Boye by Christine Collinson Before the battle, we said that Boye was bulletproof. A white devil-dog with a black heart and enchanted blood: a shapeshifter, a sorcerer. In woodcuts Boye appeared, alongside his princely master, arrayed with fangs and a…
Aetheris Avidi
Aetheris Avidi by Louise Mangos Favouring the Blitz over the risk of his three daughters marrying Irishmen, Dad brings us back to Putney from Ireland while the war is still in full swing. Betty and I have a date with…
The Colours in His Hair
The Colours in His Hair by Davena O’ Neill We only had one hour. Sixty minutes alone, without sympathetic looks or words of encouragement. Everyone asked me after where we’d gone, but I never told. ‘We lost track of time,’…
Erased
Erased by Winston Bribach The bosses told us Chinese to stay away from the photographer. Most didn’t need to be told. They didn’t want to lose their souls. I, too, couldn’t deny the magic captured by a single flash, but…
Soul Theft
Soul Theft by Remi Skytterstad They built internment camps in red, white and blue: and called them schools. Filled them with mouthless faces, stripped of all colours of home: and called us pupils. There, the rattan cane clapped over…
Invisible
Invisible by George L. Hickman We had been whipping the whiskey wash for three hours now, my socks long soaked from the Scottish rain. Four of us boys stood around a bubbling vat of yeast and barley, piercing its thick…
The Lost, Independencia
The Lost, Independencia by Ryle Lagonsin From my window overlooking the mountains, I watch a line of soldiers climbing up the footpath, small as ants in the green totality of the range. They are all the same, only multiplied in…
A Note on the Understanding of Fossils
A Note on the Understanding of Fossils by Cathy Lennon She is leaking. Milk dribbles from her breasts and blooms across her nightdress as she works. She has an ear cocked for the baby and his fearsome greed but her…
Timeline: FlashBack’s Sixth Season
Timeline: FlashBack’s Sixth Season We’d like to celebrate our final season of our second year with this tremendous collection of flash and prose poetry. We’ll be back in January with new work and our next submission window which stretches from…
BackStory: Five Questions with John Nicholson
BackStory: Five Questions with John Nicholson Author of Compost What inspired you to write ‘Compost’? I was on a prose fiction Diploma course at UEA at the time. My old Norfolk garden had apple trees in fruit, all but one…