Kelly Pedro is the recipient of the 2024 SmokeLong Fellowship for Emerging Writers. She’s based in Ontario, Canada and writes fiction, flash fiction, book reviews and creative non-fiction. She’s currently querying a linked short story collection and revising a novel.
Fiction
“Drifting” — Moon City Review (forthcoming, 2025)
“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 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
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
Riverside Reading Series, Paris, Ontario, March 25, 2023
Emerging Writers’ Reading Series, hosted online, Oct. 17, 2022