As an avid flash reader, and a flash writer myself, it would be remiss of me not to choose a very short story to add to the list. The flash community is a wonderful place if you’re looking to read tiny, powerful stories that challenge you. This one, from Gaynor Jones, demonstrates how even the shortest of stories can leave the reader reeling. 

‘The Thing Between Your Legs’ traverses the awkward curiosity of a young girl and her body and the muted discussions and barriered response from a reserved and puritan mother. Jones’s style is wry and witty with the occasional knock to the head that makes the reader see stars. Mother kept her legs crossed – always at the ankle, never at the knee. But there were six of us, plus the dead baby, so we knew she had opened them up plenty.The Thing Between Your Legs went on to win the Mairtín Crawford Short Story Award, and it’s not difficult to see why.

First Published in Bending Genres, April 2018. You can read it here