Some recent Flash collections

I've been catching up on recent Flash Fiction collections from acknowledged experts in the genre and/or heroic publishers. They're all worth a read.

• "You're Not Supposed to Cry" by Gary Duncan (Vagabond Voices, 2017. Puffs by Paul Beckman, etc). He's the founding editor of Spelk Fiction, a Flash magazine.
• "Some of us glow more than others" by Tania Hershman (Unthank books, 2017) is a mix of Flash and short stories. She's an experienced tutor, judge and writer of Flash, who's published short story and poetry books too.
• "Nothing to worry about" by Vanessa Gebbie (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2018). Another experienced tutor, judge and writer of Flash, who's published short story and poetry books too.
• "Alligators in the Night" by Meg Pokrass (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2018. Puffs by Gaffrey, Scotellaro, etc). One of the big names in Flash, as tutor, judge and writer.
• "Kiss kiss" by Paul Beckman (Truth Serum Press, 2019). Another of the big names in Flash.
• "All That Is Between Us" by K.M.Elkes (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2019. Puffs by Readman, Pokrass, Hershman, Gaffrey, etc). A short story tutor.

Most of these authors write "proper" Flash, with a narrative. Tania Hershman strays the most, writing pieces that could be prose poems. Some of Vanessa Gebbie's pieces are difficult to classify too.

The pieces that have been previously published have appeared mostly in specialist Flash magazines (Beckman's acknowledgements page mentions 40 magazines!) though there have been a few break-out successes.

The International Short-Short Story Press, who published Vanessa Gebbie's book, also publish a paper-based magazine called "Flash", which is on the acknowledgements page of most (maybe all) these books.

On the cover of Meg Pokrass's book there's a Paul McVeigh quote - "If you ever hear someone say they don't get flash fiction or ask what impact can you possibly make with prose in such few words? - tell them to read Meg Pokrass."

Will any of the books convince non-Flashers of the merit of the format? I'm not so sure. People irritated by short stories (claiming that they're too short for depth or immersion) will be even more irritated by Flash. Poets are used to reading short pieces but won't appreciate Flash's lack of entanglement with language. I suspect Flash will continue to be read and reviewed mainly by people who write Flash, the same names incestuously cropping up. But assemble the best 5 from each of these books and you'll have an anthology with enough clout to challenge some recent poetry anthologies I've seen, clear of pretension and rich in ideas. It would be worth comparing it with Simon Armitage's "Seeing Stars" and some other supposedly poetry books.

Recent online publications

• 2 poems in The Lake
• A story in Revenge, a Cambridge Writers anthology
• A poem in London Grip
• Flash in "Flashflood" - Other plans
• A poem in Atrium
• Mini-prose in "Unbroken" - Class
• Flash in "Spelk" - The promise of science
• A poem in Ink, sweat and tears

The year so far

We're half way through the year and I've 19 acceptances already - a record for me. I don't know why, because I adopted the same submissions strategy as I did last year when I had much less success. 2 stories, 5 Flash pieces and 12 poems. £70 pounds.

I've written 5 stories (about 6,000 words) this year. Only 2 poems though, so I may be heading for another record.

A submission schedule for the rest of 2019

The second half of the year seems to have fewer competition and magazine-window opportunities for me. Here they are -

• July -
  • 31st - Allegro poetry deadline
  • 31st - Compass poetry deadline
  • 31st - Indigo Dreams collection competition
  • 31st - Flash Frontier (Historical Fiction, 1000 words)
  • 31st - Winchester Poetry Prize deadline. 1st prize 1000. Entry fee 5.
• August -
  • TU Dublin Short Story Competition (free entry. 1st prize 500 euros. Deadline 19th August)
• September -
  • 1-7th - Lost Balloon window (1000 words max)
  • 1-30th - Ambit fiction window
  • 2nd - Popshot deadline. Theme: Chance
  • 30th - Deadline of Bedford Writing Competition for Stories (max 3000) and for poems. 1st prize 500. Fee 6 (4 for students). See rules
  • 30th - Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award deadline. Max 250 words. 1st prize 600. See rules
• October -
  • Frogmore Papers window opens
  • Troubadour International Poetry Prize. 1st prize 2000. Entry fee 5. Deadline 21 Oct.
  • The Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction Free entry. 1st prize £500 (shortlisted authors will be featured in an ebook anthology). Deadline Friday 25th October 2019. 2,000-6,000 words with the theme of 'AI'.
  • 1st-31st - Interpreter's House window (poetry and prose)
  • 1st-31st - Envoi window (poetry)
  • 31st - National Poetry Competition deadline
  • 31st - Flash Frontier (Berlin, 250 words)
• November -
  • 1st Commonwealth Short Story Prize (free entry. 2k-5k words. 1st prize 5000)
  • 1st Ambit (poetry) window closes (opens 1st Aug)
  • 16th Sonder (theme - Secrets)
  • 1st-30th - Under the Radar window (poetry)
  • 30th - The South poetry deadline.
• December
  • 2nd - Stinging Fly window opens
  • 1st-31st - Under the Radar window (prose)
  • Postbox - stories 1000-2000. Deadline Dec 31st. See https://www.redsquirrelpress.com/submissions

Poetry and responsibility

I think poets have very little influence, though they can cause offense. Given the low readership that poetry attracts, poets and editors might think they can ignore prevailing trends. Perhaps they can for a while, but an unfortunate phrase can be taken out of context and go viral. As a comedian has said, "Today we’re all one clumsy joke away from public ruin.” I don't write the kind of poetry that challenges taste, and I avoid writing about family and friends. Diversity-wise I don't do so well. I end up writing only about what I know. I'm working on it.

I've noticed a bit of a backlash against political correctness and the crasser aspects of diversity drives. Rishi Dastidar's "Diversity campaign" poem is fun, with "the smiling, camp White man; the pretty, submissive East Asian women; the Afro-Caribbean guy who we still feel is threatening so we've put him at the back; the South Asian wearing glasses - obviously he's good with numbers. Although we never manage to include the wheelchair user we're always meaning to".

I've written some articles about the issues, including material harvested from the web. See -

• Tact attacked (dangers of being too nice)
• Offensive poetry (what might hurt/anger readers)
• A guide to diversity/inclusion for writers and editors (adding variety)

Anglo-Indian poetry event

I've had to miss some recent Ely, Bedford and Cambridge readings because of other commitments. On 17th May, though bug-ridden, I managed to attend an Anglo-Indian event. I knew of 2 of the poets there, Prabhu Guptara and (pictured against a musical, artistic backdrop) Rishi Dastidar (Nine Arches Press). Usha Akella, Mona Dash, Kavita A. Jindal, Jessica Mookherjee, Soul Patel and Yogesh Patel performed too.

Rishi, fresh from being Guest Tutor at an Arvon Course ("Poetry: Towards a Collection"), read from his book the pieces I most liked - "A shark comes to dinner" gets better each time I hear/see it.

Becoming an international writer

How can you become an "international writer"? Get accepted by foreign magazines. Of course, there's Eire (Stinging Fly, etc), New Zealand (Flash Frontier, etc), Australia and the USA. Luckily, there are also english-language magazines in several other countries, some able to attract familiar names. Have a look at -

• The Ofi Press Magazine (International Poetry and Literature from Mexico City)
• Barcelona Review (An electronic, bilingual, bi-monthly, English-Spanish Review of Contemporary Fiction)
• The Stockholm Review of Literature
• Sand (Berlin)
• B O D Y (Prague)
• Poetry Salzburg
• Bombay Literary Magazine
• Literary Yard (India)