2021 Contributors
Liana Ashenden is a writer and artist living in the ancient volcanoes of Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū/Banks Peninsula, Aotearoa/New Zealand. With a PhD in English Literature and a BSC in Physiology, her writing blends the esoteric and domestic. As an expressionist artist, Liana works in watercolour, acrylic, charcoal and clay. You can find her in Flash Frontier and on Instagram @swampmoa
Vivienne Bailey is a Wellington-based writer/journalist and has studied creative writing at Whitiriera NZ. Her award-winning short stories have been published in online literary journals and in anthologies. Her children’s novel Cricket Crazy was published in 2021 by The Cuba Press.
Sue Barker lives in Waipu, Te Tai Tokerau/Northland, writing with the Whangārei Library 3.30 Flash group which is on the cusp, Covid-willing, of producing a short anthology. Winning the Whangārei Library Flash Fiction competition 2020 surprised nobody more than herself.
Claire Beynon is a Dunedin-based artist and published writer with a steady history of exhibitions and awards. In addition to her solo practice, she works collaboratively on a diverse range of projects with fellow artists, writers, scientists and musicians in New Zealand and abroad. She has a special affection for foraminifera, fungi and prime numbers. www.clairebeynon.com | www.manyasonemao.com
Jane Bowman is a Tennessee native who spends most of her time writing government policy but occasionally pens short stories, flash fiction and poetry. She currently resides in Wellington, New Zealand, with her partner and their squashed-faced cat.
Claudia Bolz was made in Germany, lived in Paris, came to Aotearoa, fed on words. She holds a European Master of Conference Interpreting completed in Paris and a Master of International Law and Politics completed in Christchurch. She lives with her family and dog in Wellington.
Ian Burn is a husband, father of two and occasionally writes – mainly poetry and science fiction. He has worked in public and not-for-profit sectors in New Zealand as a fundraiser and manager. Climate change scares the living daylights out of him, board games keep him entertained and God keeps him stable.
Gretchen Carroll lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband and son. She has worked in journalism and communications for more than 20 years, and enjoys writing flash fiction. More on her online writing portfolio.
Ashleigh Cattermole-Crump is a writer from Christchurch, who enjoys crafting short stories and micro-fiction with a twist. She has published in over 20 anthologies and journals. She balances working, writing, reading and parenting like a perpetually exhausted cephalopod.
Helen Chambers is a writer from North East Essex, UK. She won the Fish Short Story Prize in 2018 and was nominated for Best Microfictions in 2019 and a Pushcart Prize in 2021. She writes flash and short stories and you can read some of her publications at: https://helenchamberswriter.wordpress.com
Janean Cherkun is a working mum from Otago. She likes cats, coffee, basketball, and particularly enjoys attending acupuncture sessions to mitigate the stressful bits of life and for the excellent chat. She hopes to write a novel, but for now is happy with stories that sometimes get shorter than they might have started out and/or become unwieldy and frustrating.
Sam Clements’ poetry has appeared in Landfall and Jamaica’s Sunday Gleaner. He has collaborated and performed with leading New Zealand musicians, jazz pianist Ben Fernandez, guitarist Nigel Gavin, singer songwriter Sonia Wilson, and various poets. He has read at recitals featuring violist Milan Milisavljević, principal violist in the Met Opera Orchestra, and the APO’s principal violist, Robert Ashworth. He co-edited This Twilight Menagerie, celebrating 40 years of the cultural institution Poetry Live!
Christine Cloughley is a former newspaper and magazine journalist who now works as a freelance manuscript assessor and editor. She lives with her husband, adult son and spoilt cat in Tauranga where she tries hard to ignore the sun outside so she can get her work done. Any spare time is spent reading fiction and writing short stories.
Jo Cocker lives in Auckland, New Zealand, having moved here from the UK several years ago. She is currently nurturing a newly discovered obsession for dystopian sci-fi to accompany her other obsessions, which include buying secondhand jazz vinyl at record fairs and ordering more books than she can read from the library.
