Recall

Jose Varghese

They called him Em.

He was five, and knew only the crumbling walls in the facility. When a green van came for him early in the morning, only six were left. He didn’t bother to wake the other kids sleeping in concrete cages.

Voices guided him in the van.

The new room was white, and his ‘parents’ were many.

“Em, come in”, the first voice welcoming him was a mix of metals clanging.

“Fair chance, Em. Survive”, another voice said, in a turbine whirr.

He grew up among them, M for man.

The others were terminated, he heard, tears frozen.


Author: Jose Varghese was a finalist in the 2018 Beverly International Prize, runner up in the Salt Prize, commended in the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize, finalist thrice in LISP, published in Litro, Nine Arches Press, Haunted Waters, Southword, Camas, Dreich, Wild Roof, Meridian APWT/Drunken Boat, Unthology, Reflex Fiction, and Flash Fiction Magazine.

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

The Fair Witch

Martin Barker

Though she doesn’t wear a black pointy hat and is fairer of face than most storybook hags, the boy suspects her a witch. To reach her he must suffer the glassy-eyed stare of monstrous gilded horses. A pipe-organ bellows out a manic tune, engines roar, the ground shakes. He crosses her palm with silver as she stands behind her thrumming cauldron. Gossamer ghosts are created from thin air and wrapped around her wooden wand. He watches, mesmerised, until she thrusts the magical rose-tinted cloud into his grubby fist. He thanks the witch of the funfair and devours his sugary marvel.


Author: Born on a funfair, the son of a Travelling Showman, Martin lives in Poole, on the south coast. He relishes the challenge of short stories and flash fiction, of drawing pictures and evoking emotions with a concise number of words. He’s still working on his first novel.

Our First Writer-in-Residence

We are delighted to announce that the first Writer-in-Residence for our online community is Sarah McPherson. Welcome to the team Sarah!

Sarah is a writer based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK. Her work reflects her lifelong passion for speculative fiction and mythology/fairy tales, as well as her love of history and a desire to explore how people relate to nature, the landscape, and each other. Her writing has been widely published, nominated for Best Small Fictions 2022, longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50, and selected for Best Microfictions 2021.

From September 2023 to February 2024, Sarah will be teaching workshops, running feedback sessions and writing articles for our community as part of her role. We’re really looking forward to working with her!

The workshops she’s teaching are:

Speculative Flash: Fantasy (November)

The first of two workshops on writing speculative flash fiction, exploring how to convey big ideas in a small space and include enough worldbuilding for readers to understand the story without overwhelming your word count. You’ll get tips on how to effectively incorporate elements of the fantastic into your flash fiction, read some example stories from writers who do this well, and try writing exercises on both secondary-world and modern/urban fantasy.

Speculative Flash: Science Fiction (January)

The second of two workshops on writing speculative flash fiction, exploring how to convey big ideas in a small space and include enough worldbuilding for readers to understand the story without overwhelming your word count. You will try drafting flash fiction in both near and far future settings, read some excellent examples of tiny science fiction stories, and play with some sci-fi tropes such as time travel, robots/artificial intelligence, and space travel.

Each of the two workshops will stand alone, but will complement each other – so you can choose fantasy or science fiction, or both!

And the craft articles are:

  • Writing retellings of fairy tales, myths and other old stories
  • Writing lessons from roleplaying: collaborative, playful storytelling
  • Writing relationships with / journeys through the landscape

The Community Writer-in-Residence role is an ongoing programme starting every 6 months and applications are now open for the 1st March 2024 start date. Get all the info here.

April 2023 Monthly Micro Longlist

Well done and thank you to the 99 writers who submitted stories for this month’s contest which had the prompt word COLLAPSE. Congrats to the writers of the following 26 stories that have made our longlist! There are some amazing titles this month!

The cash prizes this month are £111 for first place and £74 for second.

