WestWord is a literary magazine from Retreat West.
We launched in 2022 with a special edition of stories that were written as part of our Online Flash Festivals, we publish three themed editions a year and each edition includes short stories, flash fictions and micro fictions.
Find info on themes and submission periods on our Submission page.
We also run the WestWord Prize and publish three editions a year of the prizewinning stories - one for each category: Micro Fictions, Flash Fictions and Short Stories.
The 1000 Word Photo edition publishes once a year with stories of 1000 words exactly inspired by a picture prompt.
The Hermit Crab Prize runs annual for, you guessed it, hermit crab flash fictions!
The annual Past Times Prize is for historical flash fictions and each year we will reveal the era the stories should be set in.
We have also moved the Monthly Micro competition over from Retreat West so all of our stories are being published in one place.
WestWord Team
Amanda Saint
Founder and Managing Editor
Amanda is the author of two novels, As If I Were A River (2016) and Remember Tomorrow (2019). Her short stories, flash and micro fictions have been widely published in journals and anthologies, and placed and listed in many international prizes, including the Mslexia Flash Fiction Prize and the Fish Flash Fiction Prize, and nominated for Best Small Fictions 2023. Amanda founded and runs Retreat West, providing an online writing community, competitions and courses. From 2018-2023 Retreat West published 24 books and was named Most Innovative Publisher at the 2020 Saboteur Awards. She also writes The Mindful Writer and The Tao of Storytelling.
Eleonora Balsano
Reader
Eleonora Balsano is an Italian-born journalist and writer based in Brussels. Her short fiction has appeared in Portland Review, Reflex Fiction, Janus Literary, JMWW Journal, and elsewhere. In 2023, Eleonora was longlisted for the Wigleaf top 50 and in 2021 she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Eleonora is a reader for WestWord and Longleaf Review. She is currently working on a dystopian novel.
Jamie D. Stacey
Reader
Jamie D. Stacey is a full-time father and part-time writer. An avid reader of scratches on walls and scribbles in notebooks, he is drawn to stories that empathise, encourage, and empower. His debut novel, All the Waves, Calling (Black Pear Press, 2023), explores themes of loss, loneliness - and hope. Whether he writes very short stories or novels, whatever the form or shape it’s the heart and hope inside each that matters. Find him on Twitter @JamieDStacey1 or www.jamiedstacey.co.uk.
