Matt Kendrick
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mattkendrick.bsky.social
Matt Kendrick
@mattkendrick.bsky.social
Writer | editor | teacher | joyful Ninja Turtle | chronically ill

Words: Craft Literary, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, Wigleaf Top 50

Website: https://www.mattkendrick.co.uk/

Craft newsletter: https://prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/
Pinned
My last workshop of the year is a silly safari through humorous techniques. Feels like we all need a bit of levity after the year we've had. We'll look at daffynitions, spoonerisms, comic triples and much more.

Tues 2nd Dec 7pm GMT

OR Sat 6th Dec 9am GMT

www.mattkendrick.co.uk/live-worksho...
"“Grockles” they call us here, meaning those of us from another place"

Wonderful sense of place and atmosphere in this little gem from @kerryhp.bsky.social in @fictivedream.bsky.social

fictivedream.com/2025/07/21/m...
MicroMonday #16
Grockles by Kerry Hadley-Pryce Katy Perry is now officially an astronaut. The voice on the radio tells us this, and you repeat it and laugh. ‘Put that on your CV, Katy,’ you say. And you laugh agai…
fictivedream.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:21 PM
"She doesn’t sit with the other mums, never takes her eyes from her daughter on the play park."

Love how the title hangs over this piece from @drhannahstevens.bsky.social in @fictivedream.bsky.social; and brilliant juxtaposition between present and past

fictivedream.com/2025/10/13/m...
MicroMonday #28
A Micro-Second of Silence by Hannah Stevens  Fancy Wu watches her daughter head towards the climbing frame. The play park is busy. She watches as her daughter clambers up the metal ladder, run…
fictivedream.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM
"Stressed with searching, searching, searching, I eventually pretended I could see the solitary wild thing, just so we could at last drive on"

A real power in the way this story from @olgapoet.bsky.social creeps towards it revelation midway through; so much emotional clout
"How did we ever sleep with just a tender sliver of cloth between our warm sweet breathing and the jaws on the other side?" Hidden Leopard by Olga Dermott-Bond @olgapoet.bsky.social #microfiction #MicroMonday. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/11/10/m...
November 10, 2025 at 1:14 PM
My last workshop of the year is a silly safari through humorous techniques. Feels like we all need a bit of levity after the year we've had. We'll look at daffynitions, spoonerisms, comic triples and much more.

Tues 2nd Dec 7pm GMT

OR Sat 6th Dec 9am GMT

www.mattkendrick.co.uk/live-worksho...
November 9, 2025 at 11:38 AM
"It’s a Friday in July when he rolls into town, 40 years gone and now here he is, sex-on-wheels Jimmy Bang"

Fantastic to see this brilliant piece by the always extraordinary @mynachang.bsky.social out in the world:

www.southfloridapoetryjournal.com/flash-39-nov...
Flash #39 Nov '25
​ SoFloPoJo  Contents:    ​ Essays    *   Interviews    *  Reviews   *  ​​​ Special    *    Video   *   Visual Arts   *     Archives    *    Calendar ...
www.southfloridapoetryjournal.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:54 AM
"Also, she’s going through menopause and is a bit grouchy, so you might want to avoid her"

Brilliantly original piece by @rheatellstales.bsky.social in @doesithavepockets.bsky.social - great use of a hermit-crab form + wonderful humour

www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/rhea...
Rhea Thomas — Does It Have Pockets
Have You Seen My Sphinx?
www.doesithavepockets.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:50 AM
"Too high to stop, I flew over the swingset, above the roof of the apartment building and the boarded-up pawn shop. I soared over cars and streets"

Two brilliant pieces of flash from @phebej.bsky.social in @doesithavepockets.bsky.social Wonderful use of the speculative to explore the real
November 9, 2025 at 8:46 AM
"Once again, I have lost time: hundreds of seconds have slipped away from me while eavesdropping on other people’s lives"

Brilliantly layered storytelling from @kristenhavens.bsky.social in @doesithavepockets.bsky.social - wonderful textural variation at the level of prose
"Each of us is alone, but we’re together in loneliness: isn’t that enough?"

Short story, long title, massive impact. Fabulous new flash #fiction from @kristenhavens.bsky.social | www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/kris...

