In the fall of 2023, while braving blustery winds on a lava beach in Iceland, fresh from a flash fiction retreat, several of us writers had an idea for a literary journal called Hot Flash, to be composed entirely of flash pieces by women.

As with many ideas, there were ebbs and flows as we figured out what form this project should actually take. One thing remained clear, though: that women-identifying people needed a place where their voices wouldn’t get lost in an icy gale. Where they could, instead, be hot like lava.

From these ebbs and flows, Hot Flash Literary was eventually born, finally becoming a reality in mid-2025.

Hot Flash Literary is edited by Tina Carlson and Jessica Klimesh.