BackStory: Six Questions with Grace Palmer Author of In 1960… What inspired you to write this ‘In 1960…’? I was researching a story about medical research and how, historically, drug trials were not routinely tested on women, or pregnant animals.…
In 1960…
In 1960… by Grace Palmer …my husband tapped the teaspoon on the crème brûlèè and the yellow crust cracked. Egg yolk and cream spilled onto the cloth and my stomach wavered. The foetus curled, I swear, somersaulting and dreaming in…
WWI Microfiction Competiton Judges’ Report
WWI Microfiction Competiton Judges’ Report We will be back tomorrow with a new flash, but before we dive back into our regular programming, we’d like to say a few words about our recent microfiction competition. First of all, huge congratulations…
Plum Jam
2018 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition First Place Plum Jam by Frances Gapper From our ladders we can see the plum-blue Malverns. The army’s bought up this harvest, still on the trees. We pickers are a crew: boy scouts, gypsies, PoWs, refugees,…
Ogdens
2018 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition Second Place Ogdens by Gaynor Jones She scoops a clump of dirt-brown tobacco from the barrel and tries not to think of gunpowder. She pinches the right amount, packs it into the paper and tries…
Potato Masher
2018 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition Third Place Potato Masher by Jake Sullins He’d found the stick grenade half-buried in mud in a bend of the Somme, in the days after Amiens, and he’d carried it clipped to his haversack through…
Casus Belli
2018 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition Highly Commended Casus Belli by Melanie Haws John Haas went to war, aged twenty-three, a plumber’s helper, with a few dollars saved, and a picture of his Dresden-doll sweetheart he carried in his left breast-pocket; he…
Life After Death
2018 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition Highly Commended Life After Death by Jennifer Moore After he died they put a stranger in his stitched-up shell, sewing his name into the fellow’s mud-mushed brain to keep it from slipping. They gave the…
WW1 Microfiction Competition Shortlist
We are delighted to announce our shortlist. It has been excruciatingly difficult to reach a decision, which is a testament to the strength and quality of the micro fictions we received. Each of our six judges read every story that…
WWI Microfiction Competition Update
Thank you to all the writers who submitted work for our first microfiction competition, and to everyone who spread the word about the contest! The number of entries, range of themes, and quality of writing was staggering, and we received…