Gail Anderson has worked as a stop-motion animator, a musical instrument repair technician, a delivery van driver, a librarian and a graphic designer...
…and that’s the short list. I’ve done just about every sort of job there is (ice cream scooper, computer network administrator, camera seller, documents runner, dishwasher) and have lived on three continents. All this has given a lot of material for writing.
A writer of short fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, my work explores the element of place, and themes of ‘lost and found’.
I teach short online courses, and a couple of summer schools at the University of Oxford: a two-afternoon introduction to flash, a 10-week flash fiction workshop, a one-week residential intro to flash, and a one-week intro to short-form writing (both held in-person at Brasenose College, Oxford).
In April 2023 I was awarded an Ignite Fellowship by the Scottish Book Trust, to work on a collection of interwoven short fictions based in SW Scotland.
I’m also a sailor, bookbinder, typesetter, a relentless forager and haunter of charity shops.
Come say hello on Twitter: @smallgreenberd.
Publications
‘States That Shaped Your Octopus Brain’ (flash fiction) in New Writers, published 4 March 2024 online (first prize, 2024 Flash Fiction Competition) and forthcoming in their anthology.
‘A Season for Wheat’ (flash fiction) in New Writing Scotland, issue 41, August 2023.
‘Suspension, 1864’ (flash fiction, reprint) in NFFD Flash Flood, 24 June 2023.
‘Your Brother’s Medium’ (flash fiction / prose poem) in New Flash Fiction Review issue 28, January 2023
‘The Letter from the Home Office’ (reprinted) in the anthology ‘Fuel: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Flash Fictions’, Tania Hershman, editor, published February 2023.
‘The Letter from the Home Office’ (first prize, Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction), in the Scottish Story Awards Anthology ‘Beached’, October 2022
‘North by Northwest’ (flash fiction) in the anthology ‘In Defence of Pseudoscience’, Reflex Fiction Volume Five, July 2022
‘A Fledgling Sings a Skipping Song’ (flash fiction, first prize) in Reflex Fiction Spring 2022 Competition, published 21 May 2022, and forthcoming in the print anthology, (title TBA)
‘The Eye of Horace’ (short story) in the Scottish Story Awards Anthology ‘A Meal for the Man in Tails’, October 2021
‘Upland’ (flash fiction) in Epiphany, 18 August 2021
‘Game Over’ (flash fiction) in Ellipsis Zine, 18 August 2021
‘North by Northwest’ (flash fiction) in Reflex Fiction, longlisted in their Spring 2021 competition.
‘Lost and Found’ and ‘The River Atomicus’ (poems) in Confluence, February 2021
‘Passage’ (poem) in The Tiger Moth Review, Issue 5, January 2021
‘Suspension, 1864’ (flash fiction) in The MacGuffin, Issue 37.1, Winter 2021
‘Curlew’ and ‘A River Ought to Be’ (poems) in The Cannon’s Mouth, Issue 78, December 2020
‘The Wishbone House’ (flash fiction) in the anthology Restore to Factory Settings, AdHoc Fiction, December 2020
‘Grimm’ (flash fiction) online at the Writer’s Bureau, winner of the Winter 2020 Flash Fiction competition
‘I Used to Ride in the Rodeo’ (flash fiction) in Popshot Issue 30, November 2020
Three short stories: ‘Overdue’ (first prize 2019), ‘Hunger Point’ (third prize 2020) and ‘Paradise’ (longlisted 2020) included in the anthology Life on the Margins, Scottish Arts Trust, November 2020
‘Newsreel, Kahanamoku Pool 1938’ (flash memoir / prose poem) in Ellipsis Zine 29 October 2020 Issue: You, Me and Emmylou
‘The Shared Step’ (short story) in Mslexia Issue 86, June 2020: Other Worlds
‘Programming Language’ (flash fiction / prose poem) in NFFD Flash Flood, 6 June 2020
‘Intersection, Transit and Rose’ (flash fiction, first prize) in Reflex Fiction Winter 2019 Competition, published 31 March 2020 online and in the anthology A Girl’s Guide to Fly Fishing
‘Descent’ (flash fiction) in Cabinet of Heed Issue 28, January 2020
‘Kintsukuroi’ (poem) in Boujour Limosin and also published on the Charroux Poetry Prize website, October 2019.
