"Hidden from View: The Prose Poem in English Poetry"

is a useful historical overview of the situation, written by David Caddy and up on his blog. It originally appeared in Stress Fractures: Essays on Poetry, edited by Tom Chivers and published by Penned in the Margins; see the book's page on the press website for details of further essays on contemporary poetry.

David Gaffney's The Half-Life of Songs

Salt Publishing has brought out what looks to be an interesting collection of flash fictions by David Gaffney. To read more about the book and a delightful selection from it, please see this entry at Tony Williams' blog.

Flash fiction prompts

Writers of flash fiction may like to see these ideas for stories on flashfiction.net.

"Imagined Sons 18: Greek Salad" nominated for Micro Award 2011

I'm pleased to say that The Iowa Review has decided to nominate my piece, "Imagined Sons 18: Greek Salad," for the 2011 Micro Award, for the best flash fiction under 1,000 words published in the preceding year. The results are announced February 17, 2011. Wish me luck!

Spilling Ink's Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry Competition--deadline Halloween!

Entries may be up to 1000 words; read more details here.

Leaf Books' Nanofiction Competition results

The winner is Claire Trévien for "My Daddy." Happily my story "Origins" was commended and so will be included in the anthology as well.

Arvon's Six-Word Story Competition

Alluding to the legacy of Hemingway's great six-worder (For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.), the Arvon Foundation is holding a competition for six-word short-short stories. Stories can be sent now (some are being posted on the website) and will be received until 1 September, at which point judge Karen McCarthy will select the winners. The prize is a splendid week on an Arvon course, so go ahead, email your six-word stories to competition@arvonfoundation.org.