Thinking of doing our Prompted Story challenge? Here's the Trashies nobody's picked yet, if you like the idea of being different...
Trashie picks close 8th August.
Subs open 23rd for your (up to) 500 word flashes.
trashcatlit.com/prompted-sto...

We need some love for the blue bin! 💙

Submission update August 15 to September 26 - Issue 5 I've been looking forward to sharing this and have spent a lot of time ruminating on the best way to move forward. The next submission period for Underbelly Press Issue 5 will run from August 15 to September 26. The editing period will follow through late September and October, with Issue 5 tentatively set to release in early to mid November. I’m trying something slightly different this time around, so please bear with me as I iron out the details. Things may shift a little, but this is the timeline I’m aiming for and I’ll keep you updated as things progress. Thank you all so much for your continued support. I appreciate it very much and can’t wait to see what this next issue brings! More information and reminders about the submission process will be shared soon. Text is on a black background. In the top right corner is the Underbelly Press logo.

The next submission period for Issue 5 will run from Aug 15-Sept 26!

The editing period will follow through late Sept & Oct, with Issue 5 tentatively set to release in early to mid Nov.

More info about the submission process will be shared soon. Thank you for your support 🖤

Seeing a contest judge post cryptic & snarky comments about the entrants' stories really makes my blood boil. I've judged a lot of contests. Well-run organizations don't allow judges to talk about the entrants or their work. Live posting the judging process is disrespectful.

Submit why don’t you!

I’ve had some corking art and flash fiction. Really high quality stuff, including those I declined.

Subs close 25 August.

Top tip: it’s not all about cake.

In the work that’s grabbed me the cake is the least of it (although the piece wouldn’t work without it).

Fickle beast, I am.

This is a family you want to join. They treat you and your work with such care ❤️

Performance art.

Happy B-Day to that sub. They grow up so fast. Now a toddler.

Are decisions re upcoming issue coming soon? Before you know...death?

Donald Trump: Are we STILL talking about Jeffrey Epstein?

Thanks, Adele!

Probably just not a morning duck.

It's out in the world! Available from online booksellers worldwide! Congrats to all the amazing contributors! #FlashFiction #Author #Writers #Writing #ShortStory #BlueSky #BookSky #WritingCommunity #WritingAndBooks #Microfiction #LiteraryMagazines #WritersNetwork

'Cause the spider plant and the dog are watching.

The Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2025 is now open!

One story. 1,000 words. One shot at glory.

This year, we’re going big: one annual competition to celebrate the best in flash fiction.

Enter now! 👉 oxfordflashfictionprize.com

#FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #OxfordFlashFictionPrize

Oxford Flash Fiction Prize Flash Fiesta: 7 days of flash fiction Want to have more fun in your writing life? Sick of the ‘suffering writer’ trope? Want to feel genuinely excited to show up at the blank page every day? Then t…

🌟 Is the blank page making you sweat?
🎉 Join us for a Flash Fiesta – 7 days of fun flash fiction writing!
📅 26 July–1 Aug | 🕢 7:30–8:30pm UK
✨ Prompts, prizes, a Welcome Pack & space to just play with words.

oxfordflashfictionprize.com/4495-2/
#FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #FlashFiesta

Victory will be ours, Russian soldiers shout as they victoriously crash into trees.

Love it, my friend.

Thank you, Micro Madness.

Congrats to our June 1 Micro Madness winner Sudha Balagopal – Phoenix, Arizona, USA JUNE 1 Sudha Balagopal – Phoenix, Arizona, USA JULY, 1969 On the day Apollo 11 lands on the moon, we’re released early from school. Nina and I slosh through Mumbai’s monsoon rains in shin-high gum boots. She unwraps a bar of Cadbury’s, declares her father works for the company. I lift my face to rain-wetness, say my Pa’s an airline pilot; he flies among stars. At the apartment, there’s no answer when I knock-tap-knock-tap. From next door, Nina smirks. “My mother’s home. Where’s yours?” I invert my soaked boots; water splatters. “She’s with my Pa, silly, traveling to the moon.” Nina’s chocolate plops into the puddle, brown mingling with brown. Sudha Balagopal’s recent work appears in Doric Literary and Fictive Dream among other journals. In 2024, her novella-in-flash, Nose Ornaments, runner up in the Bath contest, was published by Ad Hoc Fiction, UK. She has had stories included in Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions and the Wigleaf Top 50.

Congrats to our June 1 Micro Madness winner 🎉🎉 Sudha Balagopal – Phoenix, Arizona, USA @sudhab.bsky.social

Congrats to our June 2 Micro Madness winner Judy Darley – Clevedon, North Somerset, UK 🎊🎊 #flashfiction #microfiction #micromadness GEN A WILL DISAPPROVE OF THE CHOICES WE MADE We swarm together, amassing, cameras aloft; gawking into greenery; thirsting for awe. The flying fox’s graceful fall doesn’t quench us, nor the vespa tropica hornet’s dance with spider prey. We have but one wildlife specimen to tick off. Bucket-lists wrinkle in pockets. Sweat shimmies down spines. A matronly girth swings on stage, ginger locks fierce against rattan leaves. Intelligent eyes cast shade. Cradling her young, she spurns clicks and coos, drawn only by sweet berries and dragon fruit. Tomorrow, we’ll speed past Mount Kinabalu into airline limbo, and pride ourselves on visiting paradise just in time. Judy Darley is the author of The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain, Sky Light Rain and Remember Me to the Bees. Her words have been shared aboard boats, in museums and on BBC Radio. She likes to infiltrate poetry open mic nights with flash stories. Find Judy at @judydarley.bsky.social

Congrats to our June 2 Micro Madness winner
Judy Darley – Clevedon, North Somerset, UK 🎊🎊 #flashfiction #microfiction #micromadness
@judydarley.bsky.social

Congrats to our June 3 Micro Madness winner, Rebecca Ball – Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand JUNE 3 Rebecca Ball – Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand When our laptop stopped WHEN OUR LAPTOP STOPPED You took it to your bench, swabbed its bones with a cotton bud. Held your ear to its pulse. Prised out that silent hard drive with trembling fingers. Placed it on a shelf beside the film canisters, the chinking bullet casings, shining twists of flint and fishing flies. Before you died, you moved its files to the desktop: to sort and then delete. Every day, I see this folder and think of an etched bench, a clinking shelf. Compartments of nuts and screws. Black bike chain draped over a lathe. Hang of oil in the air. Rebecca Ball is a teacher and writer based near Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. She writes poems and stories which you can read in places like Flash Frontier, Landfall, takahē, Turbine | Kapohau and Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook. Her story How it is in dreams won the 2024 Sunday Star Times short story competition.

Congrats to our June 3 Micro Madness winner, Rebecca Ball – Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand 🎊🎊 #flashfiction #microfiction #micromadness

National Flash Fiction Day New Zealand 2025 Micro Madness Long list

Congrats to our 2025 Micro Madness Longlist 🎉

A gray cat with big green eyes and creme highlights on the tip of his muzzle and around the eyes, looking up from the floor.

A gray tabby cat with big green eyes, looking out from a cage at the spca. His name is Hippo.

Our local SPCA just put out a call for help. This is Hippo. He turns out to have a broken femur and needs his leg amputated and to be neutered. Vet is saying $800. It's now $700.. if you can help, be sure to mention hippo in the comments. checkout.shelterluv.com/donate/NENC

Thanks, Melissa!

Thanks so much, partner!

Thank you very much, James.

Thank you.

Thank you! Appreciate it.