‘When the House at the End of the Track Slipped Through the Crust of the Earth’ (flash fiction) in Ambit Issue 238, October 2019
‘There and Here’ (flash fiction) in Crannog, Summer 2019
‘Seeing Stars, 1933’ (flash fiction) in the Fish Anthology 2019, Fish Publishing, June 2019
‘Trespass’ (memoir) in the Fish Anthology 2019, Fish Publishing, June 2019
‘Synaesthesia in C minor’ (flash fiction) in Strix Issue 6, March 2019
‘Ambit’ (poem) in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual 2019, Aesthetica, Dec 2018
‘Boyle Heights’ (memoir) in The Southampton Review Winter/Spring 2019
‘Partition, 1947’ (flash fiction) in the anthology Things Left and Found by the Side of the Road, AdHoc Fiction, November 2018
‘Beige’ (flash fiction) in the Fish Anthology 2018, Fish Publishing, June 2018
‘Blink’ (poem) in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual 2018, Aesthetica, Dec 2017
‘Persistence of Vision’ (memoir) in Litro #SundayStory online, 2 Oct 2016
‘First Day’ (memoir) reprinted in Hippocampus, April 2015
‘First Day’ (memoir) in the anthology By the Light of the Moon, Rubery Book Awards 2012
Awards
Ignite Fellow 2023, Scottish Book Trust – from April 2023 to April 2024
Prizes
New Writers 2024 Flash Fiction Competition: 1st place for ‘States That Shaped Your Octopus Brain’ – Stephanie Carty, Judge.
Reflex Fiction, Spring 2022 Competition: 1st place for ‘A Fledgling Sings a Skipping Song’ – Alison Woodhouse, judge.
Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction 2022: 1st place for ‘The Letter from the Home Office’ – Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh, judges.
Writers’ Bureau 2020 Flash Fiction Prize: 1st place for ‘Grimm’
Scottish Arts Trust Story Awards 2020: 3rd place for ‘Hunger Point’ – Andrew O’Hagan, judge
Winchester Writers’ Weekend, Flash Competition 2020: 1st place for ‘Suspension, 1864’ – Claire Fuller, judge
Reflex Fiction, Winter 2019 Competition: 1st place for ‘Intersection, Transit and Rose’ – Barbara Byar, judge
Scottish Arts Trust Short Story Awards 2019: 1st place for ‘Overdue’ –Alexander McCall Smith, judge.
Charroux Memoir Poetry Prize 2019: 2nd place for ‘Kintsukuroi’, Gordon Simms, Susie Kelly, judges
Fish Publishing 2019 Flash Fiction Prize: 3rd Place for ‘Seeing Stars, 1933’, Pamela Painter, judge
Winchester Writers’ Festival 2018 Poetry Prize: 1st place for ‘Hold the Mountain’, Joan McGavin, judge
Winchester Writers’ Festival 2018 Memoir Prize: 1st place for ‘Boyle Heights’, Judith Heneghan, judge
Fish Publishing 2018 Flash Fiction Prize: 2nd Place for ‘Beige’ – Sherri Flick, judge
Bodleian Library Parallel Universe Poetry Competition 2016: ‘Blink’, one of ten winners
Honourable Mention, Commended
Acumen International Poetry Prize 2020: ‘Bessie Smith’
Glimmer Train ‘Family Matters’ submission July 2019: ‘Paradise’
Fish Publishing Memoir Prize 2019: ‘Trespass’
Shortlisted
Bridport Prize 2023, Flash Fiction
Tennessee Williams Literary Festival 2023, Finalist, Very Short Fiction
Bridport Prize 2022, Flash Fiction
Bridport Prize 2021, Flash Fiction (two entries shortlisted)
Bath Flash Fiction 17th Award, February 2021
Craft Flash Fiction Contest 2020 (Finalist)
Bridport Prize 2020, Flash Fiction
Butcher’s Dog, Issue 13, Summer 2020
Bath Flash Fiction 14th Award, February 2020
Fish Publishing Poetry Prize 2019
Fish Publishing Short Story Prize 2019
Bridport Prize 2018, Flash Fiction
Fish Publishing Flash Fiction Prize 2018
Pushcart Nominated
‘Intersection, Transit and Rose’ (flash) - Pushcart Prize 2020, nominated by Reflex Fiction.
‘Programming Language’ (flash) - Pushcart Prize 2020, nominated by National Flash Flood
‘There and Here’ (flash) - Pushcart Prize 2019, nominated by Crannog Magazine
Longlisted
2021: Reflex Fiction, Autumn; Reflex Fiction, Spring; Scottish Arts Trust Story Awards
2020: Reflex Fiction Winter, Retreat West Flash Fiction Prize, Mairtin Crawford Short Story Prize, Scottish Arts Trust Short Story Award.
2018: Bath Flash Fiction Award, Rialto/RSPB Nature Poetry Competition, Fish Memoir Prize.
2017: Rialto/RSPB Nature Poetry Competition.
2014: Historical Novel Short Story Competition.