Writing / Flash Fiction
Stories told in a flash: Clevedon LitFest Flash Fiction Award is open for entries
With writers groups flourishing around the city and an upcoming Festival – the only one of its kind devoted to the form – flash fiction in Bristol appears to be having a moment.
And just down the road, the annual Clevedon LitFest Flash Fiction Award is once more open for entries of no more than 500 words apiece.
Now a national competition, the contest is open to entries until August 22. On the judging panel this year is Judy Darley, a writer, editor, workshop leader and former resident of Totterdown, who now lives in Clevedon. She is the author of three short fiction collections including The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain (Reflex Press).
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Joining Darley as a co-judge is Bristol flash fiction author Kevlin Henney, whose writing has appeared online and in magazines (including Spelk, Litro, Daily SF, New Scientist and Physics World) and anthologies (including We Can Improve You, The Dark Half of the Year, The Real Jazz Baby and The Salt Anthology of New Writing).
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Henney told Bristol24/7 more about what makes the short form so inspiring, how his own environment is channelled through his writing practice, and his hopes for this year’s Award:
How would you explain Flash Fiction to someone who’s never heard of it?
“Flash fiction is a short short story. It’s a few hundred words rather than a few thousand, but it’s still a whole story and not a fragment of a story or a summary. In the space of minutes, you experience a beginning, a middle and an end that leaves you thoughtful, laughing, reflective or any of the other moods you experience when you reach the end of longer works of fiction.”
Are there any flashes you’d recommend people read to understand the form?
“What people do with the form is so vast and varied that it’s difficult to pick only a few examples that aren’t simply my preferences in genre, style and writers. I like to think I have good taste, but I’m also aware I’m biased! My suggestion would be to search online for ‘examples of flash fiction’ and use what you find as a starting point to dig in and search further.
“Part of the joy of flash is that you can sample many stories and explore many authors and styles in less time than it would take for longer works. Waiting for a bus or a coffee is all the time you need to get immersed.”
What inspires your own flash fiction writing?
“Many things, from mental images to more explicit story prompts on websites or for competitions. Sometimes something I’m reading or watching – fiction or non-fiction – can trigger an idea or an image I want to work into a story, or even a whole story. Sometimes inspiration will just emerge from the mind-calming autopilot of driving or standing in a queue.”
You travel a lot for your day job – how does this impact the flashes you write?
“I guess the ‘right’ answer here is that the places I visit inspire me… but that’s rarely the case. It’s normally something more mundane. The interstitial and liminal spaces like stations, airports and pedestrian crossings give me pause and inspiration. Sometimes, the travel itself gives me time I might not otherwise have for writing.”
Kevlin Henney – photo: courtesy of the author
How does living in Bristol inspire your writing?
“Bristol only rarely appears in my stories by name, but many of the places I imagine in stories are, in my head, based on the shops and streets of Bristol. A more visceral inspiration is that I tend to walk most places, and just the act of walking has inspired and led to more than a few stories. Another local effect on me is the connection to writers and events. There is community. I don’t feel like I’m alone or writing in a vacuum.”
What’s the flash you’ve have published that you’re proudest of?
“Last year I had a story, Spring Flight, published in The Fabulist, a San Francisco-based site that publishes all manner of fantastical fiction. It’s a story that came out of a workshop on folk stories and weird fiction. I enjoyed coming up across the premise, creating a simple magical folklore that had somehow survived to the present day, but at the same time making it somehow ordinary.
“Set in Cornwall, it’s a story about hope and the possibilities of childhood before adolescence and the weight of the world holds you to the ground. There’s just a feeling I get when reading it, one that also translates to reading it aloud at spoken word events.”
What do you hope to read among the entries to Clevedon LitFest’s Flash Fiction Award?
“I’m looking for stories that introduce me to people and take me to places I’m not expecting. But I’m definitely hoping for stories – sometimes the constraint of brevity leads writers to prose where nothing happens, or they find themselves resorting to punchlines over plot. Whether lyrical or prosaic, fantastical or mundane, there are so many stories waiting to be told. I would love to meet them!”
Entries for the 2026 Clevedon Flash Fiction Award will close on August 22. For more information and to apply, visit clevedonlitfest.org.uk. Stories must be no more than 500 words.
Main photo: Judy Darley
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