Longlisted Stories

  • A Sense of Falling
  • A Study on Supernovae and the Creation of Black Holes
  • A widow collapses when she sees ‘new improved recipe’ on her favourite supermarket ready meal
  • As Above, So Below
  • Biscuit Speaks
  • East Meets West
  • Fire Walk
  • Heart Break
  • Heaven is a beach in North Devon
  • How To Build A House Of Cards
  • I Promise
  • Last Saturday at the Holiday Inn
  • Leningradskaya
  • Life Choice
  • Not much longer, my friend
  • Of gods and immortal birds
  • Some Other Yellow Brick Road
  • Stellar Symmetries
  • The Doctor Offers Vertebroplasty to Mrs. Ahuja
  • The Eeezee-Sleep Foldaway Bed left holes in more than the wall
  • The Purpose of a Human Pyramid
  • The Time Until Death of a Yorkshire Coal Miner, 1936
  • The Woodcutter’s Children Prepare for the End
  • Under the Weight of Words
  • When that car overturned, it took you with him
  • Who knew that the bringer of the apocalypse would be here, of all places?

Good luck for the next round everyone. We’ll be back with our shortlist on Monday.

2023 First Chapter Competition Winners

Many thanks to our judge, Rachel Mann, literary agent at the Jo Unwin Literary Agency, for choosing our winners for us and for giving feedback on all of the shortlisted chapters. Well done to everyone who made it through to the final 10 and congratulations to our winners!


First Place: The Quiet Years by Elena Croitoru

Rachel’s comments: The description here is rich and deft, building setting and atmosphere excellently. Great action and tension – my heart was in my mouth during the protagonists terrified run home! A nice weaving of emotionally engaging and convincing historical detail, and immediately heart-wrenching and emotionally layered, particularly in its representation of motherhood.

The author: Elena Croitoru is a British-Romanian writer. She won the Live Canon Pamphlet prize, the Charles Causley Prize and the South Bank Poetry Prize. Her first novel was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Prize – Best Unpublished Novel.

Runner-Up: The Unseen by Sarah Lupton

Rachel’s comments: This packs lots of exposition in very fluently and deftly – it’s immediately engaging, with a nice, lightly historical narrative voice. There’s a lovely meter to the writing, and great depth of perception. Excellent tension building, and seeding of what’s to come.

The author: Sarah Lupton lives in York, has a background in journalism and marketing and has recently completed the Curtis Brown Creative six-month Write Your Novel Course.

Shortlisted Chapters (in alphabetical order)

Angeline and the Fighters by Rick White

Rachel’s comments: Nice quirky opening and the beginnings of a strong voice. There’s a nice wry tone to this character, though she is perhaps a little emotionally unconvincing, even given that her state of mind requires disassociation. Some strong description but slightly at the expense of voice (it becomes a little narratorial and adjectival rather than sticking to that dry, sparse voice).

The author: Rick White is a writer from Manchester UK whose work has appeared in Milk Candy Review, Trampset and X-ray Lit Mag among others. Rick’s debut short fiction collection, TALKING TO GHOSTS AT PARTIES is available now via Storgy Books.

Bitter Seed by Alexandra Fikuart

Rachel’s comments: A strong voice, fluent writing, good characterisation and intriguing setting. Convincing eroticism which then contributes to a depth of emotion as the chapter progress, but I’d suggest there’s slightly too much emotional disengagement from the realities of war (it felt rather too flippant to me, even given the realities of conscription.) I’d suggest clarifying and slowing down on the bomb moment – it felt both rushed and a little convoluted, when it should be a moment of immersive horror and dramatic height.

The author: Alexandria Fikuart has had short stories published in the UK and in South Africa. Her action thriller was shortlisted for the Luke Bitmead bursary (Legend Press) and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award. In 2006 she was a founding member of an active writing group in Brighton.

Curtain Call by Rebecca Lewis-Smith

Rachel’s comments: An intriguing opening and use of tension – immediately immersive and emotionally engaging. A nice contemporary tone, and the beginnings of some relatable musings on friendship. I think perhaps the voice could be a little stronger and more convincing, and the emotion of the betrayal a touch higher.

