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poetry
6/10/25
Debbie hudson
flash
3/10/25
James Mason
poetry
16/9/25
Rob Yates
fiction
5/9/25
Dylan Federico Pritchard
fiction
26/8/25
Nathaniel Sverlow
poetry
15/8/25
DS Maolalai
poetry
4/8/25
DS Maolalai
fiction
25/7/25
Ronan O'Shea
flash
18/7/25
Ben daggers
Editor's spotlight:
I hadn’t slept in a month, but I kept with the routine anyway. Get up. Work. Wine. Bed. It was the best I could do to take care of my wife and six-year-old son, a survival game that kept a roof over our heads and plenty of takeout bags on the table. Though at night, while the others slept, I often heard the voice of my dead father. “Nicholas!” he would scream again and again, as if I had just broken the…
The full selection can be found on our dedicated page: The Word-Hoard. Or keep scrolling.
Welcome, fantasist!
Some announcements:
- Jul 9: Playwrights! Screenplayers! We want to see your stuff. (We'll put you on the top of the pile.)
- Jun 3: We're back, baby! (Shiny new site design, too.)
- Jun 3: Submissions are open again: prose, scripts and poems. You'll find the link if you scroll.
- Jun 3: Please support literacy for adults. We love Read Easy, a charity whose link is at the top.
- Jan 8: We've deleted our social media pages. Ain't nobody got time for that.
[ˈfɪkʃn]
- literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people
- something that is invented or untrue
Senior Management Meeting – Shane, Billy, Nile – 9:00
The job is not fully remote, but because no one cares, you are. Most of what you see of yourself is in the box in the corner of your screen. Your eyes are always off kilter, because you’re not looking into the camera; you’re looking at yourself.
Monday Meetings start at 9, but who knows with Shane; the vet’s been keeping him busy. His cat Crumcake: a beauty. Black fur that sucks the light. Though lately, she’s struggled to regrow her gorgeous coat where acne made it drop out. Shane says tomorrow’s board meeting’s the reason for their breakouts. Crumcake is an emotional extension of himself.
You pass your fingers through your hair and watch the ghost version of yourself do the same with a slight delay. You keep going, like you’re in a trance. When you stop, the image of yourself carries on. One second, another, and you watch with…
I hadn’t slept in a month, but I kept with the routine anyway. Get up. Work. Wine. Bed. It was the best I could do to take care of my wife and six-year-old son, a survival game that kept a roof over our heads and plenty of takeout bags on…
I was talking to Mehmet. The chat was dragging out, for two reasons. One, he was lying. Two, the impatient queue behind me was too terrified to interrupt us. In keeping with the times, each person was keeping a self-preserving…
terence hughes
Lisa Vitale
Robin Harker
Claire Jaggard
Jill Craig
Harry Dobbs
Lara Hurley
Philip Suggars
Rebecca Miles
Matt Gillick
Jill Craig
Michael Trafford
David Lambert
Paul Lewellan
Imagine not being able to read.
No internet. No books.
No message in your birthday card.
Please take a look at Read Easy’s website.
[ˈpəʊɪtri]
literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature
Sometimes we think we hear
their laughter clambering over
the back yard’s seven foot fence,
while we chuck boredom at the opposite kerb
and catch it bouncing back again.
The day Patrick slid his BMX
under the 17 bus and Joseph
got grounded for nicking
two quid out his dad’s beer money,
we knocked on their door
cos we didn’t have enough players
for our rounders teams.
Their mam took one look
at our undone laces, faces tanned
on second-hand nicotine,
told us they were poorly…
I am as close to the start as I am to the end.
So these are my instructions. And I can’t hear you,
anywhere. And weather takes place in the home.
Smudge glass to gaze through glass. Clean
every view. Grow root crops, quiet, in the garden.
Keep an empty-ish glade, snot-toned pollen,
a few fat bees. Trap to release the glinting.
Fish. Be mercy. Be burned by the oldest god, the sun.
Bake brick. Stack and paint things cosmic-
blue. Don’t think but think of this…
drinking with friends – a barbecue
in may. it’s the first summer weekend
since we got the back garden to host in. meat
moist as soap on a plate by the grill.
I laid it out. we bought too many sausages
stickered in lidl and cheap. and too many
cheap beers – people always bring their own
out of courtesy anyway. kids run around
between tables and plant-pots, providing
a topic of conversation, like dogs
at a dog-park: just a subject to start.
bella’s doing well without speaking
much english. saoirse (an only child) is clearly…
Chad Frame
Christopher Jones
Colin Dardis
RT Castleberry
Jennifer Todd
Phoebe Gilmore
Gordon Meade
Thomas Dedola
Gale Acuff
Sara Eddy
DS Maolalai
Nancy Byrne Iannucci
Dominic Palmer
Chad Frame
gerard Sarnat
Written something and want us to read it?
You should definitely visit our submissions page.
[flaʃ]
- a brief fictional narrative
- a sudden brief burst of bright light
- a patch or sudden display of a bright colour
- ostentatious stylishness or display of wealth
Beyond your window, the drooling stars twizzle on their strings. They proclaim: all hail the monkey god. All hail the bollock-headed god of the ripe and arbitrary. The god of late-night radio phone-ins, microplastics and no-cheese pizza. Hail that hilarious, hungry, priapic deity…
8:08
Just arrived at Portland Expo Center. Inaugural “Artisanal Vendor of the Year” contest starting in less than an hour. Looks like I’m the only journo here.
8:16
Trouble early on. Bouncer [upper body…
There must have been hundreds of them, maybe thousands, but only on the one wall. They fit their small, black bodies closely together by pointing their wings upward, displaying the light tangerine color beneath. In this way, they painted the wall a warm triptych that made…
1994 – Cher
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Bathroom Attendant
3 strands
black/curly/synthetic
The hairs flash like a beacon on the bathroom’s white marble tiles. I wrap…
The room seems to have more shadows with it bare. Empty shelves. There had been vases and books and objects, articles of life. Modern art in oak frames; how cultured they were, their easy touch of class…
A postcard of a bear. I flip it over and read Dave’s writing (It’s me! Missing you.), then drop it behind the coffee machine, a space normally reserved for brown envelopes and CVs.
Sandra sprays and wipes the empty…
Elysia Rourke
Melanie Mulrooney
Sean Glatch
Andrew Wickham
Rebecca Klassen
Anne Wilkins
Marcelo MEdone
Stephen Newland
Karen Walker
Dylan Federico Pritchard
Polly Halladay
Rebecca Miles
David Kotok
John Sheirer
Ingrid Jendrzejewski
competitions past
We did some writing competitions last year. We might do some more again.
three rounds. three inspirations.
Check out the inspirations, judge’s comments and all the rest here.
round 1
round 2
round 3
The Top 10 of our first-ever flash fiction competition. Fandabidozi.
Our full report is here.
team results
