This year, we were thrilled to receive 551 entries to the National Flash Fiction Day Micro Fiction Competition.
Our judges, Sudha Balagopal, Rebecca Field, James Montogomery and Sherry Morris had the difficult job of whittling down the stories to a shortlist of 26. 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 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 26 shortlisted stories are:
- 21st December 1916
- 9,125 days of sambhar, because like Biryani, Sambhar is also an emotion
- A Boat Afloat
- A Civil War
- Any Beach He’s There
- Bible Outtake #1: “A Rabies Scare in West Virginia Turns Out to Be Raccoons Drunk on Fermented Crab Apples”
- Bubbles
- Caleb
- Camera in the Tehran Metro
- Coal, Fire, Steam – a Proper Man’s Life
- DE-SPIC-ABLE
- Doing the Mexican Wave at the Village Hall Watch Party
- Feral
- Flotsam
- In The Hood
- Jackpot
- Lunch Lady
- Rambling
- Shopping Trolley, Unreturned
- The Aquarium
- The Colour of Grief
- The Last Summer
- To buy a groom
- Too Late for Lullabies
- Us Minus You
- Why I Threw Up on the Whale Watching Tour