22 JUNE 2018 – National Flash Fiction Day
June 22, 2018 is our shortest day of the year — and the day we know and love as National Flash Fiction Day.
The competition this year opens February 15 – April 30. The 2018 judges are acclaimed short story writers, novelists and poets Tracey Slaughter and Sue Wootton.
The youth category will be judged in 2018 by acclaimed short story writer and poet Tim Jones and NFFD 2017 winner Patrick Pink.
This year, we are also adding a te reo Māori prize in both youth and adult categories, judged by poet, novelist, essayist and short story writer Vaughan Rapatahana.
More about the judges and competition guidelines/ rules on the Competition page.
Winners will be announced this year at our main events in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Northland and Wellington. National awards, regional awards, micro awards, guest readers and more!
This year, we will also run the fourth annual Micro Madness series, in which 22 micros will be selected for inclusion, and three winners will be selected from the 22 finalists. Previous Micro Madness winners can be found here; the 2016 Tiny Tales series is here.
Winning stories are published in Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction.
More news and updates, including other publications and competitions involving New Zealand writers of compressed fiction, can be found on our Flash News 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 details about the 2018 competition. See interviews with the 2017 winners here: Patrick Pink (adult), Joy Tong (youth).
The 2012-15 competitions saw approximately 300 entries; 2016 and 2017 were banner times for flash fiction, with over 500 submissions each year.
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.
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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 main events will take place take place simultaneously in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Northland and Wellington, on June 22.
Details about the 2018 events will be posted on our Events page.
contact: nationalflash [at] gmail [dot] com
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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.
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, reviews and creative nonfiction in numerous print and online magazines. She is Assistant Editor of the international and acclaimed Best Small Fictions series (Braddock Avenue Press) and was an associate editor of Flash Fiction International (W W Norton, 2015); she has guest edited at Smokelong Quarterly and judged the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Recent work can be found in Memoirs of the Feminine Divine: Voices of Power & Invisibility (US), Manifesto: A Political Anthology (NZ), Borderlands & Crossroads: Writing the Motherland (Canada) and the Bath Flash Fiction Anthology (UK). This year she is editing, with Frankie McMillan and James Norcliffe, Bonsai: The big book of small stories (CUP, forthcoming 2018). 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.
Frankie McMillan‘s most recent collection of short fictions is My Mother and the Hungarians (CUP 2016). She is the author of The Bag Lady’s Picnic and other stories and two poetry collections:Dressing for the Cannibals and There are no horses in heaven; her work has also appeared in the 2008 and 2009 Best NZ Fiction anthologies as well as Flash Fiction International. Winner of the 2015 Ursula Bethell writing residency at Canterbury University, Frankie judged the NFFD competition in 2014 and was the national competition winner in 2013 and 2015 (in 2015 taking 1st and 3rd prize). This year she is editing, with Michelle Elvy and James Norcliffe, Bonsai: The big book of small stories (CUP, forthcoming 2018).
James Norcliffe has published a collection of short stories, eight collections of poetry, and several award-winning novels for young people. His newest collection is Dark Days at the Oxygen Café (VUP 2016). In 2016, with Joanna Preston, he edited Leaving the Red Zone: poems from the Canterbury Earthquakes (Clerestory Press). His most recent book for young people is Felix and the Red Rats (Longacre/Random), released in 2012. He had a long time involvement with Takahē magazine and has edited anthologies of poetry and of writing by young people. He is poetry editor for the Christchurch Press. James has been awarded writing fellowships both in NZ and overseas including the Burns Fellowship, the IWP / Iowa Residency, and residencies in Hobart, Massey University and Otago University College of Education. He publishes poetry widely internationally and regularly reads at festivals and occasions throughout NZ and overseas. His flash fiction appeared in Flash Fiction International (Norton, 2015). He is editor at Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction and is also editing, with Michelle Elvy and Frankie McMillan, Bonsai: The big book of small stories (CUP, forthcoming 2018).
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CITY CHAIRS
Auckland: Jessie Puru
Jessie Puru is a Māori/Pākehā writer and solo mother who grew up in South Auckland. In 2017, Jessie graduated with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing) from Manukau Institute of Technology. In the same year, her story Three Dresses was shortlisted for the NFFD competition. She is currently working on her first collection of poems. Jessie’s work has been published journals including Ika, Landfall, Blackmail Press, Flash Frontier and Poetry Magazine (US).
Contact Jessie at: jessiepuru.nffd@gmail.com
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Christchurch: Brindi Joy
Contact Brindi at: nationalflash@gmail.com
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Dunedin: Iona Winter
Iona Winter (Waitaha/Kāi Tahu) lives in Waikouaiti, Otago. In 2017 her fiction was anthologised with Bath Flash Fiction, Nottingham Peacebuilders, Pacific Monsters, Elbow Room, Centum Press, and Ora Nui. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including: Flash Frontier, Reflex Fiction, Headland and Corpus. Iona is passionate about representing Aotearoa in her work, and exploring the intersection between written and spoken word. https://ionawinter.wordpress.com/
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NFFD IN THE NEWS
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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ON THE RADIO: NFFD’s INAUGURAL EVENT
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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QUERIES
Thank you for visiting this site.Please direct all questions to nationalflash[at]gmail[dot]com
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