We’re about half way through Short Story Month and today is National Flash Fiction Day. Hard to find stories any shorter than flash! This event is the brainchild of Calum Kerr from the UK and since the day is in honor of flash, Flash Fiction Chronicles asked Calum a few questions.
Calum Kerr is a writer, editor, lecturer and director of National Flash-Fiction Day. His stories have appeared in Bugged, Litro, Flash, Shoestring, The Pygmy Giant, Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Delinquent, Ether Books, and on BBC Radio 4. His pamphlet 31, is available on Kindle on Amazon, and his new collection, Braking Distance, was published by Salt in April. Between 2011-2012 he wrote a flash-fiction every day over at Flash365 .
Flash Fiction Chronicles: Why National Flash Fiction Day?
Calum Kerr: I’m a writer of flash-fiction and when National Poetry Day came along last October, I thought to look for a National Flash-Fiction Day. There wasn’t one, so I suggested the idea to a few other writers on the internet. They thought it was a good idea, and so here it is. I originally planned it just to be a few events held by people I already knew, but it’s grown like crazy and now encompasses half the globe with competitions, anthologies, readings, workshops and more springing up all over the place. It’s almost as though people were ready and waiting for this idea to come along.
FFC: So you are a flash writer, and are you a publisher too?
CK: I’m both, actually. I’ve been writing for decades, but only seriously in the last few years. I started writing flash back in 2010, and since them I have completed a month-long daily flash project and a year-long one as well—flash365.blogspot.com. I am also the editor of Gumbo Press, an online publisher that has, for NFFD, branched out into its first flash pamphlet—“Enough” by Bristol Prize 2010 winner, Valerie O’Riordan.
FFC: How has the internet helped this relatively new genre of fiction grow?
CK:I think it’s made a lot of difference. Publishers—whether of books or magazines—were maybe not keen to publish tiny stories either singly or collected, but online, where the cost of production is so much less, the risk is less. As such, the form has had a chance to grow and become something really established and the more traditional publishers are now starting to follow along.
FFC: What is your definition of “flash?”
CK: Mine comes from the writer’s point of view, rather than the reader’s. So it’s not actually about length (which informs the usual definition). For me, it’s about writing from a prompt with no pre-conceived idea of what the story is going to be; just taking the stimulus and seeing where it leads. After that, there is the crafting to make sure every word is pulling its weight, but for me the “flash” comes in the writing rather than the reading.
For more information about national Flash Fiction Day (NFFD), visit the Natrional Flash Fiction Day blog: http://nationalflashfictionday.blogspot.com/. for more information about everything Calum Kerr does, go to www.calumkerr.co.uk and http://unmitigated-audacity.blogspot.co.uk/.
And if you want to participate in FFC’s own event, please go to our Facebook page and post your favorite story online. Can be off line I suppose, but prefer stories—classics too—that readers can find easily. Our goal this year is to give readers access to 114 excellent stories or more. (Last year we had 113). I will add the stories to a “note” here as the picks come in. That note will remain available as a note on FFC’s Facebook page. Here are the “rules.”
POST YOUR FAVORITE SHORT STORIES at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-Fiction-Chronicles/111807932198001












Flash Fiction Chronicles is listed in the 2010 November/December issue of Writers' Digest as one of the 25 Best Online Consumer Magazine Markets for writers. 