Kleopatra Olympiou

Vertiginous!

"I didn’t know how to tell you that in the spring, my mother used to scrub the tatami mats with orange rinds and vinegar, how it made the whole house smell like florescence and sap, how the rain would open the city like a peeled fruit." 🍊

OMG how did I miss this gorgeous gorgeous story when it went live!!! Congratulations @mizukiyamagen.bsky.social for the Best of the Net nom & thank you for a story I know I'll return to many times. Wow!!!

Looks like you're having a great time in Ireland! Hope visiting all those imagined places is inspiring! ☺️

Book cover of Fiona McKay's The Lives of the Dead

Photo of text which reads: Today will be a good day, Kate pleads through sudden tears. Notices that the windows are edged with dirt and wishes for rain to clean them. The sun continues shining, but in Kate, the sea-mist is rolling in and blotting out everything on its way, blotting out the very sun. Somewhere in the house is a vortex, and it sucks her in, leaves her spiralling down in the gloom, wondering where it all went wrong, and hoe many times she will have to do this all over again until she can sit down, switch off, just be for a while without being wanted or needed. Never, the sea-mist says as it rolls through her head. Never.

Finished @fionamckay.bsky.social's incredible novella-in-flash THE LIVES OF THE DEAD (Ad Hoc Fiction) today. This is a devastating and sensitively observed book about a woman's marriage and foray into motherhood, against the backdrop of retold, un-idyllic fairy tales. I loved it ❤️

Sorry to hear, Jude! Hope you feel better soon ❤️

Gorgeous!!! And how lovely to get to know a landscape's changes 😊

In such disbelief still that I didn't think to share the link to my nominated story!! But you can read it here :) rawlit.weebly.com/6_3.html

Omg hi Brisket!!!!

It was a bit of a medical scare with Skipper, but she’s back home, happy, and (because they had to shave her legs) rocking some pretty stylish boots

Thanks so much Cole! ❤️

congratulations!!

Last, but not least!

Best of the Net 2026 Nominations - Fiction & CNF

Congratulations to all and thank you for your trust ♥️

OMG thank you so much @delgeo14.bsky.social for nominating my story!!!!! Never saw this coming

🥹❤️❤️

It is (alas) on my shelf, waiting for me to get to it :D But it's moving up my queue if you're recommending it!!

Thank you for reading Sarah! ❤️

Had such a great time at @flashficfestuk.bsky.social (even though I likely spent most of it telling people how nervous I was)!! Just incredible to be among so many inspirational (and friendly) writers 😊

Ah sorry I missed that! I'm still new to translation but it's such a fascinating world, and really brings you intimately close to other people's writing!

Aww thank you for reading Malina! This one is very special to me :) ❤️

So lovely to see you Diane! Read and looooved A Tricky Dance on my train home. Excited to read your other books next!!! And thank you for giving me the chance to read my story!

Every writer's dream! And those quotes are wonderful. Looking up where I can get a copy in the UK now :)

I am so so sorry!

@404ink.bsky.social should be able to help with that ☺️

And this is just the practical side. There are also, you know, ethics

AI will do as crappy a job in translating a book as it does at writing them. Writing is about human beings communicating with other human beings, so it needs a human translator to recognise the tone, the voice that the writer has created and translate that, not just a bunch of words.

Outsourcing translation to AI wholly disrespects authors, readers, AND translators. It's only good for the people pushing this tool

AI cannot replace human translators. I just took translation exams last week and in my prep came across a lot of online tools which consistently provided irrelevant, unhelpful, misleading translation recommendations. Translation is an art of context and nuance.

Thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of our new anthology ‘Monsoon’. Copies are available on Kindle and from our bookshop: www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/bo...

Absolutely heartbroken to learn that Professor Simon James has passed away after a short illness. Simon was a stalwart union rep in the English Department, and a personal friend to many of us in the branch. We'll miss his humour, his passion, and his dedication to making things better for people.