This year, we were thrilled to receive 421 entries to the National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Competition.
Our judges, Christopher Allen, Joanna Campbell, Tracy Fells and Damhnait Monaghan had the difficult job of whittling down the stories to a shortlist of 27. This was no easy task and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and for the speed and conscientiousness with which they carried out the judging.
It isn’t easy to tell a story in a 100 words, yet we were blown away by the variety of themes, subjects and styles we saw in the submissions. Thank you to everyone who sent in their work; we appreciated the chance to read your flash.
If you see your micro below, please feel free to shout about it, but as judging is still taking place, do not reveal your title at this stage.
Now, without further delay, our 27 shortlisted stories are:
- A Pocketful of Cookies
- birds of paradise (see also: dumb, stupid birds)
- depression(s)
- Everyone knows Darcie’s going to die on her knees waiting for him to say it
- Everything That We Once Were
- Fails to Understand Requirements
- fat caterpillars
- First Time Lucky
- Friday Afternoon
- Grandma’s Book of Snakes, Chapter 1
- Here the stream floods
- How to Prepare Supper for an Absent Lover
- Jam is Thicker Than Water
- Just a Word to the Snowblind
- Marszałkowska Street, Warsaw, 1993
- Obviously I’ll help him tie his laces
- Red Light Green Light
- Richter Scale 8
- Siren’s Song ("They wanted it, you know…")
- The Accountant Goes to the Awards Night
- The Bridge
- Things We Learned About Sarajevo During the Siege
- We Need to Grow Fins
- What She Would Rather Tell a Stranger
- When Grief Auditions
- When the robins contemplate their empty nest
- Why my mother-in-law sits in the corner sucking leftover chicken bones
Thank you again to everyone who submitted, and good luck to everyone who made the shortlist!