Dr Ashley Chantler | University of Chester

Senior Lecturer in English Literature; Programme Leader, MA Creative Writing: Writing and Publishing Fiction

Dr Ashley Chantler is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Programme Leader of MA Creative Writing: Writing and Publishing Fiction. He has research and teaching expertise in English Literature, Creative Writing, editing, and publishing.

He is founding co-director of the International Flash Fiction Association, co-editor of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine and Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, and founding director of the University's creative-writing hub Pandora's Box.

• Contemporary literature.
• Twentieth-century literature.
• Writing, editing and publishing poetry.
• Writing, editing and publishing flash fiction and novellas-in-flash.
• Writing, editing and publishing short stories, novellas and novels.

Dr Chantler is principal supervisor of two creative writing PhDs: a flash-fiction collection and a novella-in-flash.

Dr Chantler’s research interests are focused on twentieth-century and contemporary literature, including Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, modernism, Harold Pinter, flash fiction, and textual editing.

He is author of Heart of Darkness (2008). His work on Ford Madox Ford includes essays on Ford’s poetry and co-edited volumes for Ashgate, Rodopi, and Edinburgh University Press. Other co-edited volumes include: Translation Practices: Through Language to Culture (2009); Studying English Literature (2010); and Literature and Authenticity, 1780–1900 (2011).

He was the founder and general editor of Continuum’s Character Studies series, with monographs ranging from Hamlet and Twelfth Night to Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

Dr Chantler’s work for the International Flash Fiction Association includes co-editing flash-fiction collections and anthologies and reviewing new publications. He is editor of An Anatomy of Chester: A Collection of Short-Short Stories (2007) and Gaps: A Record of Dementia (2024); and author of ‘Notes Towards the Definition of the Short-Short Story’ (2009) and ‘Why Flash Fiction?’.

His creative writing includes In Praise of Paving (poetry collection; 2003), Nana and Grape (illustrated poem for children; 2004), and the novella He Is the Fire (2013). His flash fictions and poems have appeared in a range of online and print publications.

Ashley is currently working on studies of David Gaffney’s flash fiction and travel writing about Britain from Bill Bryson onwards.

He is the Series Editor of Character Studies (Continuum). Books in the series include studies of Hamlet, Othello, Twelfth Night, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Heart of Darkness, Waiting for Godot, and Beloved.

Books

Gillian Walker, The World at the End of the Garden: A Novella-in-Flash, ed. with Peter Blair (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2019).

Vanessa Gebbie, Nothing to Worry About: Flash Fictions, ed. with Peter Blair (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2018).

David Steward, Travelling Solo, ed. with Peter Blair (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2018).

Short on Sugar, High on Honey: Micro Love Stories, gen. ed. with Peter Blair (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2018).

Funny Bone: Flashing for Comic Relief, ed. with Peter Blair (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2017).

Meg Tuite, Lined Up Like Scars: Flash Fictions, ed. with Peter Blair (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 2015).

An Introduction to Ford Madox Ford, ed. with Rob Hawkes (Ashgate, 2015).

War and the Mind: Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End, Modernism, and Psychology, ed. with Rob Hawkes (Edinburgh University Press, 2015).

David Swann, Stronger Faster Shorter: Flash Fictions, ed. with Peter Blair (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2015).

Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End: The First World War, Culture, and Modernity, ed. with Rob Hawkes (Rodopi, 2014).

Literature and Authenticity, 1780-1900: Essays in Honour of Vincent Newey, ed. with Michael Davies and Philip Shaw (Ashgate, 2011).

Studying English Literature, ed. with David Higgins (Continuum, 2010).

Translation Practices: Through Language to Culture, ed. with Carla Dente (Rodopi, 2009).

Heart of Darkness: Character Studies (Continuum, 2008).

The Alternative A-Z of English Literature, ed. with Terry Claridge (Alternative Press, 2008; 2013).

An Anatomy of Chester: A Collection of Short-Short Stories [editor] (Chester Academic Press, 2007).

Life Lines: Poems from the Cheshire Prize for Literature 2004 (Chester Academic Press, 2005).

Prize Flights: 20 Stories from the Cheshire Prize for Literature 2003 (Chester Academic Press, 2004).

