Karen Baumgart
@cake-girl.bsky.social
I love it when people geek out on their passion. Tell me all the things about the random topic that makes your heart sing 💗
‘…you fall into him and he catches you, tendrils wrapping around you like you wanted to wrap around him except he’s in the ground and you’re not’ - I love the breathless urgency of this heartbreaking micro by @wordsfromemorra.bsky.social, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social Firefly Prize 🌱
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 23h agoShortlisted in the Firefly Prize, "the day after you bury him in the garden" by @wordsfromemorra.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘He regretted how, as she lay on her back on the scaffolding, Heaven saw petticoats and pantaloons he did not’ 🎨 such a clever, sweetly funny micro from @kawalker.bsky.social, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social Joy Prize 💗
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2d agoShortlisted in the Joy Prize, "Behold the Adam and Eve of Huntingfield" by @kawalker.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘Her voice hovers around her as though her body does not belong to her, as though she has moved out and left it behind’ 🥺 I love how this micro by Rana Bitar moves so seamlessly between the internal and the external. Shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social Body Prize 🩺
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 3d agoShortlisted in the Body Prize, "Taking It Home" by Rana Bitar: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
Gosh, the relentless rhythm just barrels forward in this stunning, heartbreaking micro by @nomad-sw18.bsky.social, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social History Prize 🌲
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 4d agoShortlisted in the History Prize, "The things we did not see on Christmas Eve in Calumet, Michigan, 1913" by @nomad-sw18.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘You remember birds flapping. Deer running. Squirrels burrowing. The black choke of clouds refusing to cry.’ Such a carefully crafted POV in this searing micro from @karenc.bsky.social, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social Earth Prize
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 5d agoShortlisted in the Earth Prize, "The Boy Wraps His Arms Around You" by @karenc.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘The sound of breathing down the line. “I can ask you anything?” “You can ask.”’ This is such an intriguing, thoughtful micro by @thisisguan.bsky.social, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social Firefly Prize ☎️
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 6d agoShortlisted in the Firefly Prize, "The Oracle of All Wisdom" by @thisisguan.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘Others call it a defect. It isn’t. But what I’ve given him is a world that would call it one’ 🥺 Oof, such a tender, heartbreaking micro by Jeffrey-Michael Kane, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social Body Prize 🚗🚙🚓
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 7d agoShortlisted in the Body Prize, "Issue" by Jeffrey-Michael Kane www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
A breathtakingly beautiful micro by Vaishnavi Pusapati, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social Earth Prize. ‘The foxes returned, and then the nesting robins. One night, the fireflies reappeared—a galaxy adrift under open skies.’ I love the deeply-felt sense of hope in this one 🦊🐝🪺
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · last wk.Shortlisted in the Earth Prize, "The Night of the Fireflies" by Vaishnavi Pusapati: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
"To entice a fairy, you’ll also need a toddler, the kind with dimpled elbows and hair that curls at the edges on a damp day." The delight shines through this lovely one from @cake-girl.bsky.social. I love how it manages to unearth memories from when my kids were small. 😍🎉 @welkinpress.bsky.social
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · last wk.Shortlisted in the Joy Prize, "Detailed instructions on how to attract a fairy visitor to your home" by @cake-girl.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘You’ll need spectacles to read teensy handwriting, and a whimsical letterbox for exchanging notes.’ The sweetest from @cake-girl.bsky.social in @welkinpress.bsky.social, all the way to the quiet heartache of that ending 🧚 www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
Detailed instructions on how to attract a fairy visitor to your home | MattKendrick.co.uk
mattkendrick.co.uk
Such a stunning sense of enormity - and smallness - in this lovely micro by @jmgatford.bsky.social, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social History Prize 🌝
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · last wk.Shortlisted in the History Prize, "First Photograph of the Moon — John William Draper, 1840" by @jmgatford.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
Lovely bit of whimsy from @cake-girl.bsky.social - living up to Karen's Cake Girl moniker - with this shortlisted micro 🎂 in @welkinpress.bsky.social "You’ll also need a toddler, the kind with dimpled elbows and hair that curls at the edges on a damp day."
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · last wk.Shortlisted in the Joy Prize, "Detailed instructions on how to attract a fairy visitor to your home" by @cake-girl.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
"You’ll need spectacles to read teensy handwriting, and a whimsical letterbox for exchanging notes." I love this brilliant gem by @cake-girl.bsky.social in @welkinpress.bsky.social 💙💙💙
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · last wk.Shortlisted in the Joy Prize, "Detailed instructions on how to attract a fairy visitor to your home" by @cake-girl.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
“Written correspondence is integral to fairy interactions.” @cake-girl.bsky.social in @welkinpress.bsky.social with this whimsical wonder 🧚🧁💌
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · last wk.Shortlisted in the Joy Prize, "Detailed instructions on how to attract a fairy visitor to your home" by @cake-girl.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
'you’ll also need a toddler, the kind with dimpled elbows and hair that curls at the edges on a damp day.' Love the way @cake-girl.bsky.social leads this story so deliciously to the understated but rather devastating ending.
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · last wk.Shortlisted in the Joy Prize, "Detailed instructions on how to attract a fairy visitor to your home" by @cake-girl.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
Such a strong sense of place & time in this micro by @writesofkathryn.bsky.social, shortlisted in @welkinpress.bsky.social Body Prize 🏖️ ‘Falling sunlight purples the beach, leaving only a faint glow, an echo of grander days, when cabanas and blue-striped umbrellas basked like elephants at a wallow.’
