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 an MFA Candidate in the creative writing fiction stream at the University of Guelph.
Fiction
“Drifting” — Moon City Review (forthcoming, 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 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
Student Literary Cabaret, Toronto International Festival of Authors, Toronto, Ontario, September 21, 2024
Riverside Reading Series, Paris, Ontario, March 25, 2023
Emerging Writers’ Reading Series, hosted online, Oct. 17, 2022