for #NationalPoetryDay one of my all-time favourites.

It's Friday morning, and if it's not quite the weekend yet, it soon will be... which means A PERSONAL ANTHOLOGY! This week's guest editor, picking and introducing a dozen favourite short stories, is Amanthi Harris. Hitting inboxes at 2pm. Sign up here if you don't already, RT if you do!

After raising £4k for fuel poverty charities from the print anthology, the FUEL flash ebook—with 12 bonus flash stories—is on its way! That’s 87 brilliant, surprising prizewinning flash stories by writers worldwide, exploding the myth that there's a formula for a “winning” story. www.fuelflash.net

Stoked to introduce my new collection, Hostile Environments from the publishing legend that is @northodoxpress.bsky.social Stuffed with dark-edged prize-winning tales from places like @bathflashaward.bsky.social @natflashfictionday.bsky.social & @molotovlitzine.bsky.social & loads of new ones too.

Just typing up the transcript for this and realising I may have committed to writing a flash about a pit pony... 🐴 Also, chuckling at Sharon's "third person Wikipedia" and loving the constant refrain from Myna to "write a good story, everything else is secondary" - such good advice!

Still time to snap up a bargain - Matt is one of the most thoughtful readers of flash around and translates that into very perceptive editing advice.

If you missed this discussion on Tuesday night & would like to catch up with all the wisdom shared by @mynachang.bsky.social & @sharontelfer.bsky.social about historical & speculative fiction, the recorded version is now available for the bargain price of £4: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/workshop-rec...

Join us this Thursday @ 7pm with the incredible Jan Kaneen, for an evening of flash and short fiction readings/Q&A and an exclusive writing workshop. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1480973193...

Looking forward to this online panel next Tuesday (5 Aug), talking historical & speculative #FlashFiction w the wonderful Myna Chang. Ofc, Matt has some great deep-dive questions lined up. If you were at @flashficfestuk.bsky.social micro panel, I’ll be talking more about my story ‘Gelsenkirchen’.

Last chance to sign up for "Beyond These Shores", a panel discussion on historical / speculative with @mynachang.bsky.social & @sharontelfer.bsky.social that is bound to be full of so much wisdom and gold. Next Tuesday (5th) at 7pm BST: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/live-worksho...

Using this pre-interview question to announce that the actual interview with #paulmcveigh is now online. Episode 125. Thanks to Paul and @saltpublishing.com #booksky

The Sameer Project is a donations based aid initiative, led by four Palestinians in the diaspora, working to supply an emergency reponse and funding to the displaced families in Gaza. Please donate if you can afford.

this is a really good article and makes very important points very clearly

You know what, just because. And it is bloody brilliant, isn't it. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Here are places you can donate to right now Please share and post 1. The Sameer Project is a donations-based aid initiative in Gaza led by Palestinians. Their multiple campaigns serve families across Gaza with medical supplies, food, tents, and other necessities. linktr.ee/thesameerproject

It's when you assemble the whole picture that you have to raise the question if the intention is to destroy this country and whether this country is in fact being destroyed.

Last chance to sign up for anyone who wants to join me on Saturday 9am BST / 18pm AEST / 17pm JST / 20pm NZST www.mattkendrick.co.uk/live-worksho...

'This is working to tackle the issues. This is transitional. This is a special force. This is our daughter standing unaided.' This is phenomenal #FlashFiction: 'The City of Los Angeles is on Tactical Alert' | Alison Powell 🥇 @bathflashaward.bsky.social www.bathflashfictionaward.com/2025/06/alis...

Thrilled to be in this group of amazing stories - the winner is just extraordinary: don't miss it. Thanks to judge @mariegethins.bsky.social & to Jude & all at @bathflashaward.bsky.social. Something about this special comp gets me writing when nothing else can. #FlashFiction

Thrilled to be in this group of amazing stories - the winner is just extraordinary: don't miss it. Thanks to judge @mariegethins.bsky.social & to Jude & all at @bathflashaward.bsky.social. Something about this special comp gets me writing when nothing else can. #FlashFiction

'This is working to tackle the issues. This is transitional. This is a special force. This is our daughter standing unaided.' This is phenomenal #FlashFiction: 'The City of Los Angeles is on Tactical Alert' | Alison Powell 🥇 @bathflashaward.bsky.social www.bathflashfictionaward.com/2025/06/alis...

I cannot fathom that a story of mine is in the @wigleaf.bsky.social Top 50…! Like, what?! 🤯 Thank you to @splonk.bsky.social and @nualaoconnor.bsky.social for publishing this micro of bare, gleaming bones 🦴 And @stillsquirrel.bsky.social, for the workshop in which this was born 🤍

I hope everyone enjoyed FlashFlood. The flashes will stay up there indefinitely & we will endeavour to produce a list of all this year’s accepted stories to make finding things easier! Please read stories & share your favs!

‘Every knees-up, there he’d be, glass after glass rattling on top of the old joanna…’ It’s only one of my all-time favourite @sharontelfer.bsky.social flashes in @natflashfictionday.bsky.social’s FlashFlood! A micro classic 🎹

Busy with family stuff this w/e, but a quick plunge in the flash flood to thank the incredible @natflashfictionday.bsky.social team for posting my micro. Big thanks for all the hard and creative work. Looking forward to catching up later in the week #nffd2025

As promised, here’s a roadmap for NFFD (Saturday 14 June). Read with us, write with us or join us in person in Bath! www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/ne...

