Flash fiction is a genre fast growing in popularity with both writers and readers. So what’s the attraction and what do you need to know to write great flash? Editor and publisher Laura Keenan unpacks the answers to these questions with a panel of West Australian writers including Mabel Gibson, Paul J. Laverty, Meg Anderson and Amy Budrikis.
With thanks to Night Parrot Press for their sponsorship of this session.
Laura Keenan is co-publisher and editor at Night Parrot Press. In 2002, Laura met flash fiction in a writers group in Denver, Colorado, and has been head-over-heels for the genre ever since. Her career as an editor spans twenty years, working for publishers including the Perseus Books Group (USA) and UWA Publishing. She runs flash fiction writing workshops in schools, libraries and community centres, encouraging others to obsess over small, intense
stories.
Megan Anderson is a recovering features journalist. Her flash fiction has survived slush piles at Reflex Fiction Quarterly, the Bath Flash Fiction Award and the Bridport Prize. She moonlights as an artist under the guise of Hangdog Art. She wrote and illustrated Word of Dog (Fremantle Press), a book about humans.
Amy Budrikis writes short stories and has been published in such collections as Once: A Selection of Short Short Stories and Twice Not Shy: One Hundred Short Short Stories.
Sabian Wilde‘s love of language began with light blue aerograms, sent by a faraway grandfather. Sabian wrote poetry, then songs and music, before becoming a music journalist. Almost thirty years later, Sabian still works with words, but flash fiction brings together the immediacy of music, journalistic observation, and the joy of a child receiving a letter.