Susan Cornford is a retired public servant, living in Perth, Western Australia. She has pieces published or forthcoming in Across the Margin, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Antipodean Science Fiction, borrowed solace, Cafe Lit, Crow’s Feet Journal, Ethel Zine, Flora Fiction Website, Frost Zone Zine, Granfalloon Magazine, Meet Cute Press, Mono, Mystery Tribune, The Mythic Circle, Quail Bell Magazine, The Short Humour Site, Thriller Magazine, Worthing Flash and others.
Rose Collins has an MA from Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters (2010). Her work has been shortlisted for the Bare Fiction Prize (2016), the Bridport Prize (2020) and the Takahē Monica Taylor Poetry Prize (2020). She won the 2020 international Micro Madness Competition. Rose was the 2018 Writer in Residence at Hagley College, Christchurch. She lives in Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour.
Nikki Crutchley works as a freelance proofreader and lives in Cambridge with her husband and two daughters. She has had her flash fiction published in various anthologies including Fresh Ink, Bonsai: Best Small Stories from Aotearoa and most recently Restore to Factory Settings. Nikki has published three crime novels, Nothing Bad Happens Here, No One Can Hear You and The Murder Club. She has recently signed a two-book deal with Harper Collins Australia and her psychological thriller To the Sea will be out December 2021.
Judy Darley can’t stop writing about the fallibilities of the human mind. Her stories, essays and poems are widely published by literary anthologies, magazines and websites in the UK, New Zealand, Canada, US and India, including Cypress, The Mechanics’ Institute Review and The Pomegranate. Judy is the author of short fiction collections Sky Light Rain (Valley Press) and Remember Me to the Bees (Tangent Books). Her third collection, The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain, will be published by Reflex Press in 2022. You can find Judy at http://www.skylightrain.com; https://twitter.com/JudyDarley.
Gay Degani has received nominations and honors for her work including Pushcart consideration, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. She’s published a full-length collection, Rattle of Want, (Pure Slush Press, 2015) and a suspense novel, What Came Before (Truth Serum Press, 2016). She occasionally blogs at Words in Place.
Catherine Chiarella Domonkos’ short fiction has appeared in PANK, Word Riot and apt. She has a master’s degree from New York University and lives in Greenwich Village, New York City.
Sandy Feinstein‘s microfiction first appeared in Flash Frontier in 2016, followed this summer by an appearance on the 2021 Micro Madness short list. A longer short story is forthcoming in Gothic Nature.
Kevin Grauke is the author of Shadows of Men (Queen’s Ferry Press), winner of the Steven Turner Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared (or are forthcoming) in journals such as The Threepenny Review, Bayou, The Southern Review, Quarterly West and Columbia Journal. He’s a Contributing Editor at Story, and he teaches at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Twitter: @kevingrauke
Keith Hoerner (BS, MFA) lives, teaches, and pushes words around in Southern Illinois. His work can be found in the likes of decomP, Fiction Kitchen Berlin, Litro and other lit magazines.
Annette Edwards-Hill lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her short stories and flashes have been published in New Zealand and overseas. She was nominated for the Best Small Fictions and the Pushcart Prize and shortlisted for the New Zealand Heritage Writing Awards in 2018 and the Sargeson Prize in 2020.
Charlie Ellis is an avid writer (when not procrastinating), hoarder of notebooks, eternal seeker of the perfect pen and lover of the right word in its proper place. The funnier, the better. Currently residing in Taranaki, she gains a wealth of inspiration from her completely normal family, her travels and her side hustle as an unpaid pet sitter.
