Festival of Flash, Sunday 19 June

I’m taking part in the Festival of Flash to celebrate 10 years of Flash Frontier magazine this Sunday, 19 June. There’s a lot going on – check it all out below.

Festival of Flash flyer

National Flash Fiction Day 2022 – an all-day Festival of Flash, closing with the awards night

A special day and evening celebrating ten years 2012-2022

Info and details here.  

Please join us at the Flash Frontier YouTube channel for our celebration of flash fiction in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sunday 19 June 2022

Featuring: Special guests, musical interludes, new books, a celebration of languages of Aotearoa and features from NFFD’s centres
Youth stories & awards with Jack Remiel Cottrell
Adult stories & awards with Anne Kennedy and Kiri Piahana-Wong
NZ Society of Authors Regional awards
With special guests, raffle prizes and more!  
Please check out our panels and readings and then tune in for our national awards night.

Tune in here: Flash Frontier YouTube channel

Find this year’s Short List at the NFFD site, here,
with the youth Short List at
fingers comma toes.

Congratulations, all! 
A list of the festival events…

SUNDAY, 19 June 2022
Celebrating ten years 2012-2022!
 
 
lively discussions * guest readers * judges’ comments * NFFD awards * NZSA regional awards * raffle prizes * special features from our regions * musical performances * book giveaways
an all-day series of free events livestreamed to the Flash Frontier YouTube channel

more info here

09:00-10:00 AM Panel discussion: Shaping your narrative –novella-in-flash & story collections

10:15-11:15 AM Reading: Packing a punch in small spaces – nuance and humour

11:30-12:30 PM Panel discussion: Youth voices

12:45-01:45 PM Panel discussion: Fairy tales and myths

02:00-03:00 PM Reading: Selections from the youth long list

03:15-04:15 PM Panel discussion: Languages of Aotearoa

04:30-05:30 PM Panel discussion: Writing our world

06:00-08:00 PM ONLINE AWARDS NIGHT

Please go to the website for information
about festival topics, participants, links, etc.


nationalflash.org
Ngā mihi, Michelle Elvy   James Norcliffe   Gail Ingram 
 Rachel Smith   Vaughan Rapatahana
www.flash-frontier.com

Flash Frontier, Frankfurt, Two Kinds Of Monster, And The Octacon Reunion

 
I’ve decided this year that writing comes before blogging, and that, while I’ll always aim to put up one blog post per week, I may not always put up a second post.

That means that, when I do put up a second post, there will be lots to talk about – as there is today.

Flash Frontier

Michelle Elvy is a new – to me! – and energetic figure on the New Zealand literary scene, and I have enjoyed becoming involved in a couple of projects in which she is a prime mover.

Firstly, I have a story in the first issue of Flash Frontier. This is a new New Zealand literary magazine, edited by Michelle Elvy and Sian Williams, that specialises in flash fiction – very short fiction, which in the case of Flash Frontier means an upper limit of 250 words. I don’t often write flash fiction, but I can tell you that it is lots of fun to write, and that Flash Frontier is looking for more of it!

My story “The Beginnings of America” is one of 16 stories in the first issue, which also carries this interesting interview with Graeme Lay, who edited several NZ anthologies of short-short fiction.

Frankfurt

Another Michelle Elvy initiative, this time with Dorothee Lang, is the Frankfurt Book Fair 2012: An Aotearoa Affair – A Blog Fest from Kiel to Kaitaia.

It’s an excellent blog which brings together work from New Zealand and German writers, some translated, in the leadup to the Frankfurt Book Fair – and you can join the blog and get involved in its many projects.

I was very chuffed that my poem The Translator was selected as the first of the blog’s Weekly Highlights, and it has since been joined by work by Marcus Speh, Emma Barnes, and Patrizia Monzani, with more to follow!

Helen Lowe also mentions this Blog Fest on her blog – with good reason, as the German translation of her novel The Heir of Night is being published in 2012. Congratulations, Helen!

Two Kinds of Monster

The blog tour for my 2011 poetry collection Men Briefly Explained is not quite over yet! Bookiemonster has published a pair of interviews on her blog this week that form part of my and Keith Westwater’s blog tours:

Keith Westwater Interviews Tim Jones About Men Briefly Explained

Tim Jones Interviews Keith Westwater About Tongues Of Ash

The Octacon Reunion

In 1982, a science fiction convention was held in Dunedin that changed lives and changed underwear. It went down in history as Octacon, and now, thirty years later, those who experienced Octacon for the first time are condemned to relive every agonising moment. What’s more, it is even possible for others to join them in their communal madness. Look upon the mighty Octacon Reunion Poster, ye mortals, and despair! (Or, if your motto is ‘nil desperandum’, contact 2012octacon@gmail.com for further details.)