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2w agoShortlisted in the Body Prize, "Sundowning" by @writesofkathryn.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘Sinuous thoughts of: should we leap under the bed, in case weight of wall’s upon us, or rush downstairs, level four, three, two, one, ground?’. This @welkinpress.bsky.social shortlisted micro by @mandirapattnaik.bsky.social demands to be read aloud - such a rich, dynamic sound palette!
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2w agoShortlisted in the Earth Prize, "A Minute Before The Windows Rattle, I’m Singing 'One, Two, Buckle My Shoe' With My Kid" by @mandirapattnaik.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
Such a poignant, carefully crafted micro by @sfreligh.bsky.social, shortlisted in @welkinpress.bsky.social 🌼 ‘We recalled their songs when we lullabied our children into sleep. We drew roses in the dirt, described their petaled velvet and their underside of thorns’.
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2w agoShortlisted in the Firefly Prize, "After the End Was the Beginning" by @sfreligh.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘Linda insists I speak to him about this, though it’s hardly my responsibility. Still, she’s a friend’. Have been waiting impatiently to read this gem by @sagreene1.bsky.social from the moment I saw the title on the @welkinpress.bsky.social shortlist 😍 so wonderfully kooky and joyful!
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2w agoShortlisted in the Joy Prize, "Whenever My Husband Reaches a Sexual Climax, he Shouts ‘Annabel!’" by @sagreene1.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
Oh, this gorgeous micro by @alisonwassell.bsky.social, shortlisted in the @welkinpress.bsky.social History prize. ‘Honeymoon, a single night in Morecambe. Not what you were expecting. Listening to the sea’s roar, trying to think of England’ 🥹
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2w agoShortlisted in the History Prize, "Having Received His Call-Up Papers, Arthur Jenkins Invites You To The Cinema" by @alisonwassell.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
Oh my goodness, so excited to have a micro in one of the shortlists 🌸💗 such wonderful titles - I can’t wait to read them all!
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2w agoAnnouncing the brilliant shortlists for this year's Welkin Genre Prize. Congratulations to the writers of these wonderful pieces. If you're on the list, please feel free to celebrate wildly, but don't say which title is yours as judging is still ongoing: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-press...
So happy to have 2 little pieces in the longlist! 💗🫶🌸
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 4w agoDRUM ROLL!!!! Announcing the longlists for the Welkin Genre Prize 2026. Congratulations to the writers of these 50 wonderful pieces. Please feel free to celebrate wildly but don't reveal which piece is yours as judging is still ongoing! www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-press...
Oh, this stunning poem by @pleomorphic2.bsky.social and @kathrynreese.bsky.social - a glorious, romantic assembling of words 💗 ‘We are folded / into newness, this word new with us: / here is a wattlebird’s first flight / the light of the first sun ever made / softening to shadow on your neckline’
Sumitra Singam@pleomorphic2.bsky.social · last mo.Lads, chuffed to have a collab poem with @kathrynreese.bsky.social in our favourite home @the-engine-idling.bsky.social’s 🔥 Collab issue. Hope you’ll give it a read 🧡🏳️🌈 static1.squarespace.com/static/650c3...
‘I will listen when you speak and when you cannot. I will sit beside you in the dark. I will learn to feed us both back toward the light. I will hold you and I will not let go.’ Oh, this stunning, heartbreaking CNF by @tracieadams.bsky.social 😭🫶 brightflash1000.com/2026/06/05/r...
Rebirth
Creative Non-fiction by Tracie Adams I will lift you from embryonic waters, my heart a purring engine against your buttery skin. I will kiss your rosebud lips, feed you from my own body. You will w…
brightflash1000.com
‘Skip past the twisting, looping explosion that folds out to be four times the size of this book, chalk white in the center, then sand, then lemon meringue pie’ - this is such a dynamic, colourful, unsettling flash by @sagetyrtle.bsky.social 💥 jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2026/06/03/f...
Flash Fiction: Let’s Read This Picture Book by Sage Tyrtle
Skip forward five pages. Skip past the toddlers with the rubber knives and toddlers with the cardboard handcuffs and the toddlers in their severe uniforms.
jmwwblog.wordpress.com
Sometimes, it feels super important for a piece of writing to find a kind home. So happy my little flash is in this exquisite issue #11 from Moonflake Press, with the theme ‘treasured’ 🥹💗 This one was drafted in @mattkendrick.bsky.social’s Lyrical Writing WBTL course 🫶 www.yumpu.com/en/document/...
Moonflake Press - Issue 11; TREASURED
To be treasured is something beautiful, but to be the one admiring the treasure can be something much better
yumpu.com
“and in ways with teeth / that devoured my soft parts, leaving old-lady bones behind” omg this poem by @cake-girl.bsky.social in @epistemiclit.bsky.social 🔥🔥🔥🧡🧡🧡
Karen Baumgart@cake-girl.bsky.social · 3mo agoSo, so grateful this poem found a home in issue 8 of @epistemiclit.bsky.social 🥹💗
So, so grateful this poem found a home in issue 8 of @epistemiclit.bsky.social 🥹💗
Epistemic Literary- Read Issue 8: Righteous Rage now!@epistemiclit.bsky.social · 3mo agoIssue 8 #Poetry A POEM IN WHICH I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT BEING ANGRY by @cake-girl.bsky.social “and i am trying to be angry / but you see, i was hungry for decades / in hidden ways that swallowed my words / before they could catch fire” epistemiclit.com/issue-eight/...