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I turn and see Blake struggle up the pot-holed street. Directly above him, an old woman smokes on a balcony, her bare arms resting on its metal railing.

 

Blake looks like a tourist. An American tourist. Which he is. Basketball vest, baggy shorts, battered trainers. A back-to-front baseball cap. Two years in London haven’t softened his edges…

most recent:

fiction

21/11/24

terence hughes

flash

10/11/24

Elysia Rourke

poetry

10/11/24

chad Frame

Script

10/11/24

Anthea Jones

flash

27/10/24

Melanie Mulrooney

poetry

27/10/24

Chad frame

fiction

27/10/24

Lisa Vitale

flash

13/10/24

Karen Walker

fiction

13/10/24

Lisa Vitale

The full selection can be found on our dedicated page: The Word-Hoard. Or keep scrolling.

Welcome, fantasist!

Some announcements:

[ˈfɪkʃn]

  1. literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people
  2. something that is invented or untrue

Summer is winding to a close, and it has been three weeks since Eleni returned from the city hospital. She contacted them yesterday, postponing going back for her next placement. A polite, rational email which did not match how she felt.

Her mother has sold the small patch of farmland – no sons, only Eleni, with her deft mind full of medicine and her hands and hair scented by antiseptic – and the hilled, undulating land belongs to another farmer now. It is impossible for her to think that she will never again see her father – his thick back, sturdy arms – bending over the rolled nets of caught olives.

Eleni is managing her aunt’s shop while she is away. Isidora had looked at her niece, returned from the thrum of A&E rooms, still young, still a student, and sensing her thorned anger and her loss, had led her to her workshop. In the cool space of the pottery room, protected from the sun by thick, white walls, she sat…

He had always known the line of his life: to be as other men of his like and station.  How that was to be achieved was far less important than the fact that it was achieved; that he had maintained what needed to be maintained until early… 

I found him at the bar. ‘May I join you, Your Highness?’

 

‘Glad to have the company.’ He motioned vaguely to the stool beside him. ‘I’m not the king anymore, so you can skip the formalities. Call me Ed.’

terence hughes

Lisa Vitale

Matt Gillick

Harry Dobbs

Claire Jaggard

Lara Hurley

Rebecca Miles

Michael Trafford

Jill Craig

Philip Suggars

David Lambert

Imagine not being able to read.

no !nt3rn3t. no 8ook5.

no 8!r7hd@y [@rd5.

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

I hope not to burn in Hell forever but

burn in Heaven, be on fire for Jesus

as our Sunday School teacher says it,

burning the very best way she sings out

so Sunday after church I returned to

our classroom, empty then but for God and

Jesus and the Holy Ghost and me and

Miss Hooker and the Flag and Washington

and Lincoln, and caught her smoking Salems

as she was stacking our hymnals and I

didn’t know what to say, smoking’s a sin

and fetches Hell faster than anything

save ladies’ naked bosoms and butt-cracks

on refrigerator repairmen and…

Sunday evening finds us in the kitchen.

You’re washing up, I’m rolling flatbreads out

with tension like a mortise in my gut.

 

We’ve heard the news: a relative of yours,

a garden afternoon, a sudden slip,

and somehow, that was it. My hands still grip

 

the rolling pin, yours soak in a dishless sink.

We glance towards the fissure, look for ways

to say in silence what we need to say…

Is your person wearing a hat? Mark asks, leaning

his metal folding chair against the cabin wall

with a creak, steepling his fingers behind his head.

 

I’m looking at the sunbeams streaming through

the open windows, the gauzy curtains flapping

lazily in late July breeze, terns on the wing

 

over the lake, my hands, the game’s plastic tiles,

the plastic rows of cartoon faces, anything at all

to avoid staring at the bulging baseballs

 

of his biceps, toned by years of throwing,

chasing, lifting, tackling, hitting, pinning—

No, I blurt, and he grins, all pearls and opals…

Chad Frame

Christopher Jones

Colin Dardis

RT Castleberry

Lisa Stone

Gordon Meade

Charity Reed

Thomas Dedola

Phoebe Gilmore

Jennifer Todd

Nancy Byrne Iannucci

Written something and want us to read it?

You should definitely visit our submissions page.

[flaʃ]

  1. a brief fictional narrative
  2. a sudden brief burst of bright light
  3. a patch or sudden display of a bright colour
  4. ostentatious stylishness or display of wealth

“Mare’s tails and mackerel scales 

Make tall ships take in their sails.” 

 

She’s studied the weather and knows about clouds which is why her lips are thin and tightShe does not want to tell him about the promotion. Tonight, she…

Leaving dusk behind, I slip into the library’s light. Coat on the peg, I slink into the corner.  

 

Slumped on the floor, back against the radiator, is my spot. Miss Robin, the librarian, comes over with hot chocolate…

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…

  1. The Blue-ringed Octopus lives in colourful coral reefs. It relies on the rocks and crevices in its environment for refuge.

 

A customer wants to speak to the manager, but I’m trying to write my essay on cephalopods and their dedication…

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…

 

The history books said that it must take place on the twenty-second of January

Lying in bed, dressed in a plain white gown, head covered by a lace veil decorated with myrtle leaves, Alex Osborne wondered if people would be angry

Anne Wilkins

Marcelo MEdone

Stephen Newland

Sean Glatch

Polly Halladay

Kim Dickinson

David Kotok

John Sheirer

competitions past

We did some writing competitions last year. We might do some more again.

Autumn '24

three rounds. three inspirations.

Check out the inspirations, judge’s comments and all the rest here.

round 1

round 2

round 3

spring '24

The Finalists

The Top 10 of our first-ever flash fiction competition. Fandabidozi.

Our full report is here.

team results

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