In the bath

 Astonished that my story is in the Bath Flash Fiction Award shortlist - thank you so much BFF!

Bath bonus

I'm stoked to have a story included in the longlist of the Bath Flash Fiction Award, a bonus of which being that it will also be included in the anthology. My thanks to the judges.

Strands longlist

Woke to the lovely news that my flash has made the longlist for the Strands International Flash Fiction Competition #9, thanks to Jose Varghese and the Strands team! Stoked to be listed with so many wonderful writers.

Story challenge

I was really happy Damyanti Biswas tagged me in a 100 word story challenge this week. I hadn't spontaneously written anything for a while, what with lockdown and writing to various deadlines, plus behind the scenes business of family life and better paying work, so it was good to write something simply for the pleasure of writing rather than with any specific purpose in mind. I had forgotten how enjoyable writing can be. Damyanti has written more about the exercise, the joys of writing for its own sake, and highlighted some of the pieces resulting from the challenge, which you can read on her blog. I'm grateful to her for the chance to take part.

Black dahlias

I'm ever so grateful to the team at Splonk for including my story 'Black Dahlias' in issue #3. Thank you Nuala, Robert, Marie, Adam, Lisa, Janice, and Finbar- it's a beautiful issue.

Wearing

My thanks to Editor Cal Marcius for including my story 'Wearing the Seed' at Spelk.

Read leaves

Thanks to Jose Varghese and Strands for giving my story 'All the Leaves' an honourable mention and making it available to read here.

Another fighting

I'm stoked to have a small fiction over at Competent But Unfitted. Many thanks to Editor C. J. Anderson-Wu for including 'Another Fighting Game'.

Every v

I'm chuffed to bits to be nominated for the The Best Small Fictions Anthology 2020, thanks and gratitude to takahē magazine and the lovely team there, including Zoë Meager!

I'm particularly stoked to have been nominated for this story as it's very personal and writing it posed many challenges for me. To transform a trauma into a piece of art that resonates with others and results in so much positivity is really the best outcome I could hope to achieve. I'm especially pleased that my love of nature pulled me through and made something that could have been very grim into something healing. Nothing beats pulling two fingers to trauma and rising above it.

Thanks again, takahē.  

Two strands

Much gratitude to Jose Varghese! It's wonderful to be listed for two stories with the astonishingly talented Susmita Bhattacharya in the Fifth Strands International Flash Fiction Competition!

Flash list

Overjoyed to have made the shortlist for the Strands International Flash Fiction Competition. It's a cracking shortlist to be on and I'm chuffed to bits.

Flash in takahē

I'm very grateful and chuffed to bits to have three flashes published in takahē magazine, thanks to Zoë Meager. You can read them here.

Flash frontier

Stoked to have a flash in with Mere Taito, Hinewirangi Kohu Morgan, Iona Winter and other glorious talents - thanks a mil to Teoti Jardine, Vaugahn Rapatahana and team FF - looking forward to reading everyone's pieces!

Interview

I've been a massive fan of Nuala O' Connor's writing since I started blogging, back in 2009, so it's something of a dream-come-true to have been invited to her blog Women Rule Writer for this interview with Leanne Radojkovich about writing and illustrating First fox (The Emma Press).

First fox

I had the privilege to illustrate First Fox, the stunning debut by leading NZ short story writer Leanne Radojkovich, published by The Emma Press.

I'm very much looking forward to the launch at Auckland Writer's Festival, on Tuesday 16 May, 5 - 6.30pm, Mojo Bledisloe, Wellesley Street West. I hope you are too!

Flash review

I'm very grateful to John Lavin for including my National Flash Fiction Day Competition long-listed story "What We Talk About When We Talk About The Treaty" in The Wales Arts Review Flash Fiction Special.

Beaut trees

 

 

Beautiful Trees is Nik Perring’s much anticipated follow-up to Beautiful Words, in which Alexander and Lucy’s story was told, and the second book in the genre-pushing trilogy ending with A Book of Beautiful Shapes.  

“There are many reasons to love [Beautiful Trees]. We are in a relationship with them for a start, […] like some sort of involuntary symbiotic love affair.”

There are many reasons to love Beautiful Trees. We get to find out what happens to Alexander when he meets Lily, for a start, “[a]fter Lucy went away”. Only, there are reminders of Lucy everywhere, little echoes, so that no matter how different trees may seem on the surface, the reader cannot help but notice how beautiful the words of the twenty-three stories in Beautiful Trees are, too.

Gorgeously illustrated by Miranda Sofroniou and published by Roast Books, Beautiful Trees is a visual treat of originality. Each page is printed and patterned with images that build on the symbolism revealed about the trees featured in the stories and add to the mythology of Alexander and Lily. The overall effect is one of opening a dictionary and finding that every definition not only has a map but also pinpoints another stop in the journey of a love story. 

But nothing is ever as simple as it first appears. Beautiful Trees is much more than a series of jigsaw pieces about trees and their relevance to the lives of Alexander and Lily. The book makes a much broader commentary on the significance of nature on all our lives. Not only the nature we are surrounded by, but the nature within us. 

Beautiful Trees makes us question what it is to be human, our mythology, to be connected to something greater than individual selves, and to think ahead to what may be. It’s really a book about choices, if we have them, or if we are in a bigger story arc, one where trees are the main characters, perhaps, and we are merely players, on repeat. 

“[…] without their leaves. Their bark was silver. ‘Like glowing bone,’ you said, and I knew then that we were the same.”

Nik Perring is a member of The Society of Authors, National Centre for Language and Literacy

"Nik Perring's stories are gems, every one of them" - 3 :AM Magazine

Follow him on Twitter: @nikperring

 

Read ear

I'll be reading "The Ear of Dionysus" at Auckland City Library this evening as part of the National Flash Fiction Day celebrations, from 6pm. Many thanks to Eileen Merriman for organising the event.

Blast out

I'm completely chuffed to have an explosive piece in Ink, Sweat & Tears, a venue that's special to me as I had my first flash fiction published there. My sincere thanks to Editor Helen Ivory for publishing "kiln".

Shush ear

The best thing about no longer being Features Editor of Flash Frontier is that I now have time to write and submit fiction there again. It was lovely to return from Taipei to the news that one of my stories had made the cut this month.

Thank you (or, using the Mandarin I've picked up in Taipei, xièxie) to Michelle Elvy and James Norcliffe for including "The Ear of Dionysus" in February's "Whispers" issue.