"My Cindy’s eighty-five, she giggles. No way, Jayne shrieks, she looks forty-nine. What’s her secret, retinol, Botox, baby stem cell cellulite...? All of it, says Marissa solemnly." @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social Brilliant story. Winner: SmokeLongWorkshopPrize www.vestalreview.net/the-altar-of...

Aaargh I had to reread this news a few times because I thought I was imagining it! Thanks so much to the wonderful people at @smokelong.bsky.social and congratulations to all the amazing writers on here!!!! 😍❤️🥳🎉

Yay!!!! 🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations everyone!!!Love the @smokelong.bsky.social workshops and all the work produced in them so much!! 😍❤️🎉

Aaarrrgghh!!!! Thrilled to see a couple of my stories in with such brilliant company - I remember many of the amazing pieces shortlisted here so vividly and fondly!! 😍❤️

Listen to this new short story by Peter McAllister from @hass-cornwall.bsky.social on BBC Radio 4 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Aiming to finish a novel? Start a short story? Or do you simply want to write more regularly? This course is for you… inkfishmag.com/kickstart-yo...

Such a surprising and beautiful story by @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social.

"In the back room, out of sight of the Cindys, Marissa sticks used wax strips on our faces, and we jump about screaming at the touch of pubes there." Stunning. Moves from humor to heartbreak in a flash @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social in @vestalreview.bsky.social www.vestalreview.net/the-altar-of...

3 highlights from Vestal Review this week: 🔹 Last Play:@marioaliberto3.bsky.social 🔹 Saint Cindy:@katehorsleywriter.bsky.social 🔹 The Walrus:@emilyrinkema.bsky.social Full issue: www.vestalreview.net/issue-67 #VestalReview #FlashFiction #LiteraryMagazine #ShortStories #WritingCommunity #Fiction

Waxing everything for the body beautiful. Read "The Altar of Saint Cindy," by Kate Horsley @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social in issue 67. vestalreview.net/the-altar-of-saint-cindy Art by Jinghong Chen

Thrilled to see my flash piece, ‘The Altar of St Cindy’, in brilliant company in this beautiful issue of @vestalreview.bsky.social Thanks so much to David Galef, @smokelong.bsky.social where this piece began, and to my lovely writing group as always ❤️

I Just did a reading with Inkfish Press, with Tim Moder, and @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social. Tim and I have chapbooks out with Inkfish Press, and Kate is a co-founding editor of @inkfishmagazine.bsky.social Magazine and Press (& a very good poet). Enjoy it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBWF...

So happy to have a wee story in this issue of @bansheepress.bsky.social Thanks to @clarakiyoko.bsky.social @mariegethins.bsky.social and the team, and congrats to all the other contributors 🥳

I may have got a little over-excited and opened entries a little early. I'm not going to start reading until Monday, but if you want to send something over the weekend, you are welcome to do so: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-prize...

Excited for the launch of SEXTET Issue II on December 4th, with writing from me, @ewenglass.bsky.social and many others! Work from this issue will be on display in @sixfootgallery.bsky.social until Jan 6th - sixfootgallery.co.uk/traces/

Wonderful list here!! Thanks so much @mynachang.bsky.social for including my speculative flash ‘The Tao of Thorstein Codbiter’ alongside all of these amazing pieces!!

Huge thank you to @petermcallister.bsky.social and @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social over at @inkfishmagazine.bsky.social for this wonderful nomination. I so adore your gorgeous art-forward magazine! And ICYMI here's the link to my story: inkfishmag.com/what-moon-wo...

Really enjoying catching up with Eve Grubin's session @nawewriters.bsky.social conference on bringing silence into one's work. Fitted well w @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social & @petermcallister.bsky.social 's session. It's a great idea to have all of the recordings available! 🙏 #NAWE

Congratulations to our amazing authors - cheering you all on for this year's Pushcart Prize! @juliabiggs.bsky.social @katrinanaomipoet.bsky.social @dawnsteffler.bsky.social @bsherm36.bsky.social inkfishmag.com/awards/

Thrilled to see this brilliant poetry chapbook by @ewenglass.bsky.social riding high in the poetry ranks on Amazon! If You Stand in the Corner of the Spare Room You Can Just About See the Sea is full of beauty, magic, humour, and wisdom. You can buy it here: amzn.eu/d/2wSXZ3i

Thanks so much @trashcatlit.bsky.social for nominating this story for #bestsmallfictions 😀 Good luck to all the other nominees! 🥳

Wishing @ewenglass.bsky.social‬ a very happy launch day! We're so excited to be publishing this chapbook by Ewen Glass - If You Stand in the Corner of the Spare Room You Can Just About See the Sea - beautiful poems by a wonderful writer! amzn.eu/d/f6oChEA

She says this isn’t a laundry basket. She says I must be mistaken.

So excited to see my flash piece 'The Tao of Thorstein Codbiter' in this special fampunk edition of @flashfictiononline.bsky.social Thanks as always to the amazing people at @smokelong.bsky.social where this piece began! 😍

Curious about the workshop community of SmokeLong Fitness? You can give it a test drive in Nov/Dec. www.smokelong.com/product/try-...