Art @anchalastudio.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 8:43 AM
"It all starts to unravel on the evening of our fifth wedding anniversary (wood). I give Gareth a hammer (he wanted one, honest) and he hands me two large hearts entwined"

A stunner from @laurabesley.bsky.social that fractures time in such a clever, non-linear way
"After we sign the divorce papers, my soon-to-be ex-husband and I decide to go for lunch." Love (a journey) by Laura Besley @laurabesley.bsky.social #flashfiction #readingcommunity #writingcommunity. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/11/07/l...
fictivedream.com
November 8, 2025 at 9:30 AM
My laptop is currently emitting (metaphorical for now) smoke. This is not a good thing for my life, especially when I'm hosting a big workshop this evening 😱 Please send the technological magic dust my way 😂 (Also, my body is trying to outdo the laptop in a contest of what's more broken 🤪)
November 3, 2025 at 1:50 PM
My #WritingCraftArticle for November is an exploration of the speculative. What it is. Why it's great. What it can teach us. And what to bear in mind:

🪞🌎👽👻🤖🧜🧙‍♀️🧞🧟

prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com/p/holding-a-...
Holding a mirror up to the world
I don’t know whether something has shifted inside of me or whether it’s something in the air, something in the shifting sands of the world, but I find myself more and more leaning into the speculative...
prattlefogandgravelrap.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:01 PM
"but the nurses were fairly adamant that I not, which took the decision out of my hands—a relief, honestly, after so many decisions, etc."

Wonderful writing by @eileentomarchio.bsky.social, threaded with emotion and such a great tone of voice
November 3, 2025 at 9:20 AM
"Frustrated and unwilling to fuck with it tonight, he takes a bite from each hand, creating hollows deep enough to cradle the glass"

Always wonderful to discover a new-to-me writer. Love this surrealist gem from @woodenmormyrid.bsky.social
November 3, 2025 at 9:16 AM
"She will never know the meaning of the songs we sing—the joys of harvest they were meant to carry"

Just came across this stunner from @brechtdp.bsky.social in @fracturedlit.bsky.social from earlier this year. A brilliant cautionary tale:

fracturedlit.com/the-flavours...
The Flavours We’ll Lose | Fractured
fracturedlit.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:12 AM
"So sudden you didn’t have time to put your hair on. So loud your eardrums hurt"

What a piece from @drobnik.co - so much intensity in this @fracturedlit.bsky.social micro
November 3, 2025 at 9:08 AM
"Your sister used to be the tilt-a-whirl, or maybe the teacups, careening you in circles, breathless with laughter, falling on your knees, dizzy"

Brilliant extended metaphor from @gsmithgoodin.bsky.social in @fracturedlit.bsky.social Love the way the metaphor shifts from paragraph to paragraph
I was traveling last week and completely missed that my story went up @fracturedlit.bsky.social.

fracturedlit.com/out-of-season/

This was crafted in the wonderful summer workshop run by @smokelong.bsky.social. Thank you SO much to all my groupmates who helped me get this into shape!
#flashfiction
Out of Season | Fractured
fracturedlit.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:05 AM
"She can’t take her children in the suitcase. Not the day the suitcase is full of forest fire, screeching firehawks, and trapped animals, hiding their young"

A stunner from @rosaleenlynch.bsky.social So much story unspooling from the anaphora repetition
November 2, 2025 at 2:11 PM
"three instincts that would feasibly help a person survive something like this, two net-neutral instincts, one genuinely detrimental instinct"

This is such a brilliant list piece by @iamchrisscott.bsky.social Love the way the numbers track up & down + the rhythmic intensity of it all
November 2, 2025 at 2:09 PM
"Her fingers are grandmothers. They forget where home is"

Beautiful writing from @ezhang77.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 1:57 PM
"you might realize, rolling the fibers between your thirty-five-year-old fingers, how lucky you were to have a mother open to such friendships"

Love the way this piece from @sarlynh.bsky.social shifts about in time. Rich, layered writing.
November 1, 2025 at 5:43 PM
"And probably because she always wore some floral fragrance, lilac or periwinkle, or fucking frangipani"

Brilliant evocation of anger and voice from @rgvaughan.bsky.social in @gooseberrypielit.bsky.social
November 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
"Inside the box is time itself—fifteen years to be precise"

Oh wow, this piece by @kiptain.bsky.social is stunningly powerful. One of the best micros I've read all year 🙌
November 1, 2025 at 5:40 PM
"Pia, however. Pia would be the prize. Pia would kick and scream because she’s Pia"

Brilliant piece by @mczyzniejewski.bsky.social, so evocative and propulsive. And that title!!! 🤩
November 1, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Matt Kendrick
Ooh, here it is again! 🎉
Thirty days to write 100 words. Simple!!! Hope lots of you will consider sending in entries 👇
**ATTENTION WRITERS** This is your ONE MONTH warning. Entires open for the #WelkinWritingPrize 2026 on the 1st Dec. 100 words. Rolling subs. Free entry. Publication for shortlistees. Prizes for top 5.
November 1, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Thirty days to write 100 words. Simple!!! Hope lots of you will consider sending in entries 👇
**ATTENTION WRITERS** This is your ONE MONTH warning. Entires open for the #WelkinWritingPrize 2026 on the 1st Dec. 100 words. Rolling subs. Free entry. Publication for shortlistees. Prizes for top 5.
November 1, 2025 at 11:29 AM