Writer and Teacher

Meg Pokrass

Meg Pokrass is the author of eight flash fiction collections, two award-winning collections of hybrid prose, and two novellas-in-flash.

Her books include Damn Sure Right (Press 53, 2011), The Dog Looks Happy Upside Down (Etruscan Press, 2015), My Very End of the Universe: Five Novellas in Flash and a Study of the Form (Rose Metal Press, 2015), Alligators At Night (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2018), Triple #12 (Ravenna Press, 2019), Alice In Wonderland Syndrome (V. Press, 2020), The Dog Seated Next to Me (Pelekinesis, 2020), The Loss Detector, a novella-in-flash (Bamboo Dart Press, 2021), Spinning to Mars (Blue Light Press, 2021), and co-author of The House of Grana Padano, with Jeff Friedman (Pelekinesis Press, 2022), Disappearing Debutantes (with Aimee Parkison, Finalist for the Big Other Book Award for Fiction), Breath and Shadow: Six Sentence Stories (with Robert Scotellaro, from MadHat Press) and The First Law of Holes: New and Selected Stories  (forthcoming from Dzanc Books in September 2024).

Her stories have been published in New England Review, Five Points, McSweeney’s, Passages North, Washington Square Review, Electric Literature, Best American Poetry, Plume, Waxwing, Wigleaf, Smokelong Quarterly and have been included in more than 800 literary journals and anthologies, including The Best Small Fictions, Wigleaf Top 50 (4 times), 3 Norton Anthologies of flash fiction: Flash Fiction International (W.W. Norton & Co., 2015) and New Micro (W. W. Norton & Co, 2018) and Flash Fiction America (W. W. Norton & Co, 2021).

Meg is the Co-Founder of Flash Fiction Festival UK, Co-Founder of The Flash Fiction Collective Reading Series (San Francisco), Founding Editor of New Flash Fiction Review and the Founding Series Co-Editor of the Best Microfiction Anthology Series, Festival Curator for Flash Fiction Festival, U.K., and Columnist (Flash Challenge Judge and creator) at Mslexia Magazine and serves as Chief Judge for the Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction and the Scottish Arts Trust’s new True Flash Award. She has judged The Bath Flash Award, The Bath Novella-in-Flash Award, CRAFT Flash Prose Prize, Fractured Literature’s Reprint Prize, and many other international prizes for fiction.

Meg is an American writer living in Inverness, Scotland.

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Meg Pokrass is a transformative force for any writer of the short form. I turned to her for support on two separate projects with extraordinary results: my flash fiction chapbook, Combat Zones, won the Boudin Flash Fiction Chapbook Contest, judged by Roxane Gay, and my creative nonfiction chapbook, The Island of Ghost Ships, was accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press. Her editorial eye is surgical yet soulful. She doesn’t just edit, she helps you see what your writing is truly capable of. Whether you are writing fiction or CNF, her mentorship is the best investment you can make in your writing career.

–Jamy Bond

The nuanced tonal complexity, which can go from the whimsical to a darker irony in the turn of a phrase, has been the signature feature of the work of Meg Pokrass. investment you can make in your writing career.

–Stuart Dybek

Meg has recently been mentoring and supporting me with a manuscript of stories. I can’t recommend her highly enough. Her astute observations, suggestions and edits have, in my opinion, transformed the whole collection. Her enthusiasm and encouragement have also really helped my confidence as a writer and I’m excited to soon submit the finished collection. Great value in every sense.

–Jane Salmons

I would not be writing flash without Meg Pokrass. I found my voice in flash. I didn’t even understand what that meant—finding your voice—until, suddenly, I realized I had done it. It was because of the community Meg built, the encouragement she offered, and, maybe more than anything, explaining to me what worked when it worked—why this story was better than that one. I’ve said I would not be writing flash without Meg and that’s true. I might not even be writing at all. The encouragement and finding my feet with her help came at a critical time for me.

–Epiphany Ferrell

Taking Meg’s workshops and teaching ekphrastic workshops together has given me a window into her amazing imagination and improved my own writing immeasurably. She is a dynamite storyteller, but also has a very special gift for helping to shape a story. It is incredible how she will pull out the heart of the story and help a writer rearrange or finish it. Meg can help you bring your stories to life in a magical way.

–Lorette C. Luzajic