Thrilled & honoured to learn @inkfishmagazine.bsky.social has nominated my piece ‘Habitat’ for a Pushcart Prize! 🤩 Huge thanks to supremely supportive editors @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social & @petermcallister.bsky.social & congratulations to my (decidedly more talented) fellow nominees. 🥳

September MicroVerse roundup is out!

“My blood has opened a conduit to an elsewhere, importing emissaries of shell, feather, fur, and hoof to remind me that boundaries leak, that absence is merely another geometry of presence.” Strange and beautiful story—so unexpectedly emotional. I love everything @mizukiyamagen.bsky.social writes!

@katehorsleywriter.bsky.social “The manual described the Olivetti’s body parts – space bar, ribbon spool, paper table, platen knob, ribbon vibrator – and I read you out the last two, tangled naked with you in our hotel sheets, and you laughed at me,” gooseberry-pie.com/red-olivetti/

@katehorsleywriter.bsky.social “When Papa’s safely gone, I climb on Mama and wrap my arms tight around her and snuggle my face in her flower-smelling neck, whispering, you’re mine, all and always mine,” gooseberry-pie.com/peanut/

@katehorsleywriter.bsky.social “Four years of separation are duly mourned in sleeves of interlocking puzzle pieces inked in orange and green, while blackwork notes freckle tender inner thighs every time a lover tries to read their bodies,” gooseberry-pie.com/needles/

Over 150 calls for literary competitions & submissions including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, photography, & more - contests, literary journals, residencies, bursaries etc - open or with deadlines in September 2025. Please share & best of luck! www.thisiswordbox.com/wordbox-blog...

Read new issue of Gooseberry Pie Beth Konkoski Chad Foret @charhamrick.bsky.social Jane Yager @jennystalter.bsky.social Elizabeth Meyer Gonzalez @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social @kathrynsilverhajo.bsky.social @happilander.bsky.social @patiencemackarness.bsky.social gooseberry-pie.com/issue-35/

Thrilled to have three micros up in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social ❤️ gooseberry-pie.com/issue-35/ Shoutout to @smokelong.bsky.social where these pieces all began! x

Smeagol will swear on the Precious

Our first print anthology is coming at the end of the month! 🦝 27 amazing short fictions that celebrate the theme of treasure in unexpected places. Proceeds of sale go to @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social Updates here: trashcatlit.com/what-comes-t... We can't wait to share What Comes to Light 💜

The Joy of Flash Fiction - "I am out with lanterns, looking for myself." ~Emily Dickinson. Hope you'll enjoy my latest newsletter. 💙https://open.substack.com/pub/artofflashfiction/p/the-joy-of-flash-fiction?r=4e5y2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Interested in novellas-in-flash? This is such a great book club run by the lovely @laurabesley.bsky.social - fun, informative and friendly

This little jam by @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social in @mrbullbull.bsky.social made my morning. mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...

Publication day for this darkly comic little piece I think many readers can relate to. Thanks to @defenestrationmag.bsky.social for getting it up on your site. 🙂 www.defenestrationmag.net/2025/08/book... #amwriting #flashfiction #shortstory

"Dad’s personality traits are gatherer, unstable, nurturing, handy, and insane. He wants to fix things and that’s what he’s good at, but he has these random mood swings where he runs after you wielding a garden gnome or pruning shears." - Kate Horsley mrbullbull.com/newbull/flas...

Thanks @trashcatlit.bsky.social for including my story in this 😍 and cngrats to all the other contributors 🥳🥳🥳

We're back in the bin after a superb weekend @flashficfestuk.bsky.social where we met Trash Family in the flesh! 🦝 With Trash Family in mind, as promised here are the contributors for the upcoming charity print anthology. Twenty-seven stunning stories we can't wait to share 🤩

@joycebingham.bsky.social @thejokelark.bsky.social @lozzawriting.bsky.social @lucimcummings.bsky.social @matgost.bsky.social @bronwengriffiths.bsky.social @terryholland.bsky.social @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social @youcanandyouwill.bsky.social @leighloveday.bsky.social @mrallanmiller.bsky.social 1/2

2/2 Our Trash Family Stuffs this month come from newbies who'll be in our upcoming anthology. Go get to know them and their writing... @joycebingham.bsky.social @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social @myquirkywriting.swifties.social

Well, well, well, if it isn't my creativity's mortal nemesis, a slight change in vibes I can't explain

@petermcallister.bsky.social will be leading a discussion with Jackie Taylor, Rob Magnuson Smith, @amarkle.bsky.social & @emmatimpany.bsky.social at Penzance Litfest, & they’ll be reading from our Holyer an Gof Publishers' Awards-shortlisted anthology, Cornwall In Short! Book here: buff.ly/H8AWToG

The #anthology of short stories I co-published with @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social has been shortlisted in the Holyer an Gof awards this year!! #booksky #award #shortlist #shortlisted #literaryfiction

We were incredibly excited to learn that Cornwall In Short has been shortlisted in the Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards 2025! Congratulations to all our amazing authors! The award ceremony will be held on Saturday July 5th. buff.ly/OQcmmtv