Masthead

Keely Gardiner – Managing Editor

Managing Editor Keely Gardiner is a fiction writer. She lives in Stroud, a sleepy Cotswolds town in the UK, with her husband. Her love of writing became real when she received a bursary to attend an Arvon Foundation retreat. She is the proud owner of a BA and an MA from the University of Gloucestershire. She has been awarded prizes. She was shortlisted for Mslexia’s 2013 Memoir Competition and the 19th Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2021. In 2022, she won Retreat West’s Monthly Micro contest.

Before becoming managing editor at Flash Fiction Magazine, Keely was an editor at 101Words. She has attended many workshops and hosted a few too. Alongside editing, she teaches children creative writing. Her stories appear under her pen/maiden name, O’Shaughnessy, in Flash Fiction Magazine, in Ellipsis Zine, Reflex Fiction, Emerge Literary Journal, and in (mac)ro(mic) to name a few. She is a Pushcart and Best Small Fictions nominee and her fiction has been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50. Her debut collection, Baby is a Thing Best Whispered, is published by Alien Buddha Press. She champions flash because it requires clarity, constant forward momentum, and exact word choice. When not writing or editing, she spends time discussing the joys of David Bowie with her cats. You can visit her author website, keelyoshaughnessy.com, to discover more.

Keely is on Twitter @KeelyO_writer.

Genevieve Allen – Editor

Genevieve Allen is from Cornwall in the UK. She enjoys both contemporary and historical literature, and the reimagining of myth and folk stories as well as pieces with an LGBTQ+ focus. She studied creative writing at the University of Gloucestershire and has had her work published in the anthology Smoke, as well as adapted for the stage at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. She is particularly interested in playwriting and likes pieces that are relevant and resonate with audiences. Her fiction work has most recently appeared in Toasted Cheese Literary Journal and Flashback Fiction. She firmly believes a good book is best enjoyed with a cup of tea, and as such, her mug collection is getting rapidly out of control.

Genevieve is on Twitter @GenAllen52.

Cecilia Kennedy – Proofreader

Cecilia Kennedy is an Ohio Buckeye transplanted in the Greater Seattle area. She’s a copywriter, writer, and editor, who once taught English and Spanish courses in Ohio for twenty years. She earned a doctorate in Spanish literature from The Ohio State University, and in 2016, she moved to Washington state with her husband, teenage son, and a very demanding cat. Since 2017, she has been writing and publishing short stories in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies online and in print. Her stories have appeared in Tiny Molecules, Rejection Letters, Maudlin House, Coffin Bell, Open Minds Quarterly, Headway Quarterly, Flash Fiction Magazine, Kandisha Press, Ghost Orchid Press, and more. The Places We Haunt (Potter’s Grove Publishing) is her first short story collection, which was released in 2020. Additionally, she contributes adult beverages columns for The Daily Drunk literary magazine, serves as a concept editor for Running Wild Press, and writes a humor blog (Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks). Her author website is ckennedyhola.wixsite.com.

Cecilia is on Twitter @ckennedyhola.

Caetlin Witbrod – Editor

Caetlin Witbrod is a writer and editor from St. Louis, Missouri. Her favorite genres are literary fiction and thriller. Caetlin’s own literary fiction has been published in America’s Emerging Writers, Missouri’s Emerging Writers, Southwinds Literary and Arts Magazine, and online at Every Day Fiction. She earned her B.A. in English from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and in 2014, Caetlin started Words by Witbrod, a freelance editing business that has given her the opportunity to meet clients from all over the world and edit an extensive portfolio of print and online media.

Caetlin is on Twitter @WordsbyWitbrod.

Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who loves all things strange and surreal. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, and other marvelous publications. She has a BA from Yale University and lives in Colorado. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her rock climbing, painting watercolors, or playing her ukulele. Follow her work on hannahyang.com.

Hannah is on Twitter @hannahxyang.

Ellie Jacobson lives in Minnesota with her husband, two teenage sons, and Mr. Percy, the cat. She majored in English at St. Catherine University and served as an assistant news editor for the college newspaper. After two years in college, she made the biggest mistake of her life by dropping out. After twenty years, she returned to school, graduating with a BS in technical communication. Now, as an MFA Creative Writing graduate student, she is writing a suspense novel. She is a fiction reader for Uncharted Magazine. Her words can be found at Medium, Coffee House Writers, and The Drabble.

Ellie is on Twitter @ellietjacobson.

