Welcome to 2021 National Flash Fiction Day!

celebrating June 22 – the shortest day of the year

2021 Events 

ONLINE INTERNATIONAL PANELS

AUCKLAND

Facebook page 

Queries: jessiepuru@gmail.com

Auckland City Chair: Jessie Puru is a writer, mother of one daughter, and caption producer who lives in Auckland. She has had her work included in publications such as Landfall, Blackmail Press, Ika and Poetry Magazine (US), and she was runner up in the New Voices Emerging Poets Competition in 2019. In 2017 Jessie graduated with a Bachelor of Creative Arts from Manukau Institute of Technology, and in 2020 she graduated with a Master of Creative Writing from AUT.

DUNEDIN

Facebook page 

Queries: nffd.dunedin@gmail.com

Dunedin City Chairs:  Kerry Lane is a poet and playwright living by the sea in Ōtepoti, Aotearoa. Current projects include a puppet theatre piece about Minnie Dean, a long-form podcast about the end of the world, and an experimental poetry-ish project about memory. Kerry is also the 2021 NFFD Youth Competition Judge.

Paula Friedrich has come to Dunedin from Hamburg and makes her home in Port Chalmers with a view of the sea that reminds her of home. 

CHRISTCHURCH

Facebook page updated soon

Queries: nationalflash@gmail.com

Christchurch City Chair: Brindi Joy is an American who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her fiction has appeared in New Zealand collections and literary journals, most recently in Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2018 she was awarded Honorable Mention in the international Anton Chekov Prize for Very Short Fiction and in 2014 was the National Flash Fiction Day Canterbury Regional Winner. In 2016 she wrote and produced the short film, The Road Home. Brindi works as an Advisor for the local city council supporting creative regeneration.

HAMILTON

Facebook page 

Queries: tracey.slaughter@waikato.ac.nz

Hamilton City Chair: Tracey Slaughter was born in Papatoetoe and now lives in Cambridge. She edits the journals Mayhem and Poetry NZ. Her poetry and short fiction have been widely anthologised in New Zealand and received numerous awards, including BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award (2001 and 2004), the international 2014 Bridport Prize, the 2015 Landfall Essay Competition and, in 2020, the Fish Short Story Prize. Her most recent work, Devil’s Trumpet (VUP, April 2021), is a collection of thirty-one exhilarating new short stories. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Waikato and also is a member of the NFFD Central Committee. (photo credit Catherine Chidgey)

WELLINGTON

Facebook page 

Queries: Constance.nffd@gmail.com

Wellington City Chair: Constance Talbot, of Chinese and Malay descent, grew up in Singapore, but now calls Wellington home. She is the Chair of the Wellington Writers Walk, and is the President of the Wadestown Toastmasters Club. Her day job is Communications Manager for Te ORA Maori Medical Practitioners. She is also studying Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington. During her spare time, she composes 140-character poems, the shortest form of writing she can squeeze in. Constance also is a member of the NFFD Central Committee. 

NORTHLAND 

Facebook page updated soon

More about the event, which will include a workshop followed by afternoon tea and a public reading / open mic here!

Queries: kderrick@xtra.co.nz

Northland City Chair: Kathy Derrick lives in Kerikeri. She originally trained and worked as an engineer before turning to writing twenty-five years ago. She has been shortlisted in the takahē short story competition with ‘The Auburn Trail’, shortlisted in Flash 500 and long listed in TSS Flash 400 with various stories. In 2019 she published a volume of short prose, Scoria: Short prose from the cinder cone, with her sister, Jac Jenkins. As well as organising NFFD events, she is the events coordinator for the NZ Society of Authors, Northland Branch and has organised numerous writing workshops and conferences, including the NorthWrite series which has gained national recognition and success.

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About NFFD 2020…

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the creative world around the small form is expansive — and we are heartened by the way we were all able to reach across borders to celebrate last year! We are therefore planning more online events that will take place in June, with international guests. Topics and dates coming in May…

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Please enjoy last year’s events while you are preparing for this year! 

NFFD 2020 ONLINE. Just click on the NFFD logo to go to the YouTube channel, where we shared the 2020 programme, including guest readers, music, micros, a book draw and more — and the livestreamed video with our 2020 judges, winning stories and prize-giving!

2020 readings and discussions

Best Small Fictions and Best Microfictions: an international reading

Featuring:

from Best Microfiction

• Steven John
• Kathryn Kulpa
• jj peña
• Michelle Ross
• Charmaine Wilkerson
• Francine Witte

from Best Small Fictions 2020

• Micah Dean Hicks
• Omotara James
• Angie Sijun Lou
• Rachel Smith
• Lavanya Vasudevan

Youth Voices 

Featuring:

• • Penelope Duran
  • Freddie Gormack-Smith
  • Samantha Jory-Smart
  • Lucy Kennedy
  • Denika Mead

The Art of Writing Small: A Roundtable with Journal Editors Around the World 

Featuring:

• • Christopher Allen, SmokeLong Quarterly (Germany)
  • Nuala O’Connor, Splonk (Ireland)
  • Grant Faulkner, 100 Word Story (US)
  • Ingrid Jendrzejewski, FlashBack Fiction (UK)
  • Rupert Dastur, The Short Story (UK)
  • Vaughan Rapatahana, Flash Frontier (Aotearoa New Zealand)
    • Moderator: Jordan Hamel, Stasis Journal (Aotearoa New Zealand)

Imagination Unbound: Five Women on the Poetic Narrative Form 

Featuring:

· Nod Ghosh, author of Filthy Sucre (Truth Serum Press 2020)
· Diane Brown, author of Every now and then I have another child (OUP 2020)
· Helen Rickerby, author of How to live (AUP 2019)
· Anne Kennedy, author of Moth Hour (AUP 2019)
· Gail Ingram, author of Contents Under Pressure (Pukeko Publishing 2019)

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Reading series

YouTube reading series – an online reading series at the Flash Frontier YouTube channel, featuring new books, journal editors, youth readers, NFFD judges past and present, Bath novella-in-flash readings, Best Small Fictions, City Chairs and more.  Please sign up to the YouTube channel and see what’s coming next!

Micro Madness – June 1-22 micro readings from our annual international micro competition, with lockdown micros and no-theme micros – two per day!

New Books –  celebrating books published in 2020 from around the world!