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 💗
CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT #HispanicHeritageMonth KAREN BAUMGART @cake-girl.bsky.social KAREN appears in Issue 6 – Nostalgia with the CNF flash “Real Like a Sung Prayer” and the poem “Hanging Stars” 1/ epistemiclit.com/past-issues/...
REAL LIKE A SUNG PRAYER -
My husband leaves our hotel room to ask for fresh towels, but the housekeepingwoman doesn’t speak any English (bless him, he’s earnestly telling her we’re
epistemiclit.com
"Oddly, his fading is a damp stone in her lungs; surely, she should feel relieved to know he is leaving her for the last time?" Please take a moment to appreciate this BotN-nominated piece by @cake-girl.bsky.social in @templeinacity.bsky.social ! #FlashInTheFeed templeinacity.com/creative-non...
Temple in a City literary journal
Flash creative nonfiction And Now, for the Final Act, Watch Him Choose the Circus by author Karen Baumgart. Published in Temple in a City literary journal.
templeinacity.com
Incredibly grateful to @charlottecosgrove.bsky.social for including my poem in this beautifully-curated print anthology of mental health poetry from @rough-diamond1.bsky.social 🥹💗
Rough Diamond Poetry@rough-diamond1.bsky.social · 2mo agoNewest anthology available! Thank you so much to all our contributors❤️ Below is the UK link but you can get this internationally :) www.amazon.co.uk/Reflections-...
Announcing the WelkinPress Best of the Net nominations for 2026: @anibanerjee.bsky.social @emilyrinkema.bsky.social @cake-girl.bsky.social Yara Zgheib Links to their brilliant pieces below 👇
Friends, I took a musical poser and wrote a 💔🏳️🌈🥂☠️ story about it and a total bucket list journal @lostballoon.bsky.social took it and I’m so stoked. It features karipap, Thai Song (what do you mean you’ve never tried it) and Richard Marx. Can u pls read it? Tx lost-balloon.com/category/fla...
flash fiction – Lost Balloon
Posts about flash fiction written by Chelsea
lost-balloon.com
Lost Balloon @lostballoon.bsky.social · 2mo agoWe have a great new piece today from @pleomorphic2.bsky.social! Check out “Murder Ballad.” lost-balloon.com/2026/08/12/m...
‘Are you happy? you asked as we parted, that sharp, strange little question’. Oh my heart - this is such a delightful, joy-filled, romantic micro by Amy Luxton, winner of the @welkinpress.bsky.social Joy Prize 💗🫶
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago🌻🌈😀 WINNER of the Joy Prize, "Spring, Seven Years Later" by Amy Luxton Such a beautifully-crafted and evocative scene the swells towards a wonderful realisation of happiness: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘Why does life always lead to a tree outside a vet’s, a red-eyed couple trying to decide, an old dog sniffing the wind? Whatever comes, he’s ready’ - wow, how this micro hurtles to its final, understated line. Congrats to @sfreligh.bsky.social, winner of the @welkinpress.bsky.social History Prize 🐕
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago🏛️🏰📜 WINNER of the History Prize, "Outside a Vet’s Office: Boston, 9/11/2001" by @sfreligh.bsky.social A brilliantly-rendered microcosm that projects outwards in such a tragic way towards global events: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘So, I walked slow and fragile to the woodland, stood in the centre of their mile-long crater.’ Wow, this gorgeous micro by Jo Withers, winner of the @welkinpress.bsky.social Firefly Prize 🛸 I love how it zooms inwards and outwards so effortlessly, pushing us gently to that heartbreaking ending
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago🧝🧚🧙♂️ WINNER of the Firefly Prize, "And Also, In the Woods a Spaceship Landed" by Jo Withers: A piece that marries together a speculative event with a deeply personal tragedy. www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘But I am the same smallsome girl who learned better than to raise her voice above a whisper’ - oh, I love how this exquisite micro by @sarahillswrites.bsky.social wrestles with notions of freedom and the things that bind us 💗 winner of the @welkinpress.bsky.social Body Prize 🦅
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago🫀🫁🦴 WINNER of the Body Prize, "Dear Walt Whitman" by @sarahillswrites.bsky.social A lyrical, emotionally taut gem of a micro in epistolary form: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘On the summit, you can finally see where you’ve been and where you’re going. You say, We need to talk’ - this micro by @tomljanovic.bsky.social seems to stretch the word-count into something wild that refuses to be contained. Such a stunning winner of the @welkinpress.bsky.social Earth Prize 🔥
The Welkin Press@welkinpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago🌎🌎🌎 WINNER of the Earth Prize, "Severe Thunderstorm Warning Issued for Nose Hill Park" by @tomljanovic.bsky.social A piece that's wonderfully vivid and wonderfully alive: www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
‘…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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo agoShortlisted 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 · 2mo agoShortlisted 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 · 2mo agoShortlisted 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 · 2mo agoShortlisted 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 · 2mo agoShortlisted 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 · 2mo agoShortlisted 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 · 2mo agoShortlisted 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 · 3mo 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 · 3mo 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 · 3mo agoShortlisted in the Firefly Prize, "After the End Was the Beginning" by @sfreligh.bsky.social www.mattkendrick.co.uk/welkin-stori...
