HELEN RYE
WRITER
ABOUT
I live in Norwich, UK. I write, edit and teach flash fiction.
I’m studying part-time for an MA in Creative Writing (Prose) at UEA, for which I received the 2019/20 Annabel Abbs Scholarship.
I’m a Submissions Editor and Senior Editor for Workshops and Outreach at SmokeLong Quarterly. I’m also a prose editor for Lighthouse Literary Journal, Editorial Advisor at TSS Publishing and a member of the Ellipsis Zine editorial board. I have judged and read for a number of flash fiction contests.
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AWARDS/NOMINATIONS
Best Small Fictions Winner, 2020 (The Diamond Factory, first published in matchbook)
Nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2020 and Best Small Fictions 2020 (by matchbook litmag, for The Diamond Factory)
The Annabel Abbs Scholarship 2019/20 to study MA Prose Fiction at UEA
Nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2019 (by Ellipsis Zine, for Reunion)
The Bristol Short Story Prize – 3rd Place (joint), 2018 (for Transposition)
Nominated for Best Small Fictions 2018 (by National Flash Fiction Day Anthology, for Sleep Is A Beautiful Colour)
Mslexia Flash Fiction Contest – Longlist, 2018
Reflex Fiction Contest – First Prize, 2017
Nominated for Best Small Fictions 2017 (by Bath Flash Fiction Award, for One In Twenty-Three)
The Bath Flash Fiction Award – First Prize, 2016
The Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction – Shortlist, 2015
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STORIES IN OR FORTHCOMING IN:
To Carry Her Home (Bath Flash Anthology Vol 1); Flash Frontier; National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2017: Sleep Is A Beautiful Colour (title story); Flash Flood Journal (2017, 2018 & 2019); Hanoi Moi newspaper; Flash Festival Anthology One; Connotation Press; A Wild & Precious Life anthology; (b)OINK zine; Short Edition (story dispensing machines); Open Pen London; Ellipsis Zine anthology, Two; Bay Len anthology; NFFD Anthology 2018: Ripening; New Flash Fiction Review; Bristol Prize Anthology 2018; Atticus Review; Ink, Sweat & Tears; NFFD Anthology 2019: And We Pass Through; matchbook litmag, Flash Fiction Festival Three; NFFD Anthology 2020: Root, Branch, Tree; Best Small Fictions 2020.
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Scroll down for links to published work.
More in the pipeline. They need to get out more; I’m working on that. Tiny stories need a lot of time and love. You can find links to those available to read online in the Published Work section.
There’re fragments of a novel in a steel box in a dark part of the house where nobody goes, and I’m working on some children’s picture book texts.
Mentored by Tania Hershman through the Womentoring Project.
I owe loads to Ian Nettleton’s writing group and some wonderful writer buddies, one or two in particular. You know who you are.
PUBLISHED WORK
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AN ALL-KNOWING GOD OF THE ROMAN PANTHEON TO WORK HERE (AND IT DOESN'T REALLY HELP)
AND WE PASS THROUGH: NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY ANTHOLOGY 2019
2019
ME ‘N’ CLAUDZ OF A SATURDAY NIGHT DOWN THE CHIPPY AND THE OASIS BAR
RIPENING: NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY ANTHOLOGY 2018
2018
HOW TO TELL A KESTREL FROM A HAWK
SHORT EDITIONS AIRPORT STORY DISPENSING MACHINES
2017
WHITEOUT
(B)OINK ZINE
2017
SLEEP IS A BEAUTIFUL COLOUR
SLEEP IS A BEAUTIFUL COLOUR:
NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY ANTHOLOGY 2017
NOMINATED FOR BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2018
2017
ONE IN TWENTY-THREE
BATH FLASH FICTION AWARD
FIRST PRIZE
HANOI MOI NEWSPAPER
(IN TRANSLATION BY NGUYEN PHAN QUE MAI)
BAY LEN ANTHOLOGY
(IN TRANSLATION BY NGUYEN PHAN QUE MAI)
FORTHCOMING FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NOMINATED FOR BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2017
2016, 2017, 2018, 2021
"My sense is that if you go far enough in any stylistic direction, you can make a beautiful and complex representation of reality, although that representation may not be linear. God knows we’ve got enough linearity in our representations of our world. We’ve tremendously overvalued analytical knowledge, rationality, etc. To me, the process of writing is just reading what I’ve written and—like running your hand over one of those mod glass stovetops to find where the heat is—looking for where the energy is in the prose, then going in the direction of that."
