"Sometimes, Trista likes to say last year, when I was seven, my father ran away with the circus...she knows it sounds like he’s a performer, not just the person who travels ahead of the circus, putting up posters in shop windows" A heartbreaking CNF by @cake-girl.bsky.social

In an unexpected turn of events, I’ve been hearing a lot about werewolves this week. This piece makes my skin tingle for fur.

Fabulous piece by @cake-girl.bsky.social ❤️ Have a read.

"The sting of his leaving has almost scabbed over now, crusted layers of hurt sloughing from shiny pink skin underneath" Oof - love the way @cake-girl.bsky.social embraces such temporal fracturing in this wonderful CNF; the patchwork effect building through time in such a clever way

Deeply wonderful CNF by @cake-girl.bsky.social templeinacity.com/creative-non...

‘The first woman hurried inside alone, head down, heels rat-a-tatting. Edith’s fingers twitched on the paperback, but she stilled, knowing she wasn’t needed yet’ - gosh, such a strong build in this haunting flash by @madeleinewrite.bsky.social templeinacity.com/flash-fictio...

"She enjoys the bald harshness of this statement, the discomfort it causes, the clumsy grasping for a suitable response." Read @cake-girl.bsky.social in @templeinacity.bsky.social templeinacity.com/creative-non...

So grateful my creative nonfiction flash has found a gentle home in @templeinacity.bsky.social - this is a piece I’ve wanted to write for the longest time 💗

New parenting CNF today in @templeinacity.bsky.social - the day my kid said "M's mum told her we can't have a playdate because I have anger issues." I know you will go towards love, and away from ignorance. Please read. Please also hug my kid (&me). 🧡🙏🏾 templeinacity.com/creative-non...

Such brilliant micros - congratulations @gilloshaughnessy.bsky.social and J.M.C. Kane, winners of the @welkinprize.bsky.social people’s prize 🤩

‘…peach to dark magenta, in seconds, engulfing the sky, almost purple, almost beautiful—before the black took not just the sky, but everything.’ Stunning writing in this micro by Yara Zgheib - a single moment that reverberates across the human experience. First place in @welkinprize.bsky.social!

‘The bus smelled like metal and goodbyes. / Everyone said leaving was brave, but bravery felt like forgetting slowly’ 🥺 love how this gorgeous micro by Muntasir Salman swells with emotion as it builds towards the final line. Second place in @welkinprize.bsky.social 🤩

‘Because ojha exorcise, poke her with hot needle, but Gopa-Devi quiet, no cry. Because no one should look at her’ - such a chilling micro with so much simmering beneath the surface. Congrats @anibanerjee.bsky.social on third place in @welkinprize.bsky.social!

‘I joked with my friends that Tom the Cat didn’t like Tom the Man, that jealousy made Tom the Cat friendlier, that Tom the Man slept with one eye open’ 🐈 there is so much to love in this breezy micro, skillfully crafted by @emilyrinkema.bsky.social.

Such a clever structure in this micro by @authorgreene.bsky.social 🤩 highly commended in @welkinprize.bsky.social.

‘then maybe we’d believe you were only messing around when you offered that city boy your arm, exposed the gentle veins that ran beneath your skin like rivers under cloud’ 🥺 such deep regret and sorrow in this perfect single-sentence micro by @gilloshaughnessy.bsky.social.

‘Someone admitted a fear they had never named aloud. Someone else listened without offering comfort, which felt kinder.’ So much rippling beneath the surface of this incredible micro by Bill Nwonwu in @welkinprize.bsky.social.

Oh, wow, @cake-girl.bsky.social ! This piece is amazing. I love the structure and the carefully chosen details. Just beautiful. #microfiction

‘He carried on with the motions like a man under a hypnotist’s spell, acting out an imaginary dinner’ - such powerful, resonant writing in this micro by @morrisonmm.bsky.social in the @welkinprize.bsky.social shortlist.

‘Lightning storms. Plane crashes. Falling asleep on the subway & men on trains.’ Wow, such a careful, chilling build in this micro by @onmytangent.bsky.social 😳 stunning writing from the @welkinprize.bsky.social shortlist.

‘I remember feeling ashamed because I was hungry. When we reached the river, I realized I hadn’t cried at all. Not then.’ 🥺 such a heart-rending micro from Shofiqure Rahman. This is the kind of piece that stays with you, long after the first reading.

‘…careful not to disturb the silence because the air carried every sound, until one night she traced her own shadow and found it missing, the space where it should have been, stretched empty…’ - this is such a sumptuous single-sentence micro by Vaishnavi Pusapati 💗

Ahrmember thClancys. Good people. Terrible thingat happened tothm. Everbody knew wernt them, wernt ther fault’. Oh my goodness, such a clever micro by Barnaby Wick, shortlisted in @welkinprize.bsky.social.