Essays, chapters and articles

‘Ford as Poet’, in The Routledge Companion to Ford Madox Ford, ed. Laura Colombino, Sara Haslam and Seamus O’Malley (Routledge, 2018).

‘“Come!”: Dracula’s Bawdy’, Notes on Literature: For Readers and Writers (7 Dec. 2017); online.

‘Why Flash Fiction? Because of a Parrot and a Porn Star, Of Course’, SmokeLong Quarterly (18 Aug. 2016); online.

‘Critical Writing on William Cowper, 2013-2014’, Cowper and Newton Journal, 5 (2015).

‘“As if on a magic carpet'': An Interview with Vanessa Gebbie' [with Peter Blair], Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, 4.2 (2015).

‘“A pop star trapped in the body of a flasher”: An Interview with David Gaffney’ [with Peter Blair], Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, 4.1 (2014).

‘Critical Writing on William Cowper, 2011-2012’, Cowper and Newton Journal, 3 (2013).

‘“In This Dead-Dawning Century”: Ford Madox Ford’s Edwardian Poetry’, in The Edwardian Ford Madox Ford, ed. Laura Colombino and Max Saunders (Rodopi, 2013).

‘Critical Writing on William Cowper, 1980-2010’, Cowper and Newton Journal, 2 (2012).

‘Robert Lowell on Ford Madox Ford’, in Ford Madox Ford and America, ed. Sara Haslam and Seamus O’Malley (Rodopi, 2012).

‘From Cowper to Conrad: Authenticity at the End of the Century’, in Literature and Authenticity, 1780-1900: Essays in Honour of Vincent Newey, ed. Ashley Chantler, Michael Davies and Philip Shaw (Ashgate, 2011).

‘Ford Madox Ford and the Troubadours’, in Ford Madox Ford, France and Provence, ed. Dominique Lemarchal and Claire Davison-Pégon (Rodopi, 2011).

‘Ford Madox Ford’s Dedications’ [note], Ford Madox Ford Society Newsletter, 17 (2011).

‘Editing Ford Madox Ford’s Poetry’, in Ford Madox Ford, Modernist Magazines and Editing, ed. Jason Harding (Rodopi, 2010).

‘Literature 1901-1945', in Studying English Literature, ed. with David Higgins (Continuum, 2010).

‘Image-Music-Text: Ford and the Impressionist Lyric', in Ford Madox Ford and Visual Media, ed. Laura Colombino (Rodopi, 2009).

‘The Film of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker', in Textual Revisions: Readings in Literature and Film, ed. Brian Baker (Chester Academic Press, 2009).

‘Notes Towards the Definition of the Short-Short Story', in The Short Story, ed. Ailsa Cox (Cambridge Scholars, 2009).

‘"Paring His Fingernails"? The Textual Editor as Translator', in Translation Practices: Through Language to Culture, ed. with Carla Dente (Rodopi, 2009).

‘Another Crux in The Good Soldier’ [note], Ford Madox Ford Society Newsletter, 12 (2006).

‘Creating an Editorial Procedure for Non-Canonical Texts', in Textual Variations: The Impact of Textual Studies on Literary Studies, ed. Rebecca Styler and Joseph Pridmore (University of Leicester Press, 2006).

‘Against Oblivion: Ford Madox Ford’ [note], Ford Madox Ford Society Newsletter, 11 (2004).

‘Ford's Pre-War Poetry and the "Rotting City"', in Ford Madox Ford and the City, ed. Sara Haslam (Rodopi, 2005).

‘Angelic Metamorphoses: Metaphysics in Eastern Europe', in Proteus: The Language of Metamorphoses, ed. Carla Dente, George Ferzoco, Miriam Gill and Marina Spunta (Ashgate, 2005).

‘Editing: A Can of Worms’, The Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 3.2 (2002).

‘Echoes of Cowper in Frankenstein’ [note], Notes and Queries, 46.1 (Mar. 1999).

‘Poetry, Posture, Politics’ [note], Stand Magazine, 39 (1997).

Reviews

'Fred D. White, Writing Flash’, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 12.1 (Apr. 2019).

‘Michael Cocchiarale and Scott D. Emmert (eds), Critical Insights: Flash Fiction’, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 11.2 (Oct. 2018).

‘John Dufresne, Flash! Writing the Very Short Story’, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 11.1 (Apr. 2018).