Shanna Yetman – Editor

Shanna Yetman is an environmental writer and Latina living in Chicago. She enjoys character-driven fiction with a social-justice edge. Her writing has centered around motherhood, and now, the climate crisis and how we can reimagine our planet’s future. Shanna has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Maryland and a BA in English Literature from Wellesley College. She’s an alumna of the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference and has taught at UIC’s Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy (SISE). Her fiction has appeared in MoonPark Review, the Daily Drunk, Reflex Fiction, New Millennium Writings, Jellyfish Review, Connotation Press, and the Writing Disorder, among other publications. When she’s not writing, she’s chasing around her two kids and making sure they see as much of the natural world as they can before they beg her for screen time. Feel free to visit her website writershannayetman.weebly.com.

Shanna is on Twitter @YetmanShanna.

Kathleen Danielson – Editor

Kathleen Danielson is a fantasy and historical fiction writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kathleen has a BA in English from Carleton College, where she also minored in creative writing. In addition to Flash Fiction Magazine, her work has appeared in the Magazine of History and Fiction, and her first fantasy manuscript was a semifinalist for the 2020 University of New Orleans Press Publishing Lab Prize. She is also a submissions reader for Uncharted Magazine. When she’s not reading, editing, writing, or trying to stop her cat from walking on her computer keyboard, she is usually bouncing between too many sewing, knitting, embroidery, baking, and painting projects. See what she’s currently writing at kathleendanielson.com.

Kathleen is on Twitter @kathleen_writes.

Mathew Channer – Editor

Mathew Channer lives on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. He is a writer and editor with a passion for all things speculative, who will complete his BA creative writing major early next year. When he is not writing, he is usually halfway up the side of a mountain. His work has been published with Flash Fiction Magazine, Deep Wild Journal, and is forthcoming in the anthology It Begins with Us. He has a Alaskan Malamute named Nymeria who curls up under his desk while he writes. Read more of his writing at mathewchanner.com.

Mathew is on Twitter @mathew_channer.

Joy Saler Drees – Editor

Joy Saler Drees is an avid reader and fiction writer, residing in San Diego, California, with her family, cat, and chickens. She fancies reading many genres, particularly literary and speculative fiction with voicey narratives and fresh perspectives. Her most recent works have appeared in Emerge, Litbreak, Permafrost, Rain Taxi, and Yolk. Joy has an MFA in Writing from Pacific University and a BA in English from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She’s a reader for New American Fiction Prize every year,and in the past enjoyed being a reader for Electric Lit and Autumn House Press. Aside from reading and writing, Joy spends her time marveling how fast her two children grow, bicycling around town, and working in respite care.

Charline Poirier – Editor

Charline is a London-based writer. She obtained a PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and had an international career in technology design. She has been on the panel of reviewers for The Blue Nib, and is an associate editor for Brilliant Flash Fiction. Her stories have appeared in Change Seven, Flash Fiction Magazine, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Scarlet Leaf Review, Freedom Fiction, and Commuter Lit. She has penned literary stories, dipped into sci-fi, and spun a few mystery tales. Her flash “Riding the Waves” was nominated for a Pushcart. She is currently working on a novel.

Charline is on Twitter @Charline_Oh.

Brooke Castro – Editor

Brooke Castro is a short story writer from Florida, who spends most of her time swatting away mosquitos. She particularly enjoys reading and writing literary fiction that toys with the surreal. She recently earned a BA in English Literature from the University of South Florida, where her workshop group consistently pointed out her one-too-many bird similes. Her stories have appeared in Ghost Parachute, Peatsmoke Journal, White Wall Review, 101 Words, and others. Before becoming an editor for Flash Fiction Magazine, she interned as an editor for Cleaver Magazine.

When she is not writing or editing, you can find her playing chess with her husband, being pulled down the street by her Rottweiler, or rocking her baby son to sleep.

Brooke is on Twitter @broookecastro.

Laura Besley

Laura Besley is the author of two micro fiction collections, (Un)Natural Elements (Beir Bua Press) and 100neHundred (Arachne Press), as well as a flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers (Dahlia Books). She has been widely published in online journals, print journals and anthologies, including Best Small Fictions, 2021 with her story, “To Cut a Long Story Short.” Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Micro Fiction, and she has been listed by TSS Publishing as one of the top 50 British and Irish Flash Fiction writers with her story “On Repeat,” published by Reflex Fiction.

Having lived in the Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong, she now lives in landlocked central England and misses the sea.

Laura is on Twitter @laurabesley