Welcome to 2017 National Flash Fiction Day!
celebrating June 22 — the shortest day of the year
Events this year across Aotearoa — we look forward to seeing you in June!
Free and open to all!
AUCKLAND
Venue name: AUT Tower
Address: MCW room WT1211, Level 12, AUT Tower, corner of Rutland and Wakefield St, Auckland City Central
Time: 6pm open, for 6:30pm start; event will close around 8pm, and folks are welcome to mingle until 9pm.
We are thrilled to present a number of luminaries at our National Flash Fiction Day Auckland celebrations. Be there to meet emcee Rachael Naomi, and guest readers Vaughan Rapatahana, Miriam Barr and Frankie McMillan.
Join us on Thurs, 22 June for National Flash Fiction Day in Auckland, 6 for 6.30pm start, at the AUT Tower, MCW room WT1211, Lev 12, on the corner of Rutland & Wakefield Sts, Auckland City. FREE and all welcome.
Courtesy of the AUT and the AUT Creative Writing program, this venue is within easy walking distance for those using public transport. There is both street parking available, as well as parking buildings nearby, including the Aotea Square car park.
About Auckland’s guest speakers:
Miriam Barr is a poet with a background in psychology who has a long history of collaboration with musicians, dancers, visual artists, and other poets. Her poetry has appeared in most of New Zealand’s literary journals, and her first major collection, Bullet Hole Riddle, was published by Steele Roberts in 2014. www.miriambarr.com
Frankie McMillan is an award-winning short story writer and poet. Her latest book, My Mother and the Hungarians and other small fictions, was longlisted for the 2017 NZ Ockham Book Awards. In 2005, she was awarded the Creative New Todd Bursary. Other awards include winner of the New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition in 2009 and winner of the New Zealand Flash Fiction Competition in 2013 and 2015. In 2014, she held the Ursula Bethell writing residency at Canterbury University and in 2017, the University of Auckland / Michael King writing residency.
Vaughan Rapatahana travels frequently between homes in Aotearoa NZ, Philippines & Hong Kong. He is widely published across several genre. He won the inaugural Proverse Poetry prize in 2016, when his latest poetry collection, Atonement, was nominated for a National Book Award in Philippines. He has a Ph.D from University of Auckland.
Auckland City Chair: Ivy Alvarez, ivyalvarez+NFFD@gmail.com
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CHRISTCHURCH
Venue name: Space Academy
Address: 371 St Asaph Street, Christchurch
Time: 6pm-8pm
Teoti Jardine is a writer of Māori, Irish and Scottish descent. His tribal affiliations are Waitaha, Kati Mamoe and Kai Tahu. Teoti is a graduate of the Hagley Writers Institute and his poetry has been published in New Zealand and overseas.
Tania Roxborogh writes in English and te reo Māori. She is an English teacher and translates Māori and Pākehā works. Her novel, Bastion Point, 507 Days on Takaparawha, was short-listed for the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
Heather McQuillan is a writing tutor with The School for Young Writers. In 2016, Heather won both the NZ National Flash Fiction Day Competition and the Micro Madness Award, and was placed third-equal in The Sunday Star Times Short Story Competition. Her flash fiction appears regularly on Flash Frontier and will appear in print later this year in both The Best Small Fictions 2017 and the UK NFFD anthology. She is currently a Masters of Creative Writing student at Massey University and is working towards a flash fiction collection. Along with Fleur Beale, she is judging the 2017 NFFD youth category competition.
James Norcliffe is an award-winning poet, novelist, short story writer and poetry editor. His work has appeared in New Zealand and internationally and has been translated into several languages. In 2015, his flash fiction appeared in Flash Fiction International. He judged the 2016 NFFD competition, with Elizabeth Smither. James is Editor at Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction and poetry editor of Takahe.
Christchurch City Chair: Brindi Joy, nationalflash@gmail.com
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DUNEDIN
Venue name: Dunedin City Library, Dunningham Suite (4th floor)
Address: 230 Moray Place, Dunedin
Time: 6pm – 8pm (Pre-event nibbles from 5.30pm; closing 8pm due to library hours)
Emma Neale was born in Dunedin and was raised in Christchurch, San Diego CA and Wellington. After gaining her first literature degree from Victoria University, she went on to complete her MA and PhD at University College, London. She has written four novels, and three collections of poetry, as well as edited anthologies of both short stories and poetry. She teaches, works in publishing and looks after her two young sons. With Michael Harlow, Emma Neale is judging this year’s NFFD competition. 
Chris Else is a writer of fiction. His novels are known for the contemporary insight they give into the life of the mind: through his writing, he suggests that perception and experience force the individual to confront a world that can prove both abundant and disappointing in scope. Wit, style and dramatic spontaneity are key features of Else’s writing. He has worked in teaching, bookselling and data-processing. Currently he is a literary agent, a technical writing consultant and – alongside his wife, Barbara Else – he runs an editorial agency.Dunedin City Chair: Iona Winter, ionawinter.nffd@gmail.com
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WELLINGTON
Venue name: The Thistle Inn
Address: 3 Mulgrave Street, Thorndon (across from Wellington train station)
Time: 5:30 open bar + nibbles, readings and awards at 6 pm (upstairs)
Welcome to the NFFD event in Wellington, where we’ll hear flash fictions and micros and winners of the 2017 competitions. Guests include 2017 NFFD judge Michael Harlow, 2017 NFFD youth category judge Fleur Beale and award-winning poet and fiction writer Tim Jones, who is also Consulting Editor for the forthcoming Bonsai: The Big Book of Small Stories (CUP 2018).
