This is breathtakingly beautiful writing.

Congratulations to all the longlisters!

Jaime Gill's 'Obedience' is emotionally precise, and quietly explosive. Do read it.

Vibrant lyrical flash by @rosaleenlynch.bsky.social

"We’ve heard that some people go baby picking every year—tradition—but neither Meredith nor I can imagine that." Love this strange micro by Jessica.

What a beautiful, quietly powerful flash!

I love Ian's quietly beautiful poem 'Lastly.'

Thrilled to win this competition. Blown away by the stunning performance of Danielle Farrow in reading my story at @cymerafestival.co.uk Huge thanks to Noel and Pippa and of course the judges.

'real boys are rough and tumble, they thump and dump, you want her, you take her,' Do go read this wonderfully inventive flash by Cole.

It really is a privilege to log in each morning and see the submissions that have been sent in overnight. I'm constantly amazed by the quality and creativity of every single one. As always, whittling these down to longlists is going to be HARD!

Thank you Claudia! Everyone, Claudia Monpere's debut collection 'The Periodic Family' is due out in October. She's one of the best flash writers I know. #FlashFiction

Thanks Emma!

Thank you so much for reading Zoe!

Thank you for reading Suzanne!

Thank you!

Thanks @wilsonkoewing.bsky.social for publishing this one. www.bottlerocketlitmag.com/the-work/fla...

Just a few days left to help preserve our wildlife AND grab yourself a great anthology at a steal of a price.

One of our lovely Trash Family have started their own lit mag. Pam's an excellent writer and will be a cracking editor. Get on it to be part of the inaugural issue 🌻

Great to see @kathyfish.bsky.social writing about poetic forms in flash. Thanks @mattkendrick.bsky.social for the workshop this one began in, and for suggesting it to Kathy, and of course @trashcatlit.bsky.social for publishing it.

'I love the use of the badger costume and tutu as these permissive vehicles for upending expected gender behavior... and am such a fan of the overtness of the voice'. Thank you @aniking.bsky.social for choosing my @smokelong.bsky.social story www.smokelong.com/stories/full...

This is such fun, and the language punches.

www.fullhouseliterary.com/issue-1-2026.... Thanks @jprelph.bsky.social for introducing me to this lit mag. Was mesmerized by Jordyn Damato's unsettling flash.

Lovely to see my flash popping up for Women’s Fiction Wednesday over at Micromance Magazine💕 Give my version of a love story for the ages a read of you have a few minutes. Don’t worry, it’s not zombies… micromancemagazine.substack.com/p/a-love-that-…

"Welkin Me Up" Sorry your afternoon is rubbish health-wise Matt. Sending good wishes.

This is an incredible and terrifying story that had me racing through to the end.

Thank you Marcella!

Very pleased to be with JMWW. Thanks to senior editor @thorntonforreal.bsky.social for being such a collaborative partner, and @smokelong.bsky.social 's summer intensive last year for the prompt. You can read more about the community school here iskul.my

congrats to the longlisters!

Love the playful warmth in this dad n daughter tale

'The years grinding down our lustre and your laughter, powdering into a slow drift apart' Do go n read Cole's beautiful words in her new flash.

Happy Phoebe is flying high. Thank you to Ben @ BULL for publishing. @matthollingsworth.com it must be pigeon season, both our pigeon stories out now. Thanks to @smokelong.bsky.social October25 fitness group for feedback and encouragement.

@matthollingsworth.com I remember the making of this one. What a gem!

Thanks for putting my story up. I recommend the prompted stories, made me write something I'd never have written otherwise.

Congratulations Jack, you should not be at all cool about this. A triumph!

Once more with photo hopefully

Beautiful photo! Puffins are now classified as endangered. I think we should have collaborated, Heather. www.newfeathersanthology.com/the-puffin.h...

I was drawn to this small bright flame of a book by @eleanorholmes.bsky.social which grew from workshops by @taniahershman.bsky.social Have ordered my copy. www.ethelzine.com/shop/moth-by...

Happy to have 2 stories in Flash Boulevard. Thanks to @francinewitte.bsky.social for publishing @christopherallen.bsky.social 's Scrabble game for giving me the word 'tawer'! flashboulevard.wordpress.com/2026/04/04/g...

Very sad to hear this news. I was in John's workshop @bathflashaward.bsky.social flash fiction festival in 2024 and his deep connection with nature moved me. There's an online event to remember him on 18/4. thepoetrysalonstack.substack.com/p/finding-ra...

You know when you open the fridge door and there are aliens on the shelf? www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/gill... Thanks to @smokelong.bsky.social fitness group for helpful f/b. Some great stories and poetry in April's DIHP issue. Do go read mine and Nora Esme Wagner's, similar themes.

"One day, you and the angel lie in bed together while your husband is at work, lazily filling out one of those stupid magazine love quizzes, a crane fly buzzing on the wall, one wing mired in the flypaper's jammy glue" Stunning @katehorsleywriter.bsky.social wigleaf.com/202603loneli...

Born in @mattkendrick.bsky.social 's Go With the Flow course and inspired by @shortpoemz.bsky.social Roberta Beary's beautiful anadiplosis haibun. contemporaryhaibunonline.com/cho-18-3tabl...

"First the puffin came and went, leaving the beak-bite of her claws on my scalp. But as your absence grew more present, she became my familiar, and I missed her when she left, my head wounds, a proud tattoo" Gorgeous heartbreak @quickasaflash.bsky.social www.newfeathersanthology.com/the-puffin.h...

Happy my story, 'The Puffin,' is in this beautiful journal. Thanks to @erinvachon.bsky.social whose Smokelong prompt inspired it and to @smokelong.bsky.social for initial f/b. V pleased to be alongside @bsherm36.bsky.social whose work I admire. Do read her story, a reimagining of the Minotaur myth.

Thrilled to share the news that Michael Agunbiade’s poem “the new testament” is a Best of the Net finalist! ✨️ Read the poem, from issue 20: variantlit.com/the-new-test...

' the ribboned flowers pinned by mother to my head; white for pure, white for clean, white for the confirmation I do not want...' Do go n read Rosaleen's intensely tactile winning tale.

Yay! 🎉 Absolutely thrilled to win this competition! Huge thanks to judge Kerri McCourt for choosing 'Penance Plaid' & to Ian Rushton for running the fab @freeflashfiction.bsky.social & congrats to everyone on the shortlist & highly commended! 🥰

Just read them all! Linda Bayley’s mother worries about her daughter’s hymen, Stuart Cavet‘s Parasite is a medical cannibal, Travis Flatt offers us a darkly funny hotline, Ian Johnson’s live gig triggers survivor guilt, Laura Nagle offers a subversive, meta-fictional story. And there's more!

Congrats to everyone shortlisted/commended.

Look forward to reading Finnian's flash, they're one of my favourite workshop leaders.