BackStory: Five Questions with Linda Walsh Author of Comfortless Cove What inspired you to write ‘Comfortless Cove’? I strayed onto a holiday website and as soon as I saw ‘Comfortless Cove’ I needed to know more. The history of Ascension…
Comfortless Cove
Comfortless Cove by Linda Walsh I grip the sides of the swaying rowing boat, my face scorched by a cold-hearted sun. Ahead is Ascension Island, Queen Victoria’s lonely outpost, lying between Africa and the New World, a desolate rock in…
BackStory: Five Questions with Mark Left
BackStory: Five Questions with Mark Left Author of It’s Raining Today What inspired you to write ‘It’s Raining Today’? I’ve long had a fascination with the Second World War and the long shadow it casts. You can’t grow up through…
It’s Raining Today
It’s Raining Today by Mark Left When I dream it is raining. That is normal, that is what it does in Poland. Rain falling in sheets like wire mesh stretched to the four horizons. Keeping me in, shutting me out…
BackStory: Six Questions with Tamsin Cottis
BackStory: Six Questions with Tamsin Cottis Author of Freedom Pass What inspired you to write ‘Freedom Pass’? My first proper job, in the early 1980s, was working with adult with learning disabilities who’d returned to London from many decades of…
Freedom Pass
Freedom Pass by Tamsin Cottis Jackie and me on the bus. Front seat, top deck. Number 38. Hackney Central to Victoria. Memory of this bus came with me to Hospital. German Doodlebugs screaming through clouds. Stop. Wait. Boom! Doctors said…
BackStory: Five Questions with Mary-Jane Holmes
BackStory: Five Questions with Mary-Jane Holmes Author of Down the Long, Long Line What inspired you to write ‘Down the Long, Long Line’? This piece came from a writing prompt combined with research for a project looking at outstanding women…
Down the Long, Long Line
Down the Long, Long Line by Mary-Jane Holmes Dark to light, the tunnel births the train and there’s the river’s head damned blue to reservoir, the ore rakes Da hushed lead from since the valley was drowned, the best sward…
Moon Microfiction Competition Judges’ Report
We had a tremendous response to our call for submissions for historical flash written in response to the theme of ‘the moon’. We received over 200 pieces from a wide variety of writers, historians, scientists, and people who had never…
Bedlam
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon First Place Bedlam by Jo Withers I sit rigid, body taut as wooden chair. Physicians unleash freezing water against flesh, hoping to exorcise hysteria. They blame the moon, say its phases corrupt menstrual cycles.…