Kathleen Latham is a writer who lives outside of Boston, MA. Twice nominated for Best Small Fictions, she has won a Highly Commended Bridport Prize for flash fiction and placed third in the Bath Flash Fiction Award. She’s been short or longlisted by such publications as Fractured Lit, The Masters Review, Msxlexia, New Flash Fiction Review, Reflex Fiction, and The Southeast Review. You can follow her at @lathamwithapen or through the social media links below.
recent news
goodreads giveaway
I’ve giving away 6 signed copies of my book! Will you be a lucky winner? Ends 11/24.
10/19/2024
IT’S HERE!
My debut poetry collection The Ones is now out in the world! My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Kelsay Books for making this dream come true. Click on the book for direct link to Amazon or get more information via my Books tab.
cover image by madison gladwin
10/1/24
Just got my copy of Gnashing Teeth Publishing’s anthology The Cost of Our Baggage in which my poem “Binge” makes an appearance. So many heartfelt poems and stories. You can purchase the anthology here.
9/5/24
Beyond honored that The Ilanot Review nominated my story "Brightly, Brightly" for Best of the Net! Truly speechless to have been chosen out of the sea of wonderful work they publish. The story can be read here.
8/14/24
Brilliant Flash Fiction’s ten year anniversary anthology is here, and my story “B Word” is inside.
From their website: “After a call for submissions that elicited 472 entries, Brilliant Flash Fiction editors chose 42 that they felt best express the sort of tenacity that enabled their organization to survive from 2014 to 2024. All royalties from book sales go toward paying operating costs of Brilliant Flash Fiction, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization…Each story is crafted in 300 words or less.” You can buy it on Amazon through this link.
7/6/24
Super excited that my poem "Binge" will be appearing in Gnashing Teeth Publishing's next anthology The Cost of Our Baggage. The work in this anthology is gonna have all the feels 😢😡😀
5/24/24
It was a tremendous honor to read my poem “Again and Again and Again” during the wedding ceremony of Josh Belinsky and Ally Dorsey in Gloucester, MA. For everyone who asked for a copy of the poem, thank you, thank you! You can find it under the Poetry Tab above listed as “Poem for a Wedding.”
4/27/24
Every year, in honor of the UK’s National Flash Fiction Day, a deluge of flash appears online at FlashFlood, NFFD's online journal. This year NFFD is June 15, and the flood starts at 00:01 BST with a new story posted every five to ten minutes for 24 hours straight. Just found out my micro “When the Solid Gives Way” will appear around 19:45 BST/ 2:45 pm EST. This 100 word nugget first appeared in 100 Word Story back in September, 2021. So glad it gets to ride the flood!
3/18/24
Here's a link to my reading of “Brightly, Brightly,” a sad tale inspired by real events. Mostly it's about love, though, and the things we do as parents. Thanks to The Ilanot Review for inviting me to read it.
3/12/24
Honored to have new short fiction in The Ilanot Review’s Parents issue. Highly recommend this journal, and the beautful writing they showcase. You can read my story “Brightly, Brightly” here.
“Gavin would return to those fragments obsessively, worry them in his palm like stones—searching over and over for the why of things...”
photo: Sheila Jellison
2/1/24
My poem “Gift” styled after Natasha Trethewey’s “Providence” can now be found in The Comstock Review’s 2023 Fall/Winter issue. Available with a subscription here.
old news, but good news…
I won a Bridport Prize!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Bridport Arts Center and judge Christopher Allen for honoring my flash fiction piece “Anna Wonders Whether Birds Will Build a Nest with Cat Hair” with a Highly Commended Prize. Beyond honored to travel to Dorset, England to receive this prestigious award on its 50th anniversary. An absolutely joyful experience. You can see all the winners here and purchase a copy of the Bridport Prize 2023 Anthology here.
8/30/23
Two poems, “Nantasket Beach” (for Jack, 1995-2016) and “Notes on a Missing Son” appearing in The Comstock Review, Vol. 37.1 Spring/Summer 2023. “Gift” coming in Fall/Winter. Available with subscription at comstockreview.org
7/29/23
Beyond honored that my story “Men Like Them (Marks Park, Sydney, 1988)” made the top ten in New Flash Fiction Review’s 2023 flash contest. This story was written in memory of the 85+ victims of gay-hate homicides near Australia's Bondi-Tamarama cliffs from the 1970’s to the 1990’s and inspired by Steve Johnson’s pursuit for justice for his brother. A dark, but important, story.
