Matt Kendrick

Wonderful offer from @rosaleenlynch.bsky.social Take advantage of this if you can!

Happy International Women's Day, Rosaleen (and everyone else)

(PS - love the specificity of the time frame here!)

So wonderful to hear you're enjoying the course, Gill. It's such a pleasure writing with you!

And yes - isn't this an amazing piece? @barlowadams.bsky.social is incredible 🙌

"About the Longevity of Labelling Bell Jars"

Wonderful title and wonderful piece from @mandirapattnaik.bsky.social in @nffr.bsky.social. So many emotions bubbling away in this, so much realness at its heart.

newflashfiction.com/about-the-lo...

"There is a you who never had to learn what waited in the cells of your body. Who never watched your grandfather swim out of focus"

Wonderfully propulsive wistfulness at the heart of this piece from @patiencemackarness.bsky.social in @nffr.bsky.social. Love the repeating "there is a you" in this.

"She imagines silkworms, far from this cold city-life, feasting on white mulberry leaves, spinning protective cocoons, ending up [...] stabbed or boiled alive for thread"

Beautifully evocative flash from @rosaleenlynch.bsky.social in @nffr.bsky.social

newflashfiction.com/bamboo-silk-...

"Whales were familiar. We saw them on our last family trip, before everything got worse. Dad was fixed on the massive tail slipping under the surface"

Wonderfully interwoven writing from @rachelmhollis.bsky.social in @nffr.bsky.social

newflashfiction.com/beached-by-r...

"your sister thinks it’s a lame prize, she’d prefer a hello kitty or a pokémon. but you spend your evenings under the neon kaleidoscope of the seaside arcade"

Such a rich and original piece from @nadiaborn.com in @nffr.bsky.social

newflashfiction.com/the-claw-mac...

The Editorial Funnel I remember how easy it all seemed.

Want to know more about my new course? Want a video sneak peek? Want a fun little thing you can try to create emotional distance from your work?

Find out more about "The Editorial Funnel" here: prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/the-editor...

"She nods. He’s told her this before, how flying is safer than driving. That planes can easily survive the loss of an engine"

Love how this one from @thewritelifeliz.bsky.social builds from beginning to end. Great exploration of fear and how it grows inside us.

Mar / Apr 26: Upcoming courses, workshops & events Here’s what’s coming up from your your friendly neighbourhood freelancers, lit mags and awesome independents over the next couple of months.

This month's #FromTheCoursesMouth includes wonderful-sounding stuff from @stillsquirrel.bsky.social @sagetyrtle.bsky.social @pleomorphic2.bsky.social @taniahershman.bsky.social @jmgatford.bsky.social @tenpennydreams.bsky.social

fromthecoursesmouth.substack.com/p/mar-apr-26...

❤️

"Skitzy texts me to meet her up at the old tent and to bring a chocolate cake and a pregnancy test"

Ooft - @emilyrinkema.bsky.social is soo good! Love how this one builds but leaves the reader without a full sense of resolution.

"But the voice knew his name and the exact depth and shape of Uncle’s navel"

Wonderfully off-kilter writgin from @woodenmormyrid.bsky.social in @tinymolecules.bsky.social

www.tinymolecules.com/issues/issue...

"She says we probably wouldn’t know, being so young, but when you fall in love [...] well, then you imagine your future will be bright"

So much bubbling away beneath this evocative piece from @annelouisepepper.bsky.social in @tinymolecules.bsky.social

www.tinymolecules.com/issues/issue...

twenty-six — Tiny Molecules

"to make a rabbit, she said, you melt down squares of pure-cacao despair"

A piece full of starling images from @patrickthomashenry.bsky.social; wonderful thematic cohesion and originiality of character

www.tinymolecules.com/issues/issue...

Not Finished Yet: Essays on the Rhythmic Beauty of a Life in Flux Buy Not Finished Yet: Essays on the Rhythmic Beauty of a Life in Flux: Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a special event! Available at all the usual places.

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Not-Finished...
Barnes and Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/not-finish...
Foyles: www.foyles.co.uk/book/not-fin...
Waterstones: www.waterstones.com/book/not-fin...

I'm very late to post about this, but it was such a joy to host the online book launch for @tracieadams.bsky.social's wonderufl book "Not Finished Yet" last weekend. Wonderful readings from @claudiamonpere.bsky.social @bethanyjarmul.bsky.social @lmbayley.bsky.social @barlowadams.bsky.social

"Me, she pulls into the kitchen where Paati and Amma are grinding coconut, sharp cumin, sweet and earthy coriander, pungent chili"

Rich, evocative, atmospheric - wonderful sense of character, occasion and place - brilliance as always from @pleomorphic2.bsky.social

"Laura fishes rubber bands out of drawers and steals them from counters of the stores. She likes the faded ones best, likes how they stretch"

A wonderful sense of propulsion to this piece from @pamavoledo.bsky.social in @templeinacity.bsky.social

templeinacity.com/micro-fictio...

"Edith tried to stay calm, despite the hitch of the girl’s sobs and the insults flung as casually as firecrackers"

Powerful writing from @madeleinewrite.bsky.social, packed full of emotion: templeinacity.com/flash-fictio...

Returned - 100Words Brandon McNeiceWe lost the case on a single word I bent. The interpreter oath pinned my lapel. Not asylum, “haven.” I said it softer, my tongue stalling on the s, and the officer checked “safe.” The f...

"The folder shut like a door. After I looked up the word again—its roots, how it travels through deserts, papers, throats."

So much truth / message swirling around in this great micro from @brandonmcneice.bsky.social

100wordstory.org/returned/

"Years ago, a teacher explained that extremophiles are the only microorganisms that can survive the marsh"

Brilliantly layered CNF from @emhall47.bsky.social - so much said in such a tiny space

Only Perfection Can Save Us - 100Words Chelsea StickleThere’s a cemetery under my house where I’ve buried all the old versions of me that didn’t work out, abandoning them in the damp darkness that would otherwise gnaw me to the bone.

"There’s a cemetery under my house where I’ve buried all the old versions of me that didn’t work out"

Startling micro from @chelseastickle.bsky.social; so much to unpack here:

100wordstory.org/only-perfect...

Apologies - it's been a long week!!

"a low pressure skirts the coastline / transforms into a nor'easter / bombs out with a bomb thrown"

Rhythmically insistent poem from @mrdecember.bsky.social; love the groups of three in here and the shifts from staccato single word fragments to longer sentences

"And saying we’ll be late for the next thing is not an answer to the yellow question, so we might have to look up shades of yellow on the phone just to check"

A masterclass in continuous emotional build from @pleomorphic2.bsky.social; the way each sentence, each paragraph ramps things up 🔥

"Doors slam, lights extinguish, and the street swallows them whole. By morning, only silence remains."

Love the atmospheric build of this micro from @fadingbetty.bsky.social in @ettereview.bsky.social

"those who [...] walk backwards slowly each morning to the elevator the chair and desk to present face present teeth present the daily stagecraft of the unspoken echoing within"

Wonderful word-smithery from @mattjakubowski.bsky.social - two richly creative micros

Too short to quote, but this one has a real punch to it. Great to discover a new-to-me poet.

Wonderful to see this out in the world, Karen! Congratulations!