Charlotte Hamrick’s creative writing and photography has been published in numerous online and print journals and anthologies, recently including Harpy Hybrid Review, Reckon Review, Still:The Journal and New World Writing. She’s had nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction and most recently Best Small Fictions. She is Creative Nonfiction Editor for The Citron Review and Features Editor for Reckon Review. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets where she sometimes does things other than read and write. Website: Zouxzoux Twitter: @CharlotteHam504 Instagram: @Starlightgrrl
Nathaniel Herz-Edinger is a Wellington-educated Cantabrian with a taste for coffee, Chekhov, hitchhiking and Adichie. He is always looking for new friends, and can often be found at Space Academy, Christchurch.
Jan FitzGerald is a long-established NZ poet with regular publication in mainstream NZ literary journals since the 60s, and overseas in magazines such as The Atlanta Review (USA), Acumen (UK) and The London Magazine. Jan also writes shorts stories and flash fiction and has a fourth poetry book coming in 2022.
Michelle Howie lives in Hamilton with her two sons, husband and a large ginger cat called Nixon. She is a self-employed and runs a facilitation and coaching business. Michelle has been sharing her writing with a small mailing list since March 2020. Her ‘Friday Flow’ emails are quickly written musings on life, parenting, love and leadership. Read more at www.michellehowie.com
Benjamin Jardine is a writer, poet, and performer currently based in Wellington. He wrote a story that was shortlisted in the 2021 National Flash Fiction Day competition.
Deb Jowitt lives in Parua Bay, Te Tai Tokerau/Northland. She writes with Whangārei Library 3.30 Flash and was one of three editors of its recent flash fiction collection You Might Want to Read This. Apart from reading and writing fiction and non-fiction, she’s keen on growing figs, swimming in the sea, and spending time with family and friends.
Rhonda K lives locally and writes intermittently. This competition was a spur to get her started…
Marc Littman is an American writer whose flash fiction has been widely published in online magazines and journals from 50-Word Stories to The Saturday Evening Post. He also writes novels and plays.
Isabelle Lloydd has been published in Flash Frontier and the 2021 ReDraft anthology for young writers. She placed second within question and age category for the University of Canterbury’s School of Law Essay Competition and seventh for Scenario Writing within age category in the Future Problem Solving International Competition. She was chuffed to receive a Gifted Learners Award from the Ministry of Education to fund further language studies in 2022.
Kate Mahony’s short fiction has been published in among others, Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand, Mayhem, Fiction Kitchen Berlin, The Blue Nib, Blink Ink, Blackmail Press, Fictive Dream, Meniscus, takahē, and the forthcoming Pure Slush Love Anthology. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University, Wellington. Website: www.katemahonywriter.com
Moata McNamara (Ngāpuhi, Te Mahurehure) has been working with various forms of art and languages for over 50 years. Her work is held in private collections in Europe and Aotearoa. She holds a Masters in Art and Design and a PhD in Māori Development, and has taught extensively in tertiary education. Focusing on making art and poetic writing, her recent work centres around issues of memory and identity. Of the time since 2020 she says: ‘Being in Tamaki during Covid has gifted me a pulling close, a refining and redefining, where new-old paths are able to open.’
Heather McQuillan is Director of Write On School for Young Writers in Christchurch. In 2016, her stories placed first in both the NZ National Flash Fiction Day and Micro Madness competitions. She has been published in Best Small Fictions 2017, 2019 and 2020. In 2021 Heather was a finalist in the RNZ Short Story and Literary Taxidermy competitions. Heather also writes for children and in 2005 was the winner of the Tom Fitzgibbon Award. Three of her novels for young readers have been listed as Storylines Notable Books. Her collection of flash fiction Where Oceans Meet was published by Reflex Press in 2019.
Todd Mercer’s short collection, Ingenue, won the Celery City contest. His digital chapbook, Life-wish Maintenance, is available for free at Right Hand Pointing. Mercer has been nominated for Pushcarts and Best of the Net awards in fiction and poetry. Recent work appears in Blink Ink, Friday Flash Fiction and Six Sentences.
Dianne Moritz is a poet and picture book author with four published books for children.
