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Category: Microfiction Competition

Published on Leave a comment on National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Shortlist

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

Published on Leave a comment on 2022 NFFD Microfiction Competiton Results

And the results are in!

Huge congratulations to our winning and highly commended authors (listed alphabetically by story title):

  • First Prize: 'Just a Word to the Snowblind' by Jan Kaneen
  • Second Prize: 'Why my mother-in-law sits in the corner sucking leftover chicken bones' by Marie Gethins
  • Third Prize: 'Marszałkowska Street, Warsaw, 1993' by Sherry Morris
  • Third Prize: 'Things We Learned About Sarajevo During the Siege' by Emma Phillips
  • Highly Commended: 'birds of paradise (see also: dumb, stupid birds)' by Pippa O’Driscoll
  • Highly Commended: 'Fat Caterpillars' by Pippa O’Driscoll
  • Highly Commended: 'Here the Stream Floods' by Andrew Deathe
  