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Posts Tagged ‘flash fiction’

Throwaway Lines is a lovely idea – short stories inspired by discarded notes and messages. The  project was initiated by Andy Hayes, who attended last year’s short story workshop with me and Alexei Sayle. It’s produced in association with the writers’ collective 26 –  also a site worth investigating if you don’t know about them.

For 26 days this month, they’ll be publishing stories based on scraps of handwritten paper that Andy has been collecting from London’s streets over the past couple of years. There are three stories to read so far, including one by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg – an example of early 20th-century flash fiction: ‘Half a sheet of foolscap’.

It’s live right now at this link: Throwaway Lines. Take a look!

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The Bridport Prize has launched a new venture designed to ‘investigate the relationship between books and films’. Curated by novelist Jonathan Coe, the scheme is inviting  people to submit film adaptations of some of last year’s winning stories in Bridport’s flash fiction category. For more details of how to enter visit the From Page to Screen website

Flash Fiction is being broadcast for the first time this week on BBC R4’s Afternoon Reading programme. Sixteen stories by Short Review website founder Tania Hershman will be featured at 3.30pm on Tues June 29th, Wed June 30th and Thursday July 1st – read by the brilliant Nicola Walker (“Ruth” from Spooks”) and Tom Goodman-Hill.

Some of the stories are from Tania’s book  The White Road and Other Stories, but most are new. In her capacity as writer-in-residence at Bristol University’s Science Faculty, Tania has also been invited to take part in a discussion entitled “Blinded by Science” for Radio 4’s Off the Page, to be broadcast at a future date.

If you’re otherwise engaged at 3.30pm on a weekday, BBC programmes can be heard for seven days after the broadcast date by clicking on the BBC Radio 4 website.

The  Literary quarterly Ambit is celebrating its 200th issue with a 200  word poetry or prose competition –  £500 goes to the winner. See their site for more details:

http://www.ambitmagazine.co.uk/

Congratulations to The Short Review editor, Tania Hershman, winner of the Grand Prize in the University of Maine’s  Ultra-Short Competition (50 word stories). I’m also on the shortlist, which I was pleased about, given that they had over 900 entries from all over the world.

http://www.umm.maine.edu/sixth-annual-ultra-short-competition.html

(See more recent post for details about The Short Review.)