Take Part in Short Short Story Slam

This year, the Flashtag writers are doing something a little bit different for Didsbury Arts Festival.

On Friday 28th June, we’ll be hosting a Short Short Story Slam, a live event which will pit writer against writer in a knockout competition to discover the true champion of the short short story.

A panel of contestants will take to the stage with their best very-short stories, battling other fiction-writing foes in a series of tense but hilarious head-to-heads. With voting cards under their seats, the audience decides who stays and who goes.

And we want you to take part….

If you want to be in with a chance of winning the coveted Goblet of Fiction*, you must be able to take part in the live event in Didsbury (all details here). You must bring with you three short fiction pieces (details below) and you must be prepared to be randomly drawn out of the hat to perform your work against another writer.

There are three rounds and the audience will decide which stories they like the best. If you win, fortune and glory will be yours.

If you want to take part, throw down your gauntlet of intent by emailing us at flashtagmcr@gmail.com. Places are on a first-come, first-served basis, so get them in soon.

Words are coming…

Short short story requirements

Please bring three short fiction pieces you can perform: one no more than 100 words, one no more than 150 words and one no more than 200 words. These are for rounds one, two and the final respectively, depending on how long you ‘survive’. (Just short stories: no poetry, please.)

*There is no goblet of fiction. Sorry.

Short Short Story Slam: 28 June 2013

The Flashtag Writers’ will host a live literature battle for Didsbury Arts Festival where you, the audience, are the judge.

In the Short Short Story Slam, a panel of plucky contestants will take to the stage with their best very-short stories, battling other fiction-writing foes in a series of tense but hilarious head-to-heads. With voting cards under their seats, the audience decides who stays and who is deleted… there can only be one ultimate Short Short Story Slam gladiator of grammar.

Just to add to the excitement, the event also includes the grand results of the Didsbury Arts Festival Twitter fiction competition (launching on June 15th).

Join us for the contest of a lifetime!

Date: Friday 28 June 2013
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Albert Club. Didsbury
Admission: Free
More details: Here.

And the winners are…

On Wednesday last we gathered our shortlist, our judges, and our favourite flash fiction writer David Gaffney, and tucked ourselves into the tightest little nook Chorlton had to offer. And despite uncomfortable levels of intimacy (or because of it perhaps), we had a simply gorgeous night of little length literature.

Have a look at our Facebook page for pictures.

And the winners? They were and still are as follows:

1st Place: Looking for an Astrolabe by Michael Conley

2nd Place: This Kitten I Knew by Simon Sylvester

3rd Place: Joint winners: The Clockman by Cathy Lennon & Pins and Needles by Guy Garrud

Congratulations to Michael, Simon, Cathy and Guy – stunning stories all round. Many thanks to everyone who came to the event and did a reading; all the shortlistees demonstrated just how strong our entries were this year.

Coming up next, we have a super special event planned for Didsbury Arts Festival. Watch this space….

Flashtag grand final 22 May 2013

Do pop down to the fantastic grand final of the 2013 Flashtag Writing Competition.

The theme of our third Chorlton Arts Festival short fiction competition was Past, Present, Future. We now have a shortlist and there can only be one winner. We’ll reveal the winner in the final. Expect booze and readings and lots of laughs.

Our headliner will be Flashtag groupie and godfather of short short fiction, David Gaffney. His fourth collection of short stories, More Sawn-Off Tales, is an essential book for all short short fiction writers.

22 MAY 2013 7PM at the NOOK AND CRANNY, WILBRAHAM ROAD, CHORLTON. FREE ENTRY.

(In keeping with the Past, Present, Future theme, our grand final takes place in the Future. During the event, it will be in the Present and after the event, it will be in the Past. We scheduled this deliberately because we’re clever. Bish, bash, bosh.)

The Shortlist 2013

Well hello. We’ve bished, we’ve boshed, we’ve bashed. We’ve taken the stories you sent us and picked apart every single individual letter to find our favourites and, inevitably, all five of us rocked up with different favourites. Seriously. Happens every year. So we bish, bash, boshed it all out and agreed on our tip-top eight. And here, ladyfowls and gentlecocks, are those 8 arranged alphabetically by story title:

Let the Librarian Hold the Book by Allie Rogers

Looking for an Astrolabe by Michael Conley

Nothing Left Behind by Dale Lately

Occasional by Clare Kirwan

Pins and Needles by Guy Garrud

The Clockman by Cathy Lennon

The Girl Who Lived on a Bus Stop by Sarah Butler

This Kitten I Knew by Simon Sylvester

Congratulations Allie, Michael, Dale, Clare, Guy, Cathy, Sarah & Simon! BUT – who has won? You don’t find out, not yet. We will announce the magnificent winner at our glittering Chorlton Arts Festival event on Wednesday May 22nd at The Nook and Cranny in Chorlton. Come along to hear readings of all 8 shortlisted stories, as well as fresh floundering fictions from the Flashtag fivesome.

And if you didn’t make our shortlist this year, don’t be disheartened. We had a stupendously high calibre of stories and a horrible time whittling down to this final octagon of fiction. We say this every year, but if any one of us was a solitary judge for this competition the shortlist would be very different indeed.

So congratulations once again to our shortlisted authors, see you all in Chorlton on the 22nd.

Au revoir

x

Entries now closed

The deadline for our Chorlton Arts Festival Flashtag Writing Competition has now passed. The judging will now begin!

Watch this space for the announcement of our shortlist in advance of our fantastic grand final on Wednesday 22 May 2013, 7pm in the Nook & Cranny in Chorlton)

Thank you in advance for everyone who entered. Good luck!

Chorlton Arts Festival 2013 – Flashtag competition 3

We are back for a third Chorlton Arts Festival, and a third short fiction competition. This year we have a theme – Past, Present, Future.

Can you join previous winners Socrates Adams and Clare Kirwan and become the third person to win the #Flashtag Writing Competition? Of course you can.

This year we have lowered the word limit to 400 words. We are like literary limbo instructors, making you work harder and harder. Maybe you will concentrate on the past, or set your story in the future, or maybe you will have a really clever idea for a story that incorporates past, present and future. As long as it is 400 words or less, and it blows our minds, we will be happy.

Take a stroll through our website. Don’t forget to have a close look at those rules. Pick up your pen and submit. Let’s go!