About Wellington’s guests:
Based in Wellington, Fleur Beale has written over twenty novels for teenagers. In 1992, Beale released her first novel Slide the Corner, which subsequently won the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award in 2007. She has been shortlisted several times in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, and in 2011 her novel Fierce September won the Awards’ Young Adult Fiction section. Fleur Beale won the 2012 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal. Beale regularly participates in the Writers in Schools programme, and also leads Professional Development sessions for teachers.
Michael Harlow has published ten books of poetry. Giotto’s Elephant (AUP, 1991) and The Tram Conductor’s Blue Cap (AUP, 2009) were both finalists in the national book awards. Harlow has held numerous fellowships and residencies including the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship and the Burns Fellowship. In 2014 he was awarded the prestigious Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Distinguished Contribution to New Zealand Poetry. In 2015 he received the Beatson Fellowship for writers. His latest poetry collection Nothing For It But To Sing is forthcoming this year from OUP. Michael Harlow lives and works as a writer, editor and Jungian therapist in Alexandra, Central Otago.
Tim Jones is a poet and author of both literary fiction and science fiction who was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature in 2010. He has had three poetry collections, two short story collections and one novel published. His most recent poetry collection, Men Briefly Explained, appeared from IP in 2011. His most recent short story collection is Transported (Vintage, 2008). Tim has also edited two poetry anthologies. With Mark Pirie, he co-edited the anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand (IP, 2009).Voyagers was included in the NZ Listener‘s “100 Best Books of the Year” list in 2009 and won a Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collected Work in 2010. His latest book, co-edited with P. S. Cottier, is The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry (IP, 2014). More at timjonesbooks.blogspot.com and http://twitter.com/timjonesbooks.
Wellington City Chair: Sara Johnson, sara@saradawnjohnson.com
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NORTHLAND
Venue name: King’s Theatre Creative Kawakawa
Date: Sunday, 25 June 2017
1.30pm – 2.30pm
Capture your creativity in a workshop with Vivian Thonger, accompanied by improvised music from the Ambients
$10 pay at the door
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3pm – 4pm
Flash fiction readings
koha
For further details, see www.northwrite.co.nz
About Vivian Thonger:
Vivian Thonger, of Kerikeri, is a writer, poet, performer and musician with degrees in psychology, art and creative writing. She moved to New Zealand in 2014, having previously lived in London, Cornwall, the Netherlands and Washington DC. A master moderator and qualitative professional for 30 years, Vivian has conducted hundreds of creativity sessions and trainings, for corporations, small companies, non-profits and clubs. Her flash fiction has been published online on the Write Up North website, Flash Frontier and International Flash Fiction. This year’s highlights include her stint as resident poet at CollaboratioNZ 2017, a biennial international art event, and being asked to judge Whangarei District Libraries 2017 Flash Fiction Competition. She is a co-founder of the Bay of Islands Writers Group.
Vivian is also an enthusiastic member of Whangarei’s ImprovMob, purveyors of acting games and chaos, Northland’s Poetry Posse and co-founder and percussionist with Ambients, an ensemble creating spontaneous musical atmospheres.
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If you would like to organise something in your area, get in touch!
Contact
nationalflash [at] gmail [dot] com
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NFFD CITY CHAIRS
Auckland: Ivy Alvarez
Ivy Alvarez is the author of The Everyday English Dictionary (London: Paekakariki Press, 2016), Hollywood Starlet (Chicago: dancing girl press), Disturbance (Wales: Seren, 2013) and Mortal. Her work appears in many publications, including Best Australian Poems (2009 and 2013), with several poems translated into Russian, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Born in the Philippines and raised in Australia, she lived many years in Wales before moving to New Zealand. www.ivyalvarez.com
Contact Ivy at: ivyalvarez+NFFD@gmail.com
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Christchurch: Brindi Joy
Brindi Joy has lived in Seattle, Denver, New Orleans and currently Christchurch, where she makes the most of the mountains and the sea. Her fiction has appeared in Landfall, JAAM, Leaving the Red Zone: An Anthology of Earthquake Poetry, Sweet As: Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories, the Christchurch Press, Flash Frontier and Takahē. Brindi was the Canterbury Regional Winner in the 2012 National Flash Fiction Day Award. This is her fourth year supporting the Canterbury Flash Fiction Day event.
Contact Brindi at: nationalflash@gmail.com
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Dunedin: Iona Winter
Iona Winter (Pākehā/Māori) lives in Karitane, Otago – the land of her tupuna. Her writing has appeared in Headland, Halo, The Island Review, Flash Frontier and various online publications. With a collection of prose and poetry submitted into the hands of publishers, she is currently working on a novella-in-flash. In 2016 Iona was awarded the Headland Frontier Prize for Best Short Story, and represented Ōtepoti Dunedin at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Contact Iona at: ionawinter.nffd@gmail.com
Sara Dawn Johnson grew up in Seattle, where she’s still got crates filled with notebooks of unfinished stories stored. She had her first piece of fiction published in the 4th grade as Thoreau Elementary School’s Young Author of 1985. Sara moved to New Zealand with her husband and two daughters in 2012 by sailing their home, a 38-foot sailboat, across the Pacific Ocean. She’s written travel and health non-fiction for publications such as theatlantic.com, Cruising World and Pacific Yachting. Sara is the co-author of Voyaging with Kids: A Guide to Family Life Afloat and author of How to Move to New Zealand in 31 Easy Steps. She is still working on publishing her second piece of fiction. Sara lives in Wellington with her family and a cat named Mouse.
Contact Sara at: sara@saradawnjohnson.com
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Please send me any news about flash fiction events, competitions etc. Many thanks sue
Hello, Sue — Please send a note to our email account (on the Home page) and also to Flash Frontier (flashfrontier [at] gmail [dot] com, and we’ll keep you informed. Thanks for your interested from the NFFD team.
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