The author: Rebecca completed Curtain Call, her first novel, on Curtis Brown Creative’s six-month novel writing course, and is now writing her second. The founder of a fast-growing marketing agency, she is a practised juggler of business and parenting demands. Writing creatively is her passion and a vital means of self-care.

Monkshead Farm by Lorna Peplow

Rachel’s comments: Tension and emotion are woven here to horrible effect, well done! Strong description and world-building, and a nice light historicism. Lovely romantic tension, and good pacing.

The author: Lorna Peplow has been writing stories since she was at primary school, when her teacher would read out her ‘books’ (created with felt-tips and staples) to the class. She has an MA in Creative Writing and recently completed the selective Curtis Brown Creative 6-month novel-writing course.

Soul Cake by Tracy Fells

Rachel’s comments: There’s a nice voice here, and good melding of past and present in the telling. The pacing is a little swift in the beginning and perhaps misses so much exposition as to be a little disorientating, so that’s something to work on. Strong chapter ending – I’m hooked! 

The author: Tracy Fells was the 2017 Regional Winner (Europe and Canada) for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her short and flash fiction has been widely published with over a hundred credits. In 2023 her debut short story collection will be published by Fly On The Wall Press. She tweets as @theliterarypig.

The Warm-Up Man by Dianne Bown-Wilson

Rachel’s comments: The descriptions are nice here, though less would be more in some moments. Nice worldbuilding and setting and some good tension – though I found the eventual interaction with the newcomer somehow a little emotionally unconvincing and in need of more drama in the moment.

The author: Dr Dianne Bown-Wilson is primarily a short story writer who grew up in New Zealand and now lives in Devon. Her work has won prizes in numerous international competitions and anthologies. She has published two collections of her successful stories: Instructions for Living , and Degrees of Exposure.

The Weight of Silence by Dawn Miller

Rachel’s comments: A lovely, easy voice and immediately engaging premise. Convincing characterisation, and nice introduction of tension and mystery. Great!

The author: Dawn Miller is a Pushcart Prize nominated writer. Her short fiction appears or is forthcoming in The Forge Literary Journal, The Cincinnati Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Jellyfish Review, and Fractured Lit, among many others. She lives and writes in Picton, Ontario, Canada. Connect at www.dawnmillerwriter.com

Woven from Whispers by Laurence Sullivan

Rachel’s comments: A really cinematic and interesting concept, though I’d suggest the opening is a little too ‘in media res’ and so it’s perhaps slightly too much of an effort to grasp what’s going on and understand the internal logic of the concept. Again, I think the voice could be a little more characterful on this one, which would help us engage with the premise a little more.

The author: Laurence Sullivan’s creative writing has appeared in such places as: Londonist, The List, NHK World-Japan, Firewords Magazine and Popshot Quarterly. He became inspired to start writing during his university studies after being saturated in all forms of literature from across the globe and enjoying every moment of it.


Huge congratulations to everyone as we really enjoyed all of these novel openings.

Elena wins a review of her submission package from Rachel and Sarah wins feedback on her first three chapters from Amanda Saint.

We’ll be back with the info on the 2024 competition later this year and will have some exciting changes to the prizes!

In the meantime, if you’re yet to write your novel you could win a place on our year-long Novel Creator Course starting in Sept in our Pitch to Win contest. All you need to do is write a pitch of the novel you’d like to write on the course. Two spaces available! Deadline for entries is 8th May. Info here.

Feb 2023 Monthly Micro Longlist

Thanks to everyone who sent a story this month. We received 78 entries so the first prize winner gets £117 and second prize £78. Congrats to all whose story is listed below – no telling which is yours though!

Longlisted Stories

  • A Burning Question in Weare Gifford
  • An Andalucian Widow
  • Alternative Point of View
  • Going Round in Circles
  • Lost in the Maze
  • My Dad Died One Hundred Times
  • She’s Counting on Leaving
  • The Clink
  • The Education of Miriam Purdy
  • The Lost Art Of Line Marking
  • The Spiral Game
  • What a Difference a Week Makes
  • What Happens When You Peel an Onion…
  • When We Have To Begin Again

The shortlist will be online for voting on Monday!