Flash Fiction publishing success for MA Creative Writing student

Monday, 05 November 2018

Ken Elkes, a postgraduate student on the MA Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University, has signed a book deal with publisher Ad Hoc Fiction.

Ken’s deal is for a collection of his popular flash fiction stories titled ‘All That Is Between Us’, which will appear in paperback and as an e-book in the summer of 2019. 

Flash fiction is the shortest form of prose fiction (usually under 1,000 words) and has been written by a number of famous authors including Raymond Carver, Lydia Davis, Ernest Hemingway and Oxford Brookes alumnus Kit de Waal. The form of writing has become increasingly popular in recent years, with international competitions and literary magazines now devoted to it. 

Ken, who writes as K.M. Elkes, has been writing fiction for nearly five years in his spare time, while also working as a journalist and editor. This is his first book deal, though his writing has won or been placed in major short fiction competitions including The Fish Publishing Prize, the PinDrop Prize (in association with the Royal Academy), the Bridport Prize and the Aesthetica Award. His work has appeared in more than 25 anthologies and in literary magazines including Unthology, The Lonely Crowd, Structo and Litro New York. Ken regularly reads his flash fiction stories at live literary events and teaches short fiction workshops, including recently tutoring a six-month course for Comma Press. 

He said: "I was approached by the publisher after my work was published in several of their flash fiction anthologies. To be honest, I hadn't thought about publishing my flash pieces as a collection because I've been concentrating on creating a short story collection, and planning a novel as part of the Oxford Brookes MA course, so I'm really pleased they suggested it!"

Much of the work in the collection was written before Ken started at Oxford Brookes, but former lecturer Dr Andy Eaton was very helpful in shaping some newer pieces last year. Ken has also received valuable tips and advice on putting the collection together from new staff member Dr Mary Jean Chan.

For more information on K.M. Elkes’ writing please visit: https://kmelkes.co.uk/

For more information on the Oxford Brookes Department of English and Modern Languages and the full range of courses they offer please visit: www.brookes.ac.uk/english-languages/