The Foreword Festival is running another Fast Foreword Flash Fiction Competition for 2025. If you live in East Anglia, you are invited to enter!
We’re looking for stories of 400 to 500 words – prose, not poetry. Quick, punchy narratives that you can sit and read in the time it takes you to enjoy a cuppa. Stories can be on any theme, in any genre. Just remember that this is a fringe literature festival, so weird and wonderful is encouraged, and more likely to be selected!
A panel of judges will select up to ten stories to be read aloud to the public by professional actors in various locations around Stowmarket during the festival, some or all of which we hope to publish in a Fast Foreword anthology in the future and/or publish on our website. We may also choose stories that are not performed to include in the anthology or website.
We want to see your creativity, and to show off your work in a variety of forms as part of our 2025 Foreword Festival. Bear in mind that we may choose not to perform anything with a 15+ rating, as there are likely to be children present at the Fast Foreword venues.
To enter, please read our terms and conditions first, then go to our online submission form and upload your creation!
Closing date for entries is 11.59pm (GMT) on May 31st 2025.
We’re looking forward to reading your stories! Here’s a sample story to inspire your creativity.
The winning stories from the 2023 Fast Foreword Flash Fiction event were performed on Saturday 7th October 2023 by AJ Deane and Georgie Matthews, at venues around Bury St Edmunds. Congratulations to all the authors featured!
10-10.30am: Moyse’s Hall
Hobbyhorse – Fiona Clark | The Dead Tree – R.E.C. Woods
10.45-11.15am: The Apex (upstairs)
Cinderella’s Legacy – Sarah Nicholson | Reset, Restart – MT McGuire
11.30am-noon: Bury Library
Writer’s Block – Virginia Betts | The Deal – Julia Blake
12.15-12.45pm: Damson & Wilde
Speed Dating – Gabrielle Stones | A Crummy Dilemma – K L Rush
1-1.30pm: Cathedral Cloisters
Mystery Play – Lynn Whitehead | Home – Antony Makora
On Friday 8th September 2023, we announced the official Fast Foreword Flash Fiction Shortlist. Congratulations to everyone who entered, and to all the authors featured below – the judges really enjoyed reading all your stories.
Writer’s Block – Virginia Betts
The Deal – Julia Blake
Come Fly With Me – Belinda Rose Bond
Rivers of Our Childhood – Angela Cairns
Hobbyhorse – Fiona Clark
The Cat Who Could Open the Fridge – Viv Dawson
Stones – Doug Grant
The Antique Rogue’s Show – Benjamin Langley
A Spirit’s Progress – Annie Louise
Reset, Restart – M T McGuire
A Nameless Voice – R.I. Maddams
Home – Antony Makora
Checkout – Alexia Muelle-Rushbrook
Cinderella’s Legacy – Sarah Nicholson
The Demise of Cyril – Darren Norton
A Crummy Dilemma – K L Rush
Our Family Routine – F Sea-Borne
Speed Dating – Gabrielle Stones
Mystery Play – Lynn Whitehead
The Dead Tree – R.E.C. Woods