Kelly Pedro is the winner of the CRAFT Literary Flash Prose Prize and the recipient of the 2024 SmokeLong Fellowship for Emerging Writers. She’s based in Ontario, Canada and writes fiction, flash, book reviews and creative non-fiction.
She’s an experienced writing teacher and has taught journalism and creative writing at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph. She’s currently an MFA candidate in the fiction stream at the University of Guelph and is writing a novel.
Fiction
“Preserves” — Tahoma Literary Review — forthcoming, Issue 29 (Summer 2025)
“Pineapples” — jmww — forthcoming June 18, 2025
“Fetch” — FlashFlood Journal — forthcoming June 14, 2025
“Inheritance” — Here and Elsewhere: An Anthology of Portuguese Canadian Writers — Arquipélago Press
“Pareidolia” — CRAFT Literary — April, 2025 (winner of the Flash Prose Prize)
“Drifting” — Moon City Review — Spring 2025
“Wax Figures” — Ghost Parachute — November, 2024
“Sibling Rivalry” — 100-Word Story — July, 2024
“We Were Giants” — Fictive Dream — May, 2024
“Atomic Habits” — Flash Frog — April, 2024
“In A Parallel Universe, We Live In A Snow Globe” — Bending Genres — Issue 36, December 2023
“Chicken Blood Rice” — Archetype Literary — Summer 2023
“Linguistics” — New Flash Fiction Review — May, 2023
“The Best Thing You Remember” — Cleaver Magazine — Issue 41, Spring 2023
“The Children’s Book of Questions and Answers” — The New Quarterly — Issue 164, Fall 2022
“People Are Not That Honest” — PRISM international — Issue 60.4, Summer 2022
Interviews & Reviews
“Smoke & Mirrors with Banchiwosen Woldeyesus” (Interview) — SmokeLong Quarterly, Issue 86
“Smoke & Mirrors with H.J. Shephard” (Interview) — SmokeLong Quarterly, Issue 84
“Reconciling the Past: Grief and Transformation in Holly Ringland’s The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding” — West Trade Review February, 2024
“Exploring Shifting Identities in George Choundas' Until All You See Is Sky” — West Trade Review April, 2023
“What is Kelly Pedro reading?” (Review of Black Dove by Colin McAdam) — The New Quarterly December, 2022
“Catton’s lofty tale an effortless read” — The Sarnia Observer (originally in The London Free Press) November, 2013
Awards, Honours & Invited Readings
Shortlisted, SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction, 2025
Winner, CRAFT Literary 2024 Flash Prose Prize, judged by Meg Pokrass
Honourable Mention, gritLIT Flash Fiction Contest, April 2024, judged by Kerry Clare
Finalist, March Micro Marathon Competition, March 2024 — SmokeLong Quarterly
Writing Fellow, 2024 — SmokeLong Quarterly
Longlisted, SmokeLong Workshop Prize, 2023 — SmokeLong Quarterly
Nominated for PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, 2022 — PRISM international
Shortlisted, Fiction Prize 2022, judged by Shashi Bhat — Room
Finalist, Phyllis Grant Zellmer Prize for Fiction, 2022 — West Trade Review
Reading: KW Bookfest, Waterloo Public Square, Waterloo, Ontario, May 31, 2025
Reading: Student Literary Cabaret, Toronto International Festival of Authors, Toronto, Ontario, September 21, 2024
Reading: Riverside Reading Series, Paris, Ontario, March 25, 2023
Reading: Emerging Writers’ Reading Series, hosted online, Oct. 17, 2022
Toronto launch of Here and Elsewhere: An Anthology of Portuguese Canadian Writers on June 19 at The Peach Gallery, 722 College Street. Event starts at 6:30 p.m.