Here’s a selection of some of the best local and international journals that specialise heavily (or exclusively) in the very short form. Most of these journals are dedicated to flash fiction, but a few are looking for flash nonfiction too.
We haven’t included journals that publish flash along with a mix of other forms, although there are plenty of those too (see Publications for some good leads).
Paper Road Press is calling for submissions to its Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume II.
Editor Marie Hodgkinson will read stories of up to 10,000 words from any sub-genres within the sci-fi and fantasy umbrellas. Stories must have been published between 1st January and 31st December 2019.
Don’t miss this paid opportunity, with stories included in the anthology paying NZ 1.5c per word.
Find out more here and check out last year’s anthology, which included work from Hagley Writers’ Institute graduate, Toni Wi.
Deadline: 1 March 2020.
For each month of 2020, Mindfood magazine will select one short story for publication. At the end of the year, Mindfood readers get to vote for an overall winner of Best Short Story.
Focused on emerging writers, this is an excellent opportunity to get your writing in front of a wide audience.
To get a feel for what the judge’s are after, have a read of Flotsam and Jetsam, Kathryn Van Beek’s wining story of 2019.
Stories need to be close to 2000 words, but stories of 1900 to 2100 words will be considered.
See the call for entries.
Deadline: 8 October 2020.
There are thousands of places to submit your work – too many to cover here! Start discovering new literary journals and competitions via:
Looking for a home for your work?
There’s a treasure trove of homegrown literary journals and other outlets accepting prose, poetry, essays, reviews, and related work.
Some have rolling submissions, others have regular deadlines, and some may be on hiatus – check the submission guidelines carefully.
Hagley graduates pop up regularly in these journals, so get reading, subscribe if you can, and start submitting your work.
Good luck!
Congratulations to graduate Chris Stewart!
His poetry has been selected for AUP new poets 6, alongside Ben Kemp and Vanessa Crofskey.
Edited by Anna Jackson, the collection will be published in March by Auckland University Press.
To date, Chris’s other work has appeared in local journals including takahē, Brief, Sweet Mammalian, Snorkel, Mimicry, Blackmail Press, Aotearotica, and Catalyst, as well as internationally.
Watch his innovative video poem Rain, which was previously featured as Vallum’s Poem of the Week.
We are thrilled that Chris is also going to be a mentor for 2020 students.
Hagley tutor Frankie McMillan’s latest book of flash fiction has been named in The Spinoff’s top 10 fiction titles of 2019 – very well deserved. I expect more accolades for this book.
Congratulations to graduates from 2018 who have had work published this year:
Kaye Gillhooley’s fiction was published in takahē 95, and twice in X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, with her story Trout nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Scholastic is issuing a second print run of Desna Wallace’s children’s novel, Canterbury Quake, due out in February 2020.
Toni Wi’s fiction was published in takahē 96, the Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy: Volume I, and her flash fiction Dunedin was long listed for National Flash Fiction Day 2019.
Three of Shannon Beynon’s flash fictions were published in takahē 96.
Sandra Hamilton’s flash fiction appeared in the April 2019: Love edition of Flash Frontier.
We are delighted to announce that Zoë Meager will be tutoring in 2020. She joins Frankie McMillan and is a highly qualified and experienced writer and teacher. Zoë is from Ōtautahi and has a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland. Her short stories have been commended at home and abroad, including winning the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, Pacific Region, 2013, with her story Things with Faces, which was published in Granta. Her work has appeared in Hue and Cry, Landfall, North & South, Overland, and Turbine | Kapohau, among others, and been anthologised in Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand, and two Bath Flash Fiction volumes. She is fiction editor for takahē and an Editorial Assistant (Fiction) for Overland. There’s more at zoemeager.com.
