Press), With One Eye on the Cows (Ad Hoc Fiction), Leicester Writes 2018 & 2020 (Dahlia Press), The Real Jazz Baby (Reflex Press), A Girl’s Guide to Fishing (Reflex Press), National Flash Fiction Day Anthologies and Life on the Margins (Scottish Arts Trust Story Awards). She has won a number of story competitions including Flash 500, Hastings, HISSAC (flash & short story), NFFD micro, Biffy50, Farnham, Ad Hoc Fiction and Limnisa and been placed in many others. In 2019 she was awarded an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. She is currently studying for a Ph.D on the Polyphonic Novel. Her debut novella-in-flash The House on the Corner was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in October, 2020. Her flash fiction collection, Family Frames was published by V.Press in September, 2021. Twitter: @AJWoodhouse

Science and Flash with Ingrid Jendrzjewski, October 26th

CP Snow once claimed there was a gulf of mutual incomprehension between literary intellectuals and scientists. In this friendly, playful session, we’ll challenge this notion of ‘two cultures’ by looking at ways we can bridge this science/art divide when we write flash. Through discussion and writing exercises, we’ll investigate questions like:

* What are some ways we can weave scientific themes into our flash (regardless of technical background)?
* How can thinking like a scientist help us hone our prose?
* How have science and technology opened up new modes of storytelling, and how can we take advantage of this as flash writers?

I’ll also share some editing and idea generating tricks that I picked up when studying physics, information theory, and machine learning — techniques anyone can apply to their own writing.

No specialist knowledge or background is required or assumed, and you don’t even need an interest in science to join in the fun. Scientists and non-scientists alike are warmly welcome!

Ingrid Jendrzejewski is a co-director of National Flash Fiction Day. She currently serves as the Editor in Chief of FlashBack Fiction, and a flash editor at JMWW, and has served as both non-fiction editor and editor-in-chief of the Evansville Review. She has published over 100 shortform pieces and has won multiple flash fiction competitions, including the Bath Flash Fiction Award and the A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Orlando Prize for Flash Fiction. Her short collection Things I Dream About When I’m Not Sleeping was a runner up for BFFA’s first Novella-in-Flash competition. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Vestal Review’s VERA Award, and multiple times for Best Small Fictions..

The Writer Self in Flash Fiction: with Stephanie Carty, November 30th

This workshop will be based on Stephanie Carty’s new workbook The Writing Mirror. It will focus on the insights you can gain about yourself by analysing your flash-length work. For this workshop, please bring print-outs of several of your pieces or have electronic means to access them – they can be in draft or completed form. You will be guided through tasks that hold a specialist lens to your work to see what is reflected back.

Stephanie Carty is a clinical psychologist, writer and trainer in the UK. Her novella-in-flash Three Sisters of Stone won a Saboteur Award and her short fiction collection The Peculiarities of Yearning won best collection in Eyelands Book Prize. Her first writers’ workbook on the psychology of character Inside Fictional Minds is published by Ad Hoc Fiction and her new workbook The Writing Mirror is now available on Amazon.

Writing on Water with Judy Darley, October 26th

Dive deeper into your writing with author Judy Darley
How do you write about water? Does it trickle? Surge? Roar?
Is it hungry? Playful? Volatile? Reflective? Tranquil?
Whether you write about a raindrop or an ocean, you can harness water as a powerful writing muse.
Judy Darley will ease you into the theme of water with a brief reading, followed by creative prompts, generative writing exercises, examples, time to write and the opportunity to share your writing if you wish

Judy Darley is a flash fiction writer, journalist and occasional poet from Bristol, UK. Her fiction has been described as ‘shimmeringly strange’, possibly because she can’t stop writing about the fallibilities of the human mind and often uses fairy tale tropes to do so. Her words have been published and performed on BBC radio and harbor walls, as well as in bookshops, museums, cafés, caves, pubs, a disused church and an artist’s studio. Judy is the author of three fiction collections: The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain (Reflex Press), Sky Light Rain (Valley Press) and Remember Me to the Bees (Tangent Books). Find Judy at http://www.skylightrain.com; https://twitter.com/JudyDarley.

Art & Flash: with Anika Carpenter

Time spent pondering contemporary art can inspire all kinds of wonderful and unexpected story ideas. In this ekphrastic workshop, you’ll be introduced to the life and work of one contemporary artist and three of their artworks. Each work will be accompanied by optional prompts inspired by the piece.

Anika Carpenter is a flash fiction author and artist based in Brighton, UK. You can find her stories in Ellipsis Zine, Fictive Dream, Gone Lawn, Janus Literary and others.
When she’s not writing, she’s running The Flash Cabin. Where you’ll find monthly online Art & Flash sessions, and more! When she’s not doing that, she hosts the Writer’s HQ Brighton Writing Retreats.
Website: www.anikacarpenter.com Twitter: @StillSquirrel

Unapologetically Fabulous Writing and Reading with Audrey Niven, November 30th

A group coaching session to debunk some of the myths we cherish about who can write, how to share our writing, and why we should all feel unapologetically fabulous every time we put words on a page.

Audrey Niven is a Scottish writer and creative coach based in London. Her stories have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards, and are published in multiple anthologies including Oxford, Bath, Reflex and NFFD. She established the Propelling Pencil Charity Flash Competition and Journal where she is Editor in Charge. She reads for various competitions and in 2022 judged the Mslexia Flash Competition. She should be working on her novel. @NivenAudrey

Workshop with Sarah Freligh. Subject to be decided, January 11th

Sarah Freligh is the author of six books, including Sad Math, winner of the 2014 Moon City Press Poetry Prize and the 2015 Whirling Prize from the University of Indianapolis, and the recently-released A Brief Natural History of Women, from Harbor Editions. Her novella-in-flash Hereafter was the winner of the 2024 Bath Novella in Flash Contest and is forthcoming in 2024 from Ad Hoc Fiction. Among her awards are poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Saltonstall Foundation.\