creative writing | fiction
Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing.
Melinda Haynes
In search of celebration, I share some of my fiction here.
Most of my fiction falls under micro fiction (100 words or less), flash fiction (1000 words or less) and the occasional short story.
If you'd like to learn more, I've written about my love of these literary forms for a few writing publications:
What is Micro & Flash Fiction?
write or die tribe
How Long Should a Short Story Be?
writers edit
writerly development / things
Grammar Therapy - 4-week grammar course for fiction with UWA
Write What You Know - 4-week writing course with WritersHQ
Flash Fiction Fan Club - 8-week writing course with Centre for Stories
Write Drunk, Edit Sober - Half-day self-editing workshop with Centre for Stories
Writing Place & Setting - Full-day workshop with Robbie Arnott
Show Don't Tell Short Stories - Online course with Writer's Write
awards | fellowships
Sydney Hammond Memorial Short Story Competition 2021, Longlisted
Katharine Susannah Prichard Fellowship Recipient 2021
Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Competition 2020, Shortlisted
Bath Flash Fiction Summer 2020, Longlisted
National Flash Fiction Day Award 2019, Highly Commended
Writers HQ Flash Fiction Prize 2019, Third Place
Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition 2019, Longlisted
Reflex Press Flash Fiction Prize 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, Longlisted
anthology inclusion
JUMP, Hawkeye Books Publishing Sydney Hammond Competition Anthology 2021
Branching Out, Brilliant Flash Fiction Anthology 2021
The Best Haiku, Haiku Crush Anthology 2021
Restore to Factory Settings, Bath Flash Fiction Vol. Five
From the Inside Looking Out, Geelong Writers Annual Anthology 2020
Where Are We Now?, Geelong Writers Annual Anthology 2019
And We Pass Through, National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2019
A Girl's Guide to Fly Fishing, Reflex Press Flash Fiction Anthology Vol. Three
The Real Jazz Baby, Reflex Press Flash Fiction Anthology Vol. Two
Barely Casting a Shadow, Reflex Press Flash Fiction Anthology Vol. One
twenty twenty two
Kiss it Better
Flash Fiction
Published: Print, Issue 21 of GEMS Zine
A Softening of the Brain
Flash Fiction
Shortlisted for Tortive Lit Flash Fiction 101 Competition
Published: Online, Tortive Lit
The Day I Think I May Be Crazy is the Day My Reflection Doesn't Blink
Flash Fiction
Published: Print, Issue 2 of The Amphibian Literary Journal
twenty twenty-one
Transatlanticism
Short Story
Longlisted for the Sydney Hammond Memorial Short Story Competition 2021
Published: Print, JUMP Anthology
Three Haiku for E.
Haiku
Published: Online, Issue 3 Burrow
A Lack of Awareness
Flash Fiction
Published: Print, Brilliant Flash Fiction Anthology
Upside Down
Flash Fiction
Published: Online, Five Minute Lit
Brittle
Flash Fiction
Published: Online, Every Day Fiction
I Should Live in Salt for Leaving You Behind
Flash Fiction
'Just Missed the Longlist'
Published: Online, Reflex Press
The Lover Asks Questions They Cannot Answer
Flash Fiction
Longlisted in the Reflex Press Spring Competition
Published: Online & Forthcoming Anthology
Freezing to Death
Flash Fiction
Published: Online, Sad Girls Club
Untitled Senryu
&
A Senryu Semi Circle
Haiku
Published: Print, Issue 19 GEMS Zine
Just a Moth
Haiku
Published: Print, The Best Haiku Anthology 2021, Haiku Crush
A Bird Heart for Forgiveness
Flash Fiction
Published: Online, Entropy Magazine
Phantom Limbs
Micro Fiction
Published: Print, Issue 43 Blink Ink Magazine
twenty twenty
Tuesday Night at a Bar in Hoxton With a Cartoon Dog
Flash Fiction
Published: Print, Issue 18 GEMS Zine (Dec. 2020)
What No Longer Is
Flash Fiction
Shortlisted for the Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Competition (Unpublished)
दया, Daya
Micro Fiction
Published: Print, Issue 42 Blink Ink Magazine
Three Haiku on Loss
Haiku
Published: Online, Blue Bottle Journal
Probably Nothing
Flash Fiction
Long-listed for the Bath Flash Fiction Award Summer 2020
Published: Print, 'Restore to Factory Settings' Anthology
Returning
Short Story
Published: Print, Issue 17 of GEMS Zine
Anomic Aphasia
Flash Fiction
Published: Online, as part of National Flash Fiction Day 2020 Flash Flood
Furusato 故郷
Creative Non-Fiction
Published: Online with Sawtooth ARI, as part of the digital community art project 'The Arrowhead Expanding Outwards'
Rust & Bone
Flash Fiction
Published: Print, Issue 2.1 of Human/Kind Journal
The Disconcerting Discovery of Shoes on a Beach
Flash Fiction
Long-listed for the Reflex Press Winter 2019 Competition
Published: Online & Print, 'A Girls' Guide to Fly Fishing' Anthology
twenty nineteen
Love is the Greatest of Dreams, Yet the Worst of Nightmares
&
Pop
Flash Fictions
Published: Print, 'Where Are We Now?' Geelong Writers Annual Anthology
Today I Dropped a Punnet of Blueberries
Flash Fiction
Published: Online, Every Day Fiction
Rattas, Mammalia
Creative Non-Fiction
Published: Online, Issue 14 of The Suburban Review
Anomic Aphasia
Flash Fiction
Awarded Third Place in the Writers HQ Flash Fiction Prize
Published: Online
Last Night I Saved a Moth from Drowning
Micro Fiction
Highly Commended in the National Flash Fiction Day Prize
Published: Online & Print, 'And We Pass Through' Anthology
Every Second Thursday
Flash Fiction
Long-listed for the Reflex Press Winter 2018 prize
Published: Online & Print, 'The Real Jazz Baby' Anthology
twenty eighteen/seventeen