National Flash Fiction Day is here

It's National Flash Fiction Day, and my increased attention to my fiction is manifesting in two ways. My story, "Break," appears in FlashFlood (here's the link), an online flood of flashes just for today, and tonight I'll read at The Lansdown in Bristol with a host of other flash fiction writers, including Tania Hershman and my Bath Spa colleague Lucy English. The reading begins at 7 p.m. and is free, so come along if you're near!

Sudden Prose Reprints: "Like Owls" by Tania Hershman

"Like Owls"

Someone died. That was the whisper down the line. The line, that stretched, that snaked, that wound. Someone died, they hissed, pass it on. And we did, we bent towards our neighbour, our hot breath in their ear. Who, who, who? Like owls, the sounds came back. Who died, who died, who died? But nothing was returned, and no-one could see, no-one could see the front, although every day we shuffled some, we moved one foot and maybe the other. We hoped, we hoped and hoped, we clutched our numbers, shuffling.

Inside our heads we wondered if we were it, the dead, the expired. Perhaps we had all passed on but why the shuffling then? If we were dead, we thought, we'd rest. If we were dead we'd lie around all day, in sunshine if it still existed. Lucky dead, we thought, lucky not to have to queue, to eat, or breathe, or sigh or sweat, or love or curse. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

The next day and the next, we stood, we inched, we stood. And then: a runner. A runner streaking, from behind straight up, towards the head, the start, the finish! Go go go go, we cried, clutching our numbers, our shuffling feet thrilled to the chase, thrilled to the bravery. Go go go go go! The runner vanished, far far ahead, and we strained to hear, to hear some cheers, some acts, some violence, some thing. But no, the runner's run was done. Bones broken, came the whisper, hissed from one ear to the next. Truncheons, batons, zappers, chains and stern commands. The runner won't be running now, or ever, and we giggled, laughed and cackled, foolish runner, stupid stupid stupid, no not brave, not brave. Queue we must and queue we did, no breaking free, no gaining ground.

Someone died. That was the whisper down the line. Who who who? Like owls, the sound came back. 

Tania Hershman is the author of two story collections: My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions (Tangent Books, 2012), a collection of 56 very short fictions, and The White Road and Other Stories (Salt, 2008; commended, 2009 Orange Award for New Writers). Tania's short stories and poetry are published or forthcoming in, among others, Five Dials, Stinging Fly, Tears in the Fence, PANK magazine, Smokelong Quarterly, the London Magazine, and New Scientist, and on BBC Radio. She is writer-in-residence in Bristol University's Science Faculty and editor of The Short Review. 

Sudden Prose Reprints: "A Loyal Friend" by Tania Hershman

"A Loyal Friend"

Most people considered Jacobsen a loyal friend and so they invested everything, every cent they had. When Jacobsen failed to appear at the time they had agreed, no-one worried. Jacobsen's a friend, they said to each other. He is probably delayed, they said cheerfully, and helped themselves to nuts.

Several hours later, when attempts to contact Jacobsen had failed, they started talking in a different way. This is the point where you smile, they said to one another, and you say, We should have known. This is the point where you call the police.

Jacobsen was never found. It was never even determined where Jacobsen had come from, so to work out where he went was a lost cause. For a long time, his friends, the ones who had considered themselves confidantes and intimates, would meet and talk about him. One by one they began to confess their ignorance. What was his first name? they whispered to each other. What was he really called?

Tania Hershman is the author of two story collections: My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions (Tangent Books, 2012), a collection of 56 very short fictions, and The White Road and Other Stories (Salt, 2008; commended, 2009 Orange Award for New Writers). Tania's short stories and poetry are published or forthcoming in, among others, Five Dials, Stinging Fly, Tears in the Fence, PANK magazine, Smokelong Quarterly, the London Magazine, and New Scientist, and on BBC Radio. She is writer-in-residence in Bristol University's Science Faculty and editor of The Short Review.

The National Flash Fiction Day anthology, Jawbreakers,

will include my own short-short story, "Mauve." I'm delighted, in part because of the great company--it will included commissioned stories by Ian Rankin and Ali Smith, as well as Bath Spa alum Tania Hershman and NFFD director Calum Kerr. Full details are on the National Flash Fiction Day site here.

Tania Hersman's Flash Fiction on BBC Radio 4 This Week!

This week, all of the BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Reading programs - which usually feature a single short story per day - will feature Tania Hershman's flash fiction. There will be a total of 16 stories over the three days, Tuesday June 29th, Wednesday June 30th and Thursday July 1st, read by Nicola Walker ("Ruth" from Spooks) and Tom Goodman-Hill. Some of the short-short stories are from The White Road and Other Stories, but the majority are new work.

The program is broadcast live at 3:30 p.m. UK time and then will be available online for seven days afterwards, so you can listen wherever you are.

NB this is the first time there has been flash fiction in this slot!

An interview about flash fiction with Tania Hershman

See this blog for an interview with Tania Hershman about flash fiction.

An online journal reviewing short story collections

The Short Review is a monthly online journal that publishes reviews of short story collections and anthologies as well as interviews with short story authors. They also have regular competitions and book giveaways. It's edited by Tania Hershman, author of The White Road and Other Stories (Salt, 2008), a collection of short and short short stories which was longlisted for the Orange Prize.