Anna (Nika) Nazarova-Evans is a writer, artist and hypnotherapist. Her writing delves into the ways we, as a species, find wholeness and completeness throughout our lifetime, in and out of romantic relationships. She is an experienced meditator, which is why her creations often revolve around finding identity and belonging within oneself first and foremost. You can find more of her writing at www.epiphanytherapy.co.uk/
Christopher Notarnicola’s work has been published with American Short Fiction, Bellevue Literary Review, Best American Essays, Consequence, Image, The Southampton Review and elsewhere. Find him in Pompano Beach, Florida and at christophernotarnicola.com.
Keith Nunes (Aotearoa New Zealand) has had poetry, fiction, haiku and visuals published around the globe. He creates ethereal manifestations because he’s inept at anything practical or useful.
Tallulah Nunez is a mid-career artist who creates multi-layered abstract paintings, assemblages and most recently ink paintings/drawings of intimate imaginary and emotionally charged spaces often inhabited by mystical people. She has been a finalist in the prestigious Parkin Drawing Award and the Miles Art Award. She is represented by Art by the Sea Gallery, Auckland. https://tallulahnunez.weebly.com/ instagram – tallulahnunez_art_nz
Mikaela Nyman’s poetry recently appeared in World Literature Today, Trasdemar, A Game of Two Halves: The Best of Sport Magazine 2005-2019, More than a Roof and RH Morrieson Literary Awards Finalists 2021. She is co-editor of Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology (VUP, 2021) and her novel, Sado, was published in 2020 (VUP). Her first poetry collection was short-listed for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2020.
Wellington based author Gerard O’Brien has worked as a professional DJ, IT consultant, photography assistant, business owner and personal trainer. He’s now turned his enthusiasm to writing and brings his sense of humour and varied life experiences to his work. During 2021 he is studying towards a Masters in Creative Writing at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters.
Julie Orr-Wilson is new to the genre of flash fiction, and as a self-confessed introvert prefers to hide behind her words.
Organically farming off-grid in a quiet rural valley, Trish Palmer is blessed with the essentials in life: family, friends, fun and food. She enjoys gold panning, fishing and exploring. Laughter, respect and living lightly on this planet underline her philosophies. She likes to lighten the reader’s day so her work tends to be humorous or tackling social issues, and often both. Two plays, produced in France, are available on YouTube. Her non-fiction book Knock knock (Upstart Press) is due for release in June. www.trish-palmer.com
Mandira Pattnaik writes prose and poetry published, among others, in Passages North, DASH, Miracle Monocle and Amsterdam Quarterly. You can find more at mandirapattnaik.wordpress.com
Penny Raine has stopped teaching literature and attempts to write it. She belongs to a group whose members think her stories lack drama and she agrees with them. She has been published in Landfall and takahē.
Ian Reid grew up in New Zealand and now lives in Perth, Western Australia. The most recent of his 15 books is a novel, The Madwoman’s Coat. His work (fiction, poetry and criticism) has been widely published in several countries, winning awards (e.g., the Antipodes prize) and being translated into five languages.
Brendon Stanton‘s work has appeared in Headland, Flash Frontier and Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand. He is currently undertaking an MA at the International Institute of Modern Letters.
Jeff Taylor lives in Hamilton, NZ, and enjoys writing short fiction, particularly humour. He was the winner of NZ Writers College Short Story Competition in 2014. He was awarded the Flash Frontier Summer Writing Award in 2017. He won the NZ National Flash Fiction Day 2019, was published in Best Microfiction 2020 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He has been a winner of short story and flash fiction competitions in the UK (Global Short Stories, Hammond House, Pennine Ink, Retreat West) and has been placed, shortlisted, and highly commended in a number of international and NZ competitions.
Since emigrating to Switzerland in 2008, Caroline Thonger has freelanced as translator/proofreader; been Chief Editor of Hello Switzerland, and of Offshoots 13; collaborated on Offshoots 15. She has published dozens of articles about Swiss life, while her pieces have appeared in Offshoots 11 and 14. A poem was shortlisted and published online in this year’s Micro Madness. The author of The Banker’s Daughter, she is co-writing a book with her sister in New Zealand. A passionate skier/snowshoe-walker in winter, mountain hiker in summer, Caroline also volunteers as Secretary of Geneva Writers’ Group.