For June, my mantra, the words I’m going to print out and pin to my cork board, and repeat to myself in moments of closing up, are by Georgia O’ Keeffe. Let me tell you how I’ll be using them. open.substack.com/pub/wendypra...

Tune in to Radio 4 (or BBC Sounds) at 3:30 today for The Artificial Human, Why is AI Stealing Books? They discuss the growing debate around AI and authorship. Contributors include award-winning author Kate Mosse, who joined our Meta protest last month. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

“When twilight turns to darkness, the swifts rise higher and higher into the night air and there they sleep on the wing. In the very early dawn, as light creeps into the sky, they dive down again” Writer: EL Grant Warson Artist: CF Tunnicliffe ‘What to Look for in Spring’ 1961

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce PRE-ORDERS are open for my new prose/poetry pamphlet, 'sum of her PARTS' which is an exploration of female body parts & how they are used/abused by those around them. Massive thank you to Sarah @vpresslit.bsky.social for her care & expertise. #writingcommunity

THREE weeks till our 30th Award ends on June 8th. £1k top prize. Double & triple entries reduced. Judge @mariegethins.bsky.social Results end of June. Anthology And here’s the cover of our delayed 2024 anthology again. Out soon Bathflashfictionaward.com/enter

What are some of your favourite flash fiction pieces? One that always springs to mind for me is “The Burial of Mrs. Charles D. Jackson” by @bdiggswrites.bsky.social and “Terra Incognita” by @sharontelfer.bsky.social - two stories that stay with me no matter how many times I read them.

We got there. We did it! For 30 days I’ve been sharing a short story collection a day to celebrate my own short story collection, Saltburn, coming out. But this list is a celebration of all short stories. Which a lot of publishers see as a ‘challenge’ to sell. Please share, love, add. Enjoy❤️

Honoured and delighted to share our Q&A with Booker Prize winner and Climate Fiction Prize shortlisted author, Samantha Harvey. The winner of the Climate Fiction Prize will be announced on Wednesday 14th May. @jonathancape.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social

I am well the Hamster is well are you well is the day well I miss you

📢Calling creatives from: - Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Gloucester area - Yorkshire - Tyne & Tees - Cambridgeshire - East Midlands Passionate about protecting your work from AI? Work scraped to train AI? Happy to be interviewed? Contact [email protected].

I, too, would love to see some #JoyfulFlashFiction ! Spread joy through the timeline, #FlashFiction readers and writers!

What a great request, joyful flash! And yes, trickier to find - storytelling does generally seem to want to plumb the dark rather than the light, right? I find this one by @aniking.bsky.social joyful - the joy of embracing fiery passion! trampset.org/fellas-is-it...

🏆 The Poetry Society invites all to its FREE online awards celebration for The National Poetry Competition 2024, judged by Stephen Sexton, John McAuliffe and Romalyn Ante, featuring performances from this year’s top ten poets alongside past prizewinning poets Ruth Padel and Debbie Lim. Join us on

People often don’t realise that labelling people as homeless creates stigma and depersonalisation. Those who are experiencing homelessness aren’t defined by their homeless state. The whole issue of labelling is why we designed the info panels for Outsiders the way we did, with Dymo labels for names.

We are disappointed but not surprised that Meta has used millions of pirated books to develop its AI systems. As a matter of urgency, Meta needs to compensate the rightsholders of all the works it has been exploiting. But what can authors do? Read here: societyofauthors.org/2025/03/21/t...

Who has #JoyfulFlashFiction to share? It feels as though there must be some good examples of this... Don't make me start the #WelkinOnSunshine prize for joyful writing. I don't have the energy right now 😂

It's no longer his birthday, but @mattkendrick.bsky.social is still fab and we all could still do with a little something to smile at. Anyone got any #JoyfulFlashFiction to share today?

New Micro by @lorisambolbrody.bsky.social “During the day I paint numbers on watch dials so they shine luminescent, but when the factory bell rings, I paint myself for you. My teeth, my eyelids, my nails.” fracturedlit.com/undark/

I've always loved the way this one interweaves imagined joy against the sadness of reality (not quite full on joy but it still leaves me feeling uplifted): www.bathflashfictionaward.com/2021/10/chlo...

Yes to this!! Who has #JoyfulFlashFiction to share? Fill mine and Sharon's timelines with your storytelling joys!

Who has some Happy #FlashFiction to share? It's International Day of Happiness, World Storytelling Day &. most importantly the birthday of the inestimable @mattkendrick.bsky.social. Matt would love to see his timeline filled w #JoyfulFlashFiction. Do link to your own or others' stories.

Pulled up at a traffic light in some small Swiss town and... ..wait... what? #MrBenn

On today’s Notes from the Margin - older writers emerge too open.substack.com/pub/wendypra...

Please do support your local libraries. We're losing 40 libraries a year. They are such an essential part of our communities. Please, if you can, contact your MP or councillors before its too late. @librariesconnected.bsky.social @theguardian.com www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...