He mutunga | Endings

By Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction | Posted: Tuesday Apr 21, 2026

Flash Frontier is delighted to present the first 2026 edition of the journal, chocka with much to contemplate around the theme ‘He mutunga | Endings’.

This year, Flash Frontier is collaborating with the University of Otago’s Centre for Medical Humanities, with themes that introduce new ways of exploring creativity and sustenance in today’s world. In this issue, readers will find stories and art engaging with the theme, alongside a closing commentary from Guest Editor Susan Wardell.

Inside this issue:

• Your language, your window | To reo, to mataaho series, with offerings in Tamil, Assamese, Irish, Dutch, Hong Kong Cantonese, and French

• Feature artist Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann

• New books by Jenna Heller and Serie Barford

• A special feature with James Norcliffe—editor, poet, and friend—celebrating his selected poems published in early March

• Interviews with 2026 National Flash Fiction Day judges Louise Wallace, Ingrid Horrocks, and Josiah Morgan, and 2026 Micro Madness judges Tim Saunders and Tania Hershman

The new Roundtable series also launches in this issue, bringing together five panel discussions that offer interdisciplinary conversations between the arts and sciences. Flash Frontier extends its gratitude to all who have contributed their time and energy to these important connections.

• Looking Out: Sustenance & Sustainability

• Looking In: Restoration & Renewal

• Silence that Speaks: The Role (and Restriction) of the Arts in Responding to Suicide, in Aotearoa

• Instead of Endings: Risks, Ethics & Possibility in Writing Climate Disaster
  Excavating, Exploring & Ending: A Best Small Fictions Conversation

• Flash fiction reading including Best Small Fictions 2025

Two of these panels were curated and moderated by the Centre for Medical Humanities Director Susan Wardell, as part of our special collaboration with the Centre: Home | Otago Centre For Med

Watch Roundtable here: March Roundtable: He mutunga | Endings | Flash Frontier

And read the full issue here: March 2026: HE MUTUNGA | ENDINGS | Flash Frontier