Collected Works
Books & Anthologies
Each volume a world entire — click a cover to learn more and acquire.
Literary & Speculative Fiction
Literary and speculative fiction from the winner of the Seán Ó Faoláin International and Flash 500 prizes. Published in The Threepenny Review, Nebula, Andromeda, and Clockhouse. Multiple Pushcart Prize nominee.
Each volume a world entire — click a cover to learn more and acquire.
Stories placed in some of the world's finest literary magazines and journals.
The Threepenny Review
“Prefer not to Say” · January 2026
Literary MagazineAndromeda Magazine
“Names That Grow at Night” · January 2026 · Winner
Speculative FictionAndromeda Magazine
“Terminal Resonance” · October 2025 · Winner
Speculative FictionAndromeda Magazine
“The Algorithm Doesn’t Cry” · August 2025 · Winner
Speculative FictionAndromeda Magazine
“Last Orders at the Quantum Arms” · July 2025 · Winner
Speculative FictionAndromeda Magazine
“Echoes of Tomorrow” · June 2025 · Winner
Speculative Fiction
07Nebula Magazine · Issue 7
“Second Dawn Over Aldrich” · October 2025 · Theme: Cosmic Horror
Speculative Fiction
14Nebula Magazine · Issue 9
“The Apology Queue” · December 2025 · Theme: Dystopian World Orders
Speculative Fiction
15Nebula Magazine · Issue 11
“The Colour of Nothing” · February 2026 · Theme: Very Alien
Speculative FictionClockhouse
“Rotation” · February 2026
Literary JournalSynkroniciti
“Unresolved” · Aug 2025 · “Broadcast” · Nov 2025 · “The Physics of Fat” · Feb 2026 · Pushcart Nominee
Online MagazineSouthword Journal
“Spent Leaves” · Seán Ó Faoláin Winner · Published in Southword
Cork International Short Story FestivalPure Slush · London Anthology
“Things We Get Back” · December 2025
AnthologyStreetlight Magazine
“The Taste of Copper Pennies” · 2nd Place · Pushcart Nominee
Literary MagazineBath Flash Fiction Anthology
“The Mirror” · August 2025
AnthologyHard-won insight from a writer who has placed in well over fifty competitions worldwide.
“Competitions are not ordeals to survive — they are invitations to write the truest, sharpest version of your story. Here is what I have learned.”
Word limits are not suggestions. Judges read thousands of entries; a story running over — even by ten words — signals carelessness. Precision is the first form of respect. Read the rules twice before you write a word, and once more before you submit.
Your first line must earn the second. Judges read blind and at volume — a slow, scene-setting opening loses them before the story has a chance. Drop the reader into something already in motion. Tension is not optional; it is your entry fee.
Short fiction is not a compressed novel. The best competition stories do one thing with absolute clarity — one emotional truth, one revelation, one image that refuses to leave. Resist the urge to explain or expand. Trust the reader.
In flash and short fiction, the closing line is where the story lives or dies. Aim for an ending that opens outward, that leaves the reader in a slightly different place than where they began. Rewrite your ending ten times if you must.
The sentence you most love is probably the one to remove. Read aloud. Every word you stumble over is a word the judge will too. A tight 500-word story will always beat a bloated 800-word one, even if the latter is technically better.
A story sitting in a drawer wins nothing. Keep a spreadsheet. Set submission days. Treat it like the profession it is. Rejection is data, not verdict.
Read past winners. Read the journal. Then write something that feels at home there without being derivative of it. Fit the room without disappearing into the wallpaper.
Technical skill is common. Genuine voice is rare. Do not sand your strangeness away to appear more literary. Your oddity is your asset.
A weak title is a missed opportunity. It should do work the story cannot do for itself. Avoid the obvious. Aim for something that deepens in the reader's mind after the last line.
“The difference between a good story and a winning one is almost always a third draft — and the willingness to make it uncomfortable.”
Ask Tim a Question
“Fiction that sees clearly in the dark — precise, strange, and deeply felt.”
Tim Collyer is a British short story writer living in Wiltshire, working at the border between literary and speculative fiction. His stories are known for their compression, their strangeness, and their refusal to look away.
A multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, he won the prestigious Flash 500 Prize and the international Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition. His work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Nebula, Andromeda, Clockhouse, and a growing list of distinguished literary publications across the UK and abroad.
His fiction is preoccupied with the moments just before and after transformation — the quiet violence of ordinary life, the extraordinary buried in the familiar, and the strange consolations that language alone can offer.
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