“how bruises bloomed their tender midnight between my knees” Each line brings a new and vivid emotional depiction. Just stunning. And heartbreaking. @cake-girl.bsky.social on the @welkinprize.bsky.social shortlist!

‘Once she almost went to acting college. Once she almost moved to Hollywood. Once she almost got married. Once she almost had children’ 🥺 this is such a pensive, reflective micro by Jo Withers in the @welkinprize.bsky.social shortlist.

"...how my voice starved, too; how winter’s steel fingers pressed ice into my bones;...." My lord, this extraordinary piece of writing by @cake-girl.bsky.social in @welkinprize.bsky.social 💙💙💙

"How I tried to shed my innermost parts, coiled heavy and shameful; how it still haunts me" What a stunning micro by @cake-girl.bsky.social - shortlisted for the Welkin Prize @welkinprize.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...

“…how bruises bloomed their tender midnight between my knees” Oof! Beautiful and heartbreaking

Oof Stunning @cake-girl.bsky.social

“how I tried to shed my innermost parts, coiled heavy and shameful” Vivid and powerful writing by @cake-girl.bsky.social in this amazing piece

"...how I'm glad you didn't know me back then; how you'd have stopped, aghast, if we'd passed in the street...." Read @cake-girl.bsky.social in @welkinprize.bsky.social .

"how my voice starved, too" What a way to describe the pain of an eating disorder. Amazing, @cake-girl.bsky.social

Haunting and lovely piece from @cake-girl.bsky.social. congrats on the @welkinprize.bsky.social short list!

So glad my little micro has found a gentle landing place in the Welkin shortlist 🥹

Goodness, what a surprise ending to this wonderfully odd micro from Petra Marteleur! 😳

‘Real drifted toward curious, and curious pressed its forehead to the window. The window fogged with wanting, and wanting brewed tea it forgot to drink’ 🥹 This micro from David Anson Lee takes the reader by the hand, pulling them gently from one sentence to the next, barely pausing until the end.

‘I long to live inside feeding you, to curl up under your scrunched nose, beneath your wet mouth, a suction cup, your smooth teeth seeping into my flesh’ 🍎 such an intriguing and quirky micro from @robinzlotnick.bsky.social!

‘Our mother is not gone; she is between windows, and the wind knows how to hold her. I ask if that means she might come back, and he shrugs, like it’s math that’s already been solved somewhere I can’t see’ 🥺 love love love this delicate, tender micro by J.M.C. Kane.

‘Hi, I know you don’t answer my calls anymore because I set fire to your house... I didn’t know it was flammable... your cat, I mean. The gas I knew about, not Sugar Ball’ - it’s impossible to read this micro from @tacilim.bsky.social without smiling ☺️

‘Oh, yes, you said. I was thinking of the stars. How small they appear. How long it takes for their light to reach us’ - so much haunting story packed into this tiny micro. Stunning 🤩

‘You went on about that mural they found in Herculaneum at some guy’s house with dead partridges, agaric mushrooms and eels with dangling tails’. Such a richly detailed flash from @kiklodge.bsky.social in @frazzledlit.bsky.social (you really must listen to the author’s recording). So, so good.

Ever so grateful to be on the shortlist 🥹 can’t wait to read all the tiny stories!

‘I tell him he is safe now / and mean it / my love holds / like scaffolding’ 🥹 oof, such a tender, nuanced poem by @vignettes.bsky.social in issue 7 of @epistemiclit.bsky.social epistemiclit.com/current-issu...

This week for #WelkinWindbackWednesday, "You Say When the Rain Comes, it Will Be a Message From God" by @cake-girl.bsky.social :

Oh my goodness this piece by @orli-bee.bsky.social in @turningleafjournal.bsky.social “Shaky breathing. Craving to feel real and then choking on it.” So exquisitely done, Orli. Stunning writing 🧡🧡🧡 turningleafjournal.com/2025/12/15/o...

‘Friends I believe actually like me. Music vibrating through the house’s skeleton and into my own. The realisation that I’m able to feel things again. How it’s too much and not enough.’ 🥹💗 Such a vulnerable, heartbreaking CNF flash from @orli-bee.bsky.social turningleafjournal.com/2025/12/15/o...

‘The room spins above the clatter of plates and voices below—aunts and uncles and cousins buzzing through the rooms of this house like bees spinning honey’. A stop-you-in-your-tracks flash by Sue Ann Gleason, in Issue 7 of Epistemic Literary 🥺 epistemiclit.com/current-issu...

Announcing! Our #Puschart Prize nominees!

It’s always a good time to list the little things that spark joy and look, here’s a beautiful poem that does just that. Thanks, @cake-girl.bsky.social templeinacity.com/poetry-karen...