The June 2022 Bath Flash Fiction Award received 1081 entries from 34 countries.
You may remember that my story made it on to the long list.
Then it made on to the short list. I really did walk around with a goofy grin on my face all day. Just ask my writing group who couldn’t get any sense out of me the day it was announced.
Thank you again for all of your kind words of support that you shared after reading my the news.
And then this happened…
This morning I found out that my story, The Shape of the Situation in Apartment 23C on a Sunday in September, was highly commended which means… it made the top five!!!
Here’s what the judge of the competition, Tommy Dean, said about my story:
“Oh, the specificity and intrigue of this long title! I love a story that uses the title to ground me in the setting before I read the first word of the story. There’s so much tension in moving from the title to the opening sentence! Titles like this jumpstart a story, and intrigue a reader, and this story had a high bar to cross to live up to this title, and it did it in spades! I loved the sense of play, the creation of this allegory, how it takes something commonplace, and twists it enough to delight and intrigue the reader! It’s fun, sure, but it also hits hard with resonance!”
The Shape of the Situation in Apartment 23C on a Sunday in September will be published in the next Bath Flash Fiction anthology due out in early December 2022. It’s also been posted online if you’d like to read it now.
You can find all of the winning stories here and see the judge’s report here for each.
Thanks for letting me share my good news with you.
I’m absolutely delighted. And a little shocked.
Enjoy the rest of your day.