Guest Blog: Dan Holloway of eightcuts on Flash-slamming

I’m absolutely delighted to be celebrating National Flash Fiction Day by hosting a Flash Slam (http://eightcuts.com/events/flash-slam/) in Oxford. Hurrah, you cry, and what might one of those be?

Well, I first came across the idea through Amy Riley and Tim Lay who run Brighton’s top literary night Grit Lit, where I had the privilege of performing this summer (http://gritlit.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/dates-for-your-diary-flash-lit-fiction-11-september-grit-lit-9-december/ ). What we have planned is part slam and part Literary Death Match-style panel show, all designed to show just how great the flash form can be when read aloud.

Yes, but what does that actually mean? Right, well the slam bit is like a poetry slam. Anyone can sign up (within reason – we have 12 spaces available in advance and on the night) to read flash fiction for no more than 4 minutes. They will then be scored, in an informal, friendly way by 5 pre-selected members of the audience. The highest and lowest scores will be removed and the reader with the highest score will “win.” And everyone will have an entertaining, educational, raucous and really rather fabulous time and come out fired with passion for flashing.

The panel show part consists of the fact that we have an MC (yours truly) and a judge (the wonderful Tania Hershman, one of the UK’s most feted and fabulous flashers), who will offer brief humorous but constructive comments on each performance.

And to top it off, Tania will be performing a headline set of her flash pieces. There will also be drinks and music all in the surrounds of the Albion Beatnik, Oxford’s finest bookstore.

[If you would like to submit a guest blog entry for the site, please send us an email at nationalflashfictionday AT gmail DOT com with your proposal.]

And... we're off!

Well, it's taken a while since the first inkling of an idea, but preparations for National Flash-Fiction Day are now underway, some of the events have already been organised, writers, readers and publishers are talking and making plans, and the website is now up and running at http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/ complete with details of our Micro-Fiction Competition.

So, what now I hear you say. Well, Christmas first, I think, and then the planning starts. There are many, many possible ideas for events for Flash-Fiction Day, so time to start thinking about what YOU are going to do.

Are you going to write, read, slam, teach, publish, collaborate, run a competition, a combination of some or all, or something completely different. Whatever it is, this is your chance to join with others across the country to celebrate the tiny fiction form that does so much!

Visit the website regularly to see what's going on in your area, and soon we will have regional co-ordinators who can lend you a hand, and let's make this first National Flash-Fiction Day a day to remember!

Oh, and before I forget, we're looking for guests to write for this blog. We want your posts on all areas of flash-fiction: your definition of a flash, what you like about it, why you started writing it, who your favourite writer is, a review of a book, a plan for an event, even a piece of flash-fiction and an explanation of where the idea came from and how you wrote it. Whatever you fancy writing for us, as long as it's flash-fiction related, we want to know.

So, send us an email at nationalflashfictionday AT gmail DOT com with your proposal for a blog post and let's get it filling up with all your wonderful thoughts.

To start us off we will soon be having a post from Dan Holloway of eightcuts who will be talking about the flash-slam he is hosting for National Flash-Fiction Day and explaining just what a slam is anyway!

So, Happy Christmas from us, and we'll be back with words from Dan very soon.

An Open Letter

Dear Flash-Fiction Fan,

I am a flash-fiction writer, an editor and a lecturer in Creative Writing, and I have a dream of a day celebrating flash-fiction.

Flash-fiction exists in the grey area between poetry and the short story, so, why not have a day in between the two National Days for those forms dedicated to it? It would be a day in which we tell the world about these short, short stories that we craft and encourage them to read and write them.

As a result, Wednesday May 16th 2012 will be National Flash-Fiction Day in the UK and I need your help.

What I would like is for the day to co-ordinate all the activities you would already do - readings, open-mics, workshops, publications, competitions, and anything else you think of - all under the banner of National Flash-Fiction Day.

There will soon be a website to co-ordinate the events and let people know what's going on in their area. It will also have pages for all flash-fiction writers taking part on which they can feature themselves and their work, add links to buy their books, etc. I want it to be a resource for flash-fiction as much as a site for the Day itself.

So, what I need from you is to start thinking and planning your events; spread the word about the day, about this blog and our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday), ask people to sign up for the mailing list at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com and generally become part of the whole thing.

There is no funding behind this event, no mass team of adminstrators, so apart from co-ordinating it, I'm relying on you to do what you do best and bring this thing together.

If you want to volunteer any ideas for promotion, your time to help out, or anything else, please get in touch.

This will be the first National Flash-Fiction Day, but with your help it won't be the last.

Thanks for your support and roll on next May.

All the best

Calum Kerr

National Flash-Fiction Day Co-ordinator.