‘Gary Duncan, You’re Not Supposed to Cry’, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 10.2 (Oct. 2017).

‘David Galef, Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook’, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 10.1 (Apr. 2017).

'Tom Hodgkinson and Dan Kieran (eds), The Book of Idle Pleasures', Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 6.2 (Oct. 2013).

'Sean Hill, Very Short Stories', Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 5.2 (Oct. 2012).

‘Alternative Romanticisms: Proceedings of the Grimma Conference 2001. Edited by Werner Huber and marie-Luise Egbert', Byron Journal, 36.1 (2008).

‘Romantic Metropolis: The Urban Scene of British Culture, 1780-1840. Edited by James Chandler and Kevin Gilmartin; Georgic Modernity and British Romanticism: Poetry and the Mediation of History. By Kevis Goodman', Byron Journal, 34.2 (2006).

‘The Cambridge Companion to Byron. Edited by Drummond Bone', Byron Journal, 34.1 (2006).

‘English Romanticism and the Celtic World. Edited by Gerard Carruthers and Alan Rawes', Byron Journal, 32.1 (2004).

‘Byron: The Erotic Liberal. By Jonathan David Gross; Mapping Male Sexuality: Nineteenth-Century England. Edited by Jay Losey and William D. Brewer', Byron Journal, 30 (2002).

‘Women's Gothic: From Clara Reeve to Mary Shelley. By E. J. Clery; Mary Wollstonecraft. By Jane Moore; Mary Shelley. By Miranda Seymour; Mary Shelley: A Literary Life. By John Williams; Mary Shelley in Her Times. Edited by Betty T. Bennett and Stuart Curran', Byron Journal, 29 (2001).

‘Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction. By Betty T. Bennett', Byron Journal, 28 (2000).

Online bibliographies

Creative writing

Ashley's books include:

Love and Other Problems [poetry and flash pamphlet] (2014).
He Is the Fire [novella] (2013).
Nana and Grape [illustrated poem for children] (2004).
In Praise of Paving [poetry collection] (2003).

He is currently working of a flash-fiction collection titled Cutting Away.

His flashes and poems have been published by a wide range of periodicals, including:

100 Word Story.
101 Words.
A Quiet Courage.
Anon.
Connotation Press.
Eclipse.
The Frogmore Papers.
London Magazine.
Long Exposure Magazine.
Orbis.
Poetry Monthly.
Postcard Shorts.
Rain Dog.
Red Ink.
Shadowtrain.
Spelk.
Vigil.
Visual Verse.

And the anthologies

Nothing Short Of: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story, ed. Grant Faulkner, Lynn Mundell and Beret Olsen (Outpost 19, 2018).

Flash Nonfiction Funny, ed. Tom Hazuka and Dinty W. Moore (Woodall Press, 2018).

Short on Sugar, High on Honey: Micro Love Stories, ed. Tom Hazuka and Mark Budman (Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, 2018).

Flash Fiction Festival One: A Collection of Very Short Fiction, ed. Jude Higgins, Santino Prinzi and Diane Simmons (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2017).

A Box of Stars Beneath the Bed: National Flash-Fiction Day 2016 Anthology, ed. Calum Kerr and Nuala Ní Conchúir (National Flash-Fiction Day and Gumbo Press, 2016).

For Chester Academic Press, Ashley has edited: Prize Flights (2004), Life Lines (2005) and An Anatomy of Chester (2007).

He has been on the judging panels of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge, Gladstone’s Library ‘Mystery Lady’ flash competition, Chester Library Flash Fiction Competition, and the National Flash Fiction Youth Competition.

The International Flash Fiction Association (IFFA), Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press

Ashley is founder and director (with Peter Blair) of the International Flash Fiction Association, which was established in 2015 to promote flash fiction around the world.

Ashley and Peter are also founders of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine - the world’s leading publisher of quality short-short stories and serious reviews of flash-fiction anthologies, collections, guidebooks, and critical studies - and Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, which publishes chapbooks and books.

Ashley collaborates with colleagues Peter Blair and Ian Seed on a major Impact Research Project: ‘Flash Fiction: Inspiring, Developing, and Publishing Writers Across the UK and Around the Globe’.

BA
MA
PhD
PGC Learning and Teaching (HE)
FHEA