Bray Literary Festival - Flash Fiction and Poetry Competition

Prizes in each category:
Winner €200
Runner-up €50

The judges are:

Poetry: Breda Wall Ryan, author of the award winning In a Hare’s Eye (Doire Press)

Flash Fiction: Catherine Dunne, author of nine novels, including the award winning The Things We Know Now (MacMillan)

Details here.

Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award - £30,000 prize

The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award is open for entries. It's the richest prize for a single short story in the English language, worth £30,000 to the winner. The award is open to any novelist or short story writer from around the world who is published in the UK.

Details here.

Little Canute - Out Now

My new chapbook, Little Canute is out now with In Short Publishing Co. 

It can be purchased for $2.50 here:
https://inshortpublishing.com/collections/short-story-bundles-1/products/little-canute

ESC Zine - Seeks Submissions for a Queer Zine

The folk at an interesting little online magazine called ESC Zine are seeking submissions under the theme "LGBTQA". They want art and words of all types (see above). The deadline is tomorrow so get going!

Details here.

Bath Flash Fiction Award - Winners Announced

Flash fiction is in the news again with the announcement of the winners of this year's Bath Flash Fiction award.

Read the three winners here.

Darkness at its Heart - Flash Fiction

Read it here. Page 52.

Sweet Inaugural Flash Fiction Competition

The people at Sweet lit magazine are holding their first annual flash fiction competition. In their own words, they appreciate a close attention to language and a quirky sense of humor. 

500-1000 words

$500 Prize

Enter here 

Ad Hoc Fiction Competition

The Ad Hoc Fiction site is currently accepting submissions of flash fiction of 150 words or less, using the prompt word, Festival. The chosen winner is given free entry to the Bath Flash Fiction Award as their prize. Obviously, you can't use the same story. Entries are put up anonymously on the site for public vote. Etiquette dictates that you don't announce what your piece is called in an effort to garner votes.

The Tangerine Magazine - Seeking Submissions

The Tangerine is a new Belfast-based magazine that has a bit of everything twixt its covers (poems, short stories, essays, photos, and/ or illustrations) They are currently reading material for Issue 3 and the deadline for submissions is 14th July.
Further details here:
https://thetangerinemagazine.com/submit

National Flash Fiction Day - News and Submission Opportunity

National Flash Fiction Day (24th June) is almost upon us and the 2017 National Flash-Fiction Day Anthology, Sleep is a Beautiful Colour, is on Amazon. I am delighted to have my flash piece in there, I Am My Own David Attenborough.

The anthology will be officially launched at the Bath Flash Fiction Festival

But wait, there's more. You can still get involved.

The FlashFlood journal is currently open for submissions and will be open for just one week. The accepted stories will then appear on the blog throughout the day on NFFD and be fed through Facebook and Twitter. Here are the submission guidelines. It's a great gateway to the form so spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

There's plenty more to see on the National Flash Fiction Day site.

Superb Essay on Flash Fiction by Nuala O'Connor

As beautifully written as a perfect flash fiction piece. If you want to know how to write good flash, read and take heed.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/fireworks-drowsy-swallows-and-a-box-clicked-shut-1.3119188

Dragonfly Tea Short Story Competition 2017

Got a short story brewing? The theme for the main competition is "Journey". The theme for the children's competition is "Maps". The closing date is 31st July. Open to all non-professional writers who are UK residents. In association with Henley Literary Festival.

Full details here:
https://dragonflytea.com/blogs/our-blog/dragonfly-tea-short-story-competition-2017

Lauren Child - New UK Children's Laureate

Children's Laureate Medal

Lauren Child has been announced as the new UK Children's Laureate for 2017-19. She is probably best known for the Charlie and Lola series and she takes up the baton handed to her by author and (amazing) illustrator Chris Riddell.

Read Child's comments on equality in children's literature here:

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40185267

The Moth Magazine International Short Story Prize 2017 - Open for entries

The illustrious Moth Magazine International Short Story Prize is open for entries until 30th June. This year’s judge is Belinda McKeon.

Her debut novel Solace won the Faber Prize and was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Her essays and journalism have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian and the Paris Review. As a playwright, she has had work produced in Dublin and New York, and is currently under commission to the Abbey Theatre. She lives in Brooklyn and is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Rutgers University.

Details on how to enter, here:

http://www.themothmagazine.com/a1-page.asp?ID=8227&page=18

Short Story Workshop with Kelly Creighton

Short story workshop facilitated by Kelly Creighton (founder of The Incubator Journal and author of The Bones of It) 24th June 2017 at Ards Arts Centre. Spaces left to book.

http://www.ardsarts.com/workshop/fiction-writing-crafting-your-story

Find out more about Kelly here - https://kellycreighton.com/

The Incubator Journal - https://theincubatorjournal.com/journal/

The Caterpillar

The Summer 2017 Issue of The Caterpillar, the superb literature and art magazine for children, is out now with a very fetching cover. See the winning poem of this year's poetry prize by Janet Turner. The Caterpillar Poetry Prize offers a very generous €1000 to the winner. There are no second and third places. The winner gets all the loot.

http://www.thecaterpillarmagazine.com/a1-page.asp?ID=7253&page=14

The Caterpillar is the junior wing of The Moth...more of that anon....

Dalkey Book Festival - Big Names

Coming up June 15- 18.

See here for info:

http://www.dalkeybookfestival.org/

Brilliant Flash Fiction - Writing Contest

The people at Brilliant Flash Fiction are looking for more entries to their latest flash fiction writing contest. I'm guessing numbers are low because the prompt is an unusual word (I had to look it up but maybe it's a word you're familiar with) but low uptake presents an opportunity for an enterprising flasher to get in there and wow them with a well-written piece.

Prizes:
50 euro first prize (or equivalent amount in your currency)
25 euro second prize
15 euro third prize
Judge: KJ Hannah Greenberg

Find out more:

https://brilliantflashfictionmag.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/lost-in-translation-writing-contest/#more-2234

The Hay Festival

Read Jackie Morris's excellent blog entry on the Hay Festival here:

http://www.jackiemorris.co.uk/blog/

Can You Write Flash Fiction in Swahili?

Flash fiction aficionados SmokeLong Quarterly are looking for flash fiction in Swahili. If you don't happen to be proficient in that language, don't worry, they're also still accepting general submissions.

Check out their Submittable page and have a look at the guidelines:

https://smokelong.submittable.com/Submit

Dublin Launch of Nuala O'Connor's collection, Joyride to Jupiter

Wednesday, June 14th at 6.30pm, in Gutter Bookshop

https://www.facebook.com/events/1898438447070445/

http://www.nualanichonchuir.com/home.php

Kilmore Quay Literary Festival

"There is something for everyone! Our schedule is packed to the brim with an exciting array of writers giving workshops, talks and interviews across a wide variety of genres, from crime fiction to travel writing, poetry and music."

More info here:

http://writebythesea.ie/