National Flash Fiction Day: An Interview with Calum Kerr
Sophie Rosenblum: What is National Flash Fiction Day?
Calum Kerr: As the name suggests, it’s a day to celebrate the tiny stories which come under the heading of flash-fiction: everything from about 1000 words down. The first one was last year, and was a great success. There were loads of events – readings, workshops, flash-mobs, slams – and lots of competitions and publications. It was a great way of spreading the word about flash-fiction and also a way to create a cohesive community amongst all those working in the form.
The term ‘National’ referred to the fact that it was just a UK based thing when it first happened, but Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and parts of the USA also got involved last year, and they’re all back this year so it’s more of an international thing now. As a result, most of the competitions and anthologies are accepting international submissions, and there are going to be events all over.
SR: Tell us a bit about your YouTube channel and your anthology.
CK: The YouTube channel is a place for us to gather together videos of people reading their flash-fictions, either specially for camera or at various events. If anyone has such a film, if they drop us a line, we can add them to the channel.
The anthology was something which happened last year and was a great success so we are repeating it this year. Myself and Holly Howitt, another flash author, will be editing it, choosing the best stories from the submissions to create a collection which reflects the current state and the diversity of flash-fiction. The deadline for submissions is 17th May, so there’s still time to get stories in. Full details are at http://
SR: You’re based in the UK, can you give us (in the US) a sense of the flash fiction community where you are?
CK: I think its quite a new thing. Until last year there were people writing flash-fictions, but they tended to be isolated and just doing their own thing. Trends like #FridayFlash on Twitter were starting to take off, but in a lot of respects it was still quite an unknown form. One of the things that last year’s Day did – and I know this from feedback that I received – was to make the individual writers aware of each other and bring us all closer together. As a result there are a lot more collaborative projects going on, more flash-fiction events being held, and more general support. It’s still in its early days, but the community is definitely coming together over here.
SR: What are some of your favorite literary journals that publish flash fiction?
CK: Over here, the University of Chester produce a wonderful journal entitled simply ‘Flash’, and I am a very big fan of the online journal The Pygmy Giant who publish solely short pieces. Fractured West is also doing some wonderful things. Of course, my very favourite is our very own pop-up journal, FlashFlood, which comes out sporadically, accepts submissions for just 7 days, and then publishes them all to a blog over 24 hours. We launched that for last year’s day and it’s had two more issues since.
SR: If someone is not familiar with flash fiction, which writers would you suggest that they read?
CK: I started with a writer called David Gaffney and his book, Sawn-Off Tales – all stories being exactly 150 words long. His sequel to that has just been published and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. My other favourite flash-fiction writer is Tania Hershman, one of the UK’s foremost flash writers. Her latest collection, My Mother was an Upright Piano, came out last year and is a wonderful read. I would direct anyone new to the form to those two, I think. They’d get a really good sense of the possibilities of flash-fiction.