National Flash Fiction Day

I’m thrilled to share the news that my recent story, Lotus, has been selected for publication in the National Flash Fiction Day 2026 Anthology. Here is what the editors had to say:

After reading scads of brilliant stories on the theme of BRIDGES, editors Karen Jones and Sharon Telfer have finalised their selections for the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day anthology and for the third annual Editors’ Choice Awards.

Below is the list of the stories that will appear in this year’s anthology. Thank you so much to everybody who submitted their stories for consideration for this year’s anthology. It was an honour to read each and every piece. We appreciate the chance to read your work! We hope that you will all join us for the launch of the anthology on National Flash Fiction Day later this year.

2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology Line Up

‘A Brief History of Trolls’ by Anne Howkins
‘A Frog Funeral’ by Finnian Burnett
‘As Easy as Falling Off a Log’ by Paula Durance
‘Bridge Over Troubled Water (Show Choir 6TH Grade)’ by Jessica Edmond
‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ by Mileva Anastasiadou
‘Bridge That Gap with a Cadbury’s Snack’ by Alison Wassell
‘Cantilever’ by James Roderick Burns
‘Come On’ by Patricia Q. Bidar
‘Dice’ by C. L. Spillard
‘Doggerland (or, 10,000 years ago there were no migrant boats crossing the English Channel)’ by Erin Bondo
‘Don’t Look Down’ by Hilary Ayshford
‘Falling from the Mid-Point’ by Keith Rutter
‘Forty-nine Hedgehogs and the Hump-bottom Bridge’ by Rosaleen Lynch
‘Gentle Yoga Guide to Dealing with Materializing’ by Andy Lavender
‘He and She’ by Shelley Roche-Jacques
‘How to Fill the Space’ by Debra A. Daniel
‘Hue and Cry’ by Sarah Masters
‘If You Leave From the Southwest Gate and Follow the Cliffs for Half a Day, You Will Reach the Chasm, and the Bridge and the Heap’ by Jenna Muiderman
‘In Hebden Bridge at Midnight’ by Lucienne Cummings
‘Jack the Zoo’ by Jaime Gill
‘Learning to Talk Like the Bridge Ladies’ by Lola Page
‘Le Nez’ by Jill Munro
‘Lotus’ by F. C. Malby
‘Maybe Sarajevo’ by Cassandra Parkin
‘Meet Me Halfway’ by Rob Walton
‘Mile Marker 1.5’ by Steven Patchett
‘Mothman Caused the Silver Bridge Collapse’ by Sonora Hills
‘Mudlarking Under Richmond Bridge During the Annual Draw Off’ by Rachael Dunlop
‘Nepenthes’ by Jules Foshee
‘No Jerusalem for Alf Bridges’ by Andy Larter
‘Northolt Park’ by Sally Jane Tate
‘Nose’ by Rebecca Klassen
‘On Southend Pier, Sergeant Cranley Doesn’t Cut the Mustard’ by Gill O’Halloran
‘Placenta’ by Karen Arnold
‘Reasons to Be with You Parts One to Five’ by Emily MacDonald
‘Salad Days’ by Melanie Maggard
‘Seven Bridges Road’ by Sara Hills
‘Sister Benedict’ by Fiona Vigo Marshall
‘The Calm After the Storm’ by Jo Rigg
‘The Keep’ by Beth Sherman
‘The Passing Place’ by Bryony Burton
‘The Valley’ by Isabel McKeough
‘The World Doesn’t Like People It Can’t Mold’ by Christina Tudor
‘This Life’s Span’ by Audrey Niven
‘Vivaldi in B, Please Hold’ by Nivara Lune
‘Watermarked’ by Rosaleen Lynch
‘What It Holds’ by M.M. Bailey
‘What Single People Do on Sundays’ by Cath Holland
‘When Will the Bridge Break?’ by May Suri
‘Why I Sometimes Wish I was a Troll Under a Bridge’ by Rebecca Field
‘Woman by the Spree, April 1945’ by Emma Venables

Author Ingrid Jendrzejewski Published on 16 March 2026 Leave a comment on National Flash Fiction Day 2026 Anthology Line Up

My flash fiction piece, Wild Swimming, was published in The South Short Review, Issue 6, for National Flash Fiction Day 2022.

Sundown rippled across the waves as Laurie slipped into the water; the cold, slapping against her thighs as she edged further out to sea, leaving the laughter of children behind, their form, a string of Lowry dots strewn across a hot shoreline. Her muscles tightened as more of her flesh was touched by the cold of the ocean, tensed as blood rushed away and up to her core, where it was warmer, less hostile.

As her shoulders slid under, until her head was fully submerged and her flesh engulfed, silence was the thing she relished most. If anything happened on the shore, she would not hear, her ears only taking in echos of gentle ocean currents and of boat engines far out in the distance; here, in the water, it was cold and quiet. The temperature drop focused her mind on the movement of her body, as she kicked and swung each arm out to sea, towards the sun as it began to hide behind the line of the horizon. She could only see the light under the water, the colour of the sea removing the orange glow of the skyline, the way a childhood storybook removed an image with a single sheet of coloured acetate, wiping it out completely and showing you a different picture through a different coloured lens. Above and below the water line were two different scenes, the image below the water, darker, mysterious, expansive. She found the vastness of the ocean liberating, freeing her mind. Laurie had seen the Ice Man, Wim Hof, explaining the Ayurvedic effects of cold water on the immune system, as well as the mind, hormones, blood flow, skin and hair. Her hair floated freely in wet strands, her skin felt the tingle of the North Sea salt water, cleansing her flesh and renewing her mind. Friends talked about wild swimming, but it had not made sense, not until she had felt the cold on her own flesh and submerged her body into the silence of the sea. It had become addictive, a way of numbing the thoughts that shouted at her as the day drew to a close, clamouring for her attention. As her body temperature dropped, so did life’s pressures. What had begun as a sponsored open water swim, had now become part of her daily ritual, a way of letting her thoughts slip into the ocean, carried off to some far flung shore, where no one knew her name…

Continue reading in The South Shore Review.