This year, we were thrilled to receive 476 entries to the National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Competition.
Our judges, Tim Craig, Amanda Huggins, Fiona J Mackintosh and Johanna Robinson had the difficult job of whittling down the stories to a shortlist of 25. 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 a100 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 flash below, feel free to tell everyone, but as judging is still in place please do not reveal your title.
Now, without further delay, our 25 shortlisted stories are:
- Afterbirth
- All My Lovers
- Arthur Rimbaud speaks to his shadow
- Curing the Children
- Curriculum
- Earthbound
- In the Chinese Section
- Lovers, Brief Tasting Notes
- Manicure
- Omid (Farsi اُمید: a given name, meaning hope)
- Reds
- Shouting in Silence
- Some Other Yellow Brick Road
- Sophie’s Flower
- The Boy in the Leopard Skin Shorts
- The Counting Game
- The Little Charnel House
- The Nature of Boys at Dawn
- The Return of a Native
- The Song of the Thieving Magpie
- The Tsar
- Undress
- Why, Mum?
- You Left Without Saying Hello or Goodbye
- The Fate of Small Creatures