Festival Team 2024

Follow Us

Creator and Festival Director, Jude Higgins

Jude Higgins

Jude is a writer and writing tutor and has stories published or forthcoming in the New Flash Fiction Review, Flash Frontier, FlashBack Fiction, The Blue Fifth Review, The Nottingham Review,Pidgeon Holes, Moonpark Review,Fictive Dream, the Fish Prize Anthology National Flash Fiction Day anthologies and Flash: The International Short Short Story Magazine among other places. She has won or been placed in many flash fiction contests and was shortlisted in the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize in 2017, 2018 and 2023. Her debut flash fiction pamphlet The Chemist’s House was published by V.Press in 2017. Her micro fictions have been included in the 2019 and 2020 lists of Best Flash Fictions of UK and Ireland and she has been nominated for Best Small Fictions 2020, BestMicro Fictions, 2023, a Pushcart Prize, 2020 and Best of the Net, 2022. Her story ‘Codes To Live By’ was selected for Best Micro Fictions and was longlisted for Wigleaf in 2022. She founded Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2015, directs Ad Hoc Fiction, the short short fiction press, co-runs The Bath Short Story Award, founded and directs the Flash Fiction Festival, UK, organises reading events and teaches flash fiction sessions online.

Weekend Co-ordinator: Karen Jones

Karen Jones is a flash and short fiction writer from Glasgow, Scotland. Her flashes have been nominated for Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize, and her story Small Mercies was included in Best Small Fictions 2019. She has won first prize in the Cambridge Flash Prize, Flash 500 and Reflex Fiction and second prize in Fractured Lit’s Micro Fiction Competition. Her work has been Highly Commended/shortlisted for To Hull and Back, Bath Flash Fiction and Bath Short Story Award and many more. Her novella-in-flash When It’s Not Called Making Love is published by Ad Hoc Fiction. She is an editor for National Flash Fiction Day anthology.

Entertainments: Helen Rye

Helen Rye lives and writes in Norwich. She has won the Bath Flash Award, the Reflex Fiction Prize and third place in the Bristol Short Story Prize. She is a senior submissions editor at SmokeLong Quarterly, a prose editor for Lighthouse Literary Journal,. She completed MA in Prose with distinction at UEA, She really, really likes karaoke.

Contact and Liaison for Accommodation and Camping: Sara Hills

Sara Hills

Sara Hills is the author of The Evolution of Birds (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021), winner of the 2022 Saboteur Award for Best Short Story Collection. She has won or placed in the Smokelong Mikey, 2023, QuietManDave Prize for flash nonfiction, the Retreat West quarterly prize, National Flash Fiction Day’s micro competition, Bath Flash Fiction Award, and The Welkin Prize. Sara’s work has been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50, The Best Small Fictions, and the BIFFY 50, as well as nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfictions, and Best of the Net.

Volunteer Co-ordinator: Audrey Niven

Audrey Niven


Audrey Niven is a Scottish writer and creative coach based in London. Her stories have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards, and are published in multiple anthologies including Oxford, Bath, Reflex and NFFD. She established the Propelling Pencil Charity Flash Competition and Journal where she is Editor in Charge. She reads for various competitions and in 2022 judged the Mslexia Flash Competition. She should be working on her novel. @NivenAudrey

Festival Bookshop Co-ordinators: Tracy Fells and Debbi Voisey

Tracy Fells

Tracy Fells was the 2017 Regional Winner (Europe and Canada) for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her short and flash fiction has been widely published in print journals and online with over a hundred credits. She has been shortlisted for the Bridport, Fish and Willesden Herald short story prizes, along with successes in many other competitions. In 2016 she was awarded an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Chichester University. She is a regular reader for several large short story competitions and leads writing workshops on short fiction. Tracy also writes novels and was a finalist in the 2018 Richard & Judy ‘Search for a Bestseller’ competition. Her novella-in-flash Hairy on the Inside was published by Ad Hoc Fiction and shortlisted for the 2022 international Rubery Book Award and Saboteur Award. In 2023 her debut short story collection The Naming of Moths is published by Fly On The Wall Press. She tweets as @theliterarypig.

Debbi Voisey

Debbi Vosiey writes flash fiction, short stories and novels. She had two novellas-in-flash published in 2021 (Only About Love with Fairlight Books, and The 10:25 with Flash:The International Short-Short Story Press). Only About Love received a special mention in the 2022 Saboteur Awards and was shortlisted for the Arnold Bennett Prize 2022.  

Debbi’s novel The Reset which is written in short, flash-like chapters willbe published by. She is also working on her next novel whilst running creative writing workshops, events, and courses on Zoom, and offering mentorships and guidance for people working on writing projects. She runs regular flash feedback sessions and flash writing workshops with Retreat West.

share by email