Poet, writer and actor/performer/percussionist, Vivian Thonger of Kerikeri, NZ, hones her skills with several virtual and actual Northland groups, including the mighty Bay of Islands Writing Group. Her work has been long- and shortlisted in several countries’ flash competitions, and appeared in print and online. She’s nearing completion of a book of unreliable shared memories with her sister Caroline.
As part of the Young Writers Programme, Amy Trakos wrote a play which was performed as a reading at Soho Theatre. Alongside her current project, an historical/literary fiction novel, she writes short stories, some of which have been published and longlisted in international competitions. Amy has been in the Royal Navy and the Civil Service.
Catherine Trundle is a writer, anthropologist, and mother from Wellington. She writes poetry, short fiction, and ethnography. Recent work has appeared in takahē, Landfall, Poetry NZ, Not Very Quiet and Flash Frontier.
Bart Van Goethem is a micro and flash writer from Brussels, Belgium. He has family in NZ (“Hi, nan!”). Read his published stories on bartvangoethem.com. Follow him @bartvangoethem.
Chris Vaughan is a writer and artist from Whitstable, currently living a short jog from ‘The End of Europe’ in the South District of Gibraltar. His work has previously appeared in Ambit, The Lifted Brow, Philosophy Now, Epiphany Magazine, The Rumpus, Bright Lights Film Journal, Bookslut and The Warwick Review.
Susan Wardell is an academic and writer from Ōtepoti Dunedin, New Zealand, where she lectures in Social Anthropology while raising two small children in a garden overlooking the harbour. Her poetry, essays, reviews, and prose, have been published in a variety of journals and collections, achieving recognition in the Landfall Essay Competition (2018), NZPS International Poetry Competition (2019, 2020), International ‘Micro Madness’ competition (2019, 2020, 2021), and SHA International Ethnographic Poetry Competition (2020), among others. Susan also has a children’s book (The Lighthouse Princess) forthcoming, with Penguin RandomHouse New Zealand.
Lisa Wiley teaches creative writing at SUNY Erie Community College in Buffalo, NY. Her chapbook Eat Cake for Breakfast, a tribute to Kate Spade, was recently released from Dancing Girl Press. She is the author of three other chapbooks including Chamber Music (Finishing Line Press, 2013). Her work has appeared in Chest, Flash Fiction Magazine, Flash Frontier and Medical Journal of Australia. Find her on Twitter @wileymoz.
Sian Williams was an editor at Flash Frontier from 2012-2013. Sian lives in Kerikeri writing fiction, growing kiwifruit and walking with her dog, Angus.
Angela Wilson lives and writes in Wellington city. She is drawn to flash fiction for its precision and artistry. Busy crowded places inspire her writing.
Sophia Wilson has writing in Stylus-Lit, Blackmail Press, a fine line, Fresh Ink, Flash Frontier, Best Microfiction 2021 and elsewhere. She has been a recent finalist in National Flash Fiction Day and Micro Madness Competitions and is based in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Jenny Woodhouse began to write seriously after she retired and studied creative writing with the Open University. Since then, her output has shrunk from novel to short stories to flash, and she’s afraid of shrinking even more, like Alice. She is currently working on a number of novellas in flash, expanding again like a universe after the big bang. She has published in Flashflood, National Flash Fiction Day and other anthologies. She has been longlisted, shortlisted and every-way-listed, and recently won second place in a competition.
Rose Wunrow grew up in the United States, the Fiji Islands, and Aotearoa and is currently based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. In 2021, she graduated with an MA in fiction from the International Institute of Modern Letters. She sends deepest aroha to her family and friends who – like her favourite flash fiction – fill even the smallest moments with the biggest hearts imaginable.