You can read my story here and link to the other shortlist stories here.
4/26/23
The Masters Review Anthology Vol. XI is finally here! A huge thank you to the legendary Peter Ho Davies for choosing my story "Barely a Sound" to be part of the collection. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org!
4/18/23
Woo hoo! My flash piece “Rattlesnake” was shortlisted for the Fish Flash Fiction Prize.
4/6/23
Absolutely thrilled to announce that I’ve made The Welkin Writing Prize shortlist! My story (which will remain anonymous until the end) was one of 20 selected from over 1,200 stories from 55 countries. This one has me dancing for joy!
3/29/23
Honored to be one of the authors to make the Fractured Lit Anthology Prize longlist!
1/1/23
Brilliant start to 2023! Thank you to Reflex Press for placing my story "Rats" on the longlist of their final flash fiction contest. Honored beyond belief to be listed with so many writers I recognize and admire.
“This is our meal.
Words picked clean.
Bones of emotion
sucked of their marrow...”
11/30/22
Honored beyond belief to be named a Best Small Fictions nominee by Bath Flash Fiction Awards. Thank you BFFA!
11/18/22
Thrilled to have my flash piece "Rattlesnake" longlisted for
Mslexia's 2022 Flash Fiction Competition!
Mslexia: The UK's bestselling magazine for women who write
10/31/22
Absolutely gobsmacked that my story “Fourth Grade Science Lesson, Chickasaw City, Alabama” came in Third for the Bath Flash Fiction Award!! Chosen from over 1,250 entries from 38 different countries, the top stories are amazing this round. You can read them here and read the comments from contest judge Emily Devane here. So honored to be included.
10/21/22
Two of my poems—“How Annie Comes to Decide She’d Rather be Given a Heads Up Than a Toasted Everything Bagel” and “Cranberry Juice” (reprint)—appear in Vita Brevis Press’s final anthology What is All This Sweet Work? A Poetry Anthology about Love and Loss. Copies can be purchased here.
10/12/22
Orchard Lea’s Anthology Close Up: Poems on Cancer, Grief, Hope, and Healing is out now! Honored to have my poem “This is How I Picture Your Bedroom” among so many moving and heartfelt pieces. Proceeds from every sale go to support cancer research and aid. UK readers can order here. US readers can purchase through Amazon here.
3/19/22
Thrilled to announce that my latest poem “When Your Mother Suggests Scrapbooking as a Form of Therapy” tied for Second Place in Oprelle Publications’ “Into Pieces” poetry contest! You can read the winners and see the finalists here (Warning: if you read on your phone, please ignore the weird line breaks that show up…they shouldn’t be there.)
12/20/21
Finishing the year in gratitude to Spider Road Press for nominating my microfiction piece “Dolores Tells Charlie She’s Going to the Gym” for the 2021 Best Small Fiction Anthology by Sonder Press.
“Dolores…” also appears in PARE, a Spider Road Press zine that raises funds for organizations that combat domestic violence and sexual assault. You can read more about the good they’re up to here.
May 19, 2021
So excited to share that my 100-word piece “Dolores Tells Charlie She’s Going to the Gym” won Spider Road Press’s Web Microfiction Prize for Women Writers. Publication coming in September!
7/07/20
Just found out my unpublished poetry chapbook Running Into an Ex received second place in Chestnut Review’s Chapbook Contest! A poem from the chapbook will be published by Chestnut Review soon.
“I confess to Googling you on occasion, but unless you are an overweight bagpipe player or twenty-year-old hipster with neck tattoos and a bolo tie, I don’t think I’ve found you…”
from "ALL NEW IMAGES" in Tipton Poetry Journal, Winter 2019
March 2019
Ecstatic that the first four pages of my long-forsaken, unfinished novel were short-listed for the 2019 Stockholm Writers Festival First Pages Prize. Making the Top 11 out of 580+ entries is an incredible honor and just the kick in the seat I need to dust the manuscript off.
march 2018
My first foray into Creative Nonfiction, Breakfast with the Innkeeper, was published in the online literary magazine Hedge Apple on February 28. Written in response to a call for creative works related to the theme of food, the essay can be found here.
“The innkeeper starts to cry at breakfast.
He’s telling me the story of his incarcerated brother over plates of French toast and fruit diced so small the cantaloupe is the same size as the blueberries.
”