Kelly Pedro

“Red Prayer Flag for Alabama: Long Leaf Pine, Cockaded Woodpecker, Eastern Indigo Snake, Monarch, Pinewoods Milkweed, Gopher Tortoise, Canebrake Pitcher Plant” by Melissa Shultz-Jones

I have a new short story up at the lovely NELLE literary journal, living behind the pages of this gorgeous cover by Melissa Shultz-Jones. NELLE readers and editors were kind enough to select my story for the Three Sisters Award for Fiction, which was such a nice surprise! www.uab.edu/cas/englishp...

Two white nationalists I exposed in a recent article showed up to try to intimidate me in person last night.

This is a press freedom issue.

Here’s what happened:

"Kelly had asked to come live with us last year. I pretended I didn't know that already..." In awe of this @emilyrinkema.bsky.social flash and how it comes together. Read "Things That Happened at or Around My Cousin Kelly's Funeral, in No Particular Order" in @wigleaf.bsky.social wigleaf.com

Love In The Time of Bird Flu A Flash Fiction by Gill O’Halloran

"Male and female gannets differ in behaviour, not appearance; it’s the males who collect the nesting material. You’d begged us to have a baby, brought home cutesy baby-grows and knitted baby beanies." Read & reread this stunner by @quickasaflash.bsky.social.

My book baby's birthday! Big thank you to @stanchion.bsky.social (order link below!) 🧡

Send us your flash fiction under 1000 words with your name removed from the document and all your loves and fears pressed inside! We're reading until 3/15 or we reach our cap.

Repetitions Theme: Repetitions March 3rd, 6 a.m. PST, capped at 222 submissions For this call, I'm looking for prose that uses repetition to get at what it's going for. This could be repetition of sounds, phrases, images, a piece of the subject matter—or whatever. Some examples of what I'm trying to get you to go for would be Nam Troag Tran’s “Dolphin Linguistics,” Lydia Davis’ “A Mown Lawn,” Joe Brainard’s “I Remember,” Raymond Queneau’s “Exercises in Style,” Loorie Moore's “Real Estate,” Sharon Kivland's "Nana by Emile Zola digested according to light and lighting effects, including metaphor," or Donald Barthelme's “The Balloon.” Subtler repetition than demonstrated by these is ok (but just ok.) Any kind of prose is fine including prose poems. You may consider the usual word count cutoff for HAD (~750-1000) to be relaxed given the nature of this call. Though you should still be kinda in the spirit of. I'm looking forward to seeing what you send me. — Joshua Hebburn

Next call coming soon, from our fave and yours, Joshua Hebburn!

Theme: Repetitions
March 3rd, 6 a.m. PST, capped at 222 submissions

This could be repetition of sounds, phrases, images, a piece of the subject matter—or whatever. Any kind of prose is fine including prose poems.

Call your reps about this. Every time a book ban has been overturned or shut down, it's because the vast majority of people who believe in the freedom to read spoke up.
Find your reps' info at reps.fyi.

It's time.

Colin, the comrade running the shelter-in-place food program I'm working at, told me that this week he's had to turn down asks from schools to supply food directly to their sheltering families. The reason? There's not enough money coming in for that amount of food.

Let's change that.

Fictive Dream is open for submissions of contemporary #shortstories #flashfiction #microfiction and #translations #callforsubmissions. We look fwd to reading your words so please click on the link below for our guidelines... fictivedream.com/submission-g...

American Boy by Claire Y. Guo American Boy teaches me all the ways to say home run. Big Fly. Homer. Dinger. Grand Salami. When he isn’t looking, I anoint each word with their Chinese translations, imagining they are caterpillar…

"When the song ends, I open my mouth, prod for living species, for butterflies, but nothing falls out except for larvae, corpses." Oh this flash by Claire Y. Guo in @flashfrog.bsky.social is incredible. Read "American Boy": flash-frog.com/2026/02/16/a...

Blue flier announcing the winners of the Blue Frog contest: 1st place: Wasima Khan, 2nd place: Jessica Klimesh, 3rd place: Ruth Joffre

🎉Huge congrats to the winners of our 5th annual Blue Frog flash fiction contest!! 🎉

Wasima Khan
@jekwriter.bsky.social
@ruthjoffre.bsky.social

And another big thank you to our Guest Judge, @camilleuadams.bsky.social

The March Micro Marathon 2026 - SmokeLong Quarterly In its third year, The March Micro Marathon will be, as usual, a prompt-a-day whirlwind for 24 days. You’ll exchange drafts of micro fiction, non-fiction, and prose poetry in small groups and gather f...

PSA! It's sign-up time for SmokeLong Fitness to start March 1. And/or you can still sign up for The March Micro Marathon. It's a bit late, but if you can jump in quickly, come on!
Just 4 places left.
www.smokelong.com/the-march-mi...

I love talking to writers about their work. Check out my interview with @thoushallkill.bsky.social in the link below, and please also read their incredible their incredible story, "Boys."

HELD Magazine HELD is a journal that features both visual art and literature. Our goal is to explore how systems evolve.

Please share: There's a new lit mag on the block accepting flash! HELD, run by MFA students at the University of Guelph, has reopened and we're accepting flash, poetry, fiction, and CNF!

Our Issue 4 theme is Transit. We pay! heldmagazine.ca

Subs are open until March 16.

I'm so sad they don't ship outside the U.S. 😭 "Lobster" is one of my all-time fave flashes.

The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction 2026! - SmokeLong Quarterly The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction (The Smokey) is now an annual competition that celebrates and compensates excellence in flash. Our first grand prize winner in 2018 was “Whale Fall” by ...

We're reading for the 2026 SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction. Prize pot: $4700. Be sure to read the previous years' issues before you enter. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...

The March Micro Marathon 2026 - SmokeLong Quarterly Please book by February 20th! In its third year, The March Micro Marathon will be, as usual, a prompt-a-day whirlwind for 24 days. You’ll exchange drafts of micro fiction, non-fiction, and prose poetr...

Tomorrow, Feb 20, is the soft deadline to register for SmokeLong's March Micro Marathon! We'd love to get everyone into the workshop for a week of preparation before we hit the ground running on March 2. Our first webinar (with Ingrid Jendrzejewski is Feb 28. www.smokelong.com/the-march-mi...

Flash Fiction: You’re Twelve Forever by Lila-Rose Beckford At In-N-Out, she asks for her wallet. You open the glovebox: half-empty ibuprofen, Sephora receipts, a bobby pin. Nothing that could save a life.

"You once read that fear makes you remember things wrong. You remember what hasn’t happened yet. You remember bracing for impact." Stunning flash by Lila-Rose Beckford in @jmwwjournal.bsky.social jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/18/f...

Really thrilled to be joining the flash team @jmwwjournal.bsky.social!

I love this interview with @kimmagowan.bsky.social on @jmwwjournal.bsky.social. If you are a flash writer/reader/teacher, don't miss it. #FlashFiction #WritingCommunity #Writers

These Things Are Not Always Up to Us | CAS - Department of English - Publications "These Things Are Not Always Up to Us" by Kelly Pedro.

I'm really proud of have a new short story out with the lovely publication NELLE in their themed She Persisted issue. If you haven't checked out this gem of a literary magazine, I highly recommend it. Here is an excerpt of my story, "These Things Are Not Always Up to Us": www.uab.edu/cas/englishp...

Blue flier listing 12 story titles, as the 2026 Blue Frog Finalists.

The 2026 Blue Frog finalists have been selected!

Congrats to these 12 authors! (but don't mention which story is yours) and best of luck! @camilleuadams.bsky.social has some really difficult decisions to make!

Oh Erin, this hurts my heart! What is WRONG with people??? I'm so sorry you had to wake up to that.

What an incredible list. And if you haven't already, check out Lauren Kardos' story "What we talk about when we talk about Fight Club" in Milk Candy Review. It's amazing and officially on the required reading list for any flash courses I teach! milkcandyreview.home.blog/2025/08/14/w...

"If she takes a gap year to backpack around Europe, will she have a baby on time (before all her eggs die)?" I love this!

File a Complaint Online - National NewsMedia Council

www.mediacouncil.ca/complaint/fi...

I get tired of saying it, but I’ll say it again: the nature of oppression in America is that they workshop it first on Black, Latino, Asian & Native people.

But it is always, in the end, coming for everyone.

Flash Fiction: Laika by Sydney Koeplin I think about how the technicians kissed Laika’s wet nose before closing the hatch. How she trusted them, and they killed her anyway.

"I don’t know how someone could think about Laika, plucked off the Moscow streets just to be shot into space, and not cry for her." Beautiful flash by Sydney Koeplin in @jmwwjournal.bsky.social jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/28/f...

While independent bookstores are giving out free whistles, hosting protest sign making events, and donating proceeds to mutual aid, Amazon is *checks notes* providing technology that assists ICE in their terrorizing of communities.

Independent bookstores deserve your support. Amazon does not.