22 JUNE 2016 – National Flash Fiction Day

June 22, 2016 is our shortest day of the year — and the day we know and love as National Flash Fiction Day.

The competition this year ran February 1 – April 30. The 2016 judges were Elizabeth Smither and James Norcliffe.

The Long List, Short List and Winners can be found on our Competition page, and all winning stories will be published in the July special issue of Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction. Winners were announced this year at three main events in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. In 2016 Regional Awards were sponsored by the NZ Society of Authors branches in Auckland, Canterbury, Hamilton, Northland, Otago and Wellington. A special Northland Flash Fiction event was held Sunday, June 26, in Kawakawa.

This year, we also ran the second annual Micro Madness series, in which 22 micros were selected for inclusion, and three winners were selected from the 22 finalists. All 22 stories and winners can be found here.

Also this year, something newer and even shorter: Tiny Tales, which included stories of 250 characters — that’s characters, not words! Another international series, posted here.

More news and updates, including other publications and competitions involving New Zealand writers of compressed fiction, can be found on our Flash New page.

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COMPETITION

National Flash Fiction Day is New Zealand’s celebration of the shortest form of fiction writing, on the shortest day of the year. See the Competition page for 2016 results.

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The 2012-15 competitions were great successes with approximately 300 entries each year. 2016 was a banner year, with over 500 submissions.

You can find the winners from previous years by clicking on the tabs at the top of the page. And you can read them, published at Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction. See the Archives page for links. 

 

NFFD in the media

NZ Herald, 25 June 2016 — Heather McQuillan‘s winning story featured.

Flash on the radio! Sam Averis and Nod Ghosh read their NFFD short-listed stories;Brindi Joy discusses NFFD 2016 with Morrin Rout and reads her Micro Madness. Plains FM.

The Sunday Star Times, 14 June 2015 (click on the link for article)

Plains FM Radio, 16 June 2015 –– Morrin Rout talks with James Norcliffe and Nod Ghosh about the fine art of flash, NFFD, Flash Fiction International and the events scheduled in Christchurch. Go here to listen. 

Radio New Zealand, 21 June 2015 — interview with Eileen Merriman and Nod Ghosh, the creatives behind the Micro Madness series at NFFD this year. Plus other micros read on the radio by participants in last year’s month of mad micro fun, Patrick Pink, Sally Houtman and Heather McQuillan. Go here for the programme and schedule.

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EVENTS

National Flash Fiction Day celebrates each year with prize-giving ceremonies and presentations by the judges as well as readings key flash all across Aotearoa.  Our three main events will take place take place each year simultaneously in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, on June 22. Details about 2016 events are posted on our  Events page. 

contact: nationalflash [at] gmail [dot] com

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ON THE RADIO

In 2012, Radio New Zealand Arts on Sunday hosted a discussion of National Flash Fiction Day and flash fiction in general to help launch the inaugural event. You can hear the radio interview and hear some flash fiction on the Radio NZ website.

And this was one of Radio NZ’s most popular podcasts in 2012 — so thank you to Radio NZ, listeners and flash fiction fans!

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CENTRAL COMMITTEE

National Flash Fiction Day is an organisation run by volunteers in the writing and business community who believe that some of the best things come in small packages.

Margaret Cahill is a freelance editor based in Kerikeri. Her expertise includes assessing and editing books for children and young adults. Margaret worked for many years as an editor at Learning Media Limited, where she had responsibility for editing a range of children’s series from the ‘My Feelings’ series for Early Childhood Education to the ‘Connected‘ series on science, mathematics, and technology. She also edited a broad range of materials for teachers. She edited A Nest of Singing Birds, a history of the New Zealand School Journal which won the reference and anthology section of the 2008 Montana Book Awards.

Michelle Elvy is a writer, editor and manuscript assessor based in the Bay of Islands. She edits at Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction and Blue Five Notebook. Her first online project was the acclaimed 52|250 A Year of Flash. Michelle has published poetry, fiction, travel writing and creative nonfiction in numerous print and online magazines. She is Assistant Editor of the international and acclaimed Best Small Fictions series (Queens Ferry Press) and was an associate editor of Flash Fiction International (W W Norton, 2015) and has guest edited at Smokelong Quarterly. Michelle lives on her sailboat Momo, named after the novel by Michael Ende. More at michelleelvy.com.

Raised and educated in Dubai and Scotland, Katherine Honeyman completed her education in New Zealand and returned to the United Kingdom where she worked with the newly established World Association of Nuclear Operators in London. Her role included liaison between Moscow, Atlanta, Paris and Tokyo regional centres and management of the WANO inaugural meeting in Moscow. Katherine then assisted Grant Dalton, Skipper and CEO  of ‘New Zealand Endeavour’, in preparations for the Round the World Yacht Race then pursued her career in film and television as a production executive with South Pacific Pictures. The family moved to Fiji for several years and following the coup and returned home in 2007. Art, literature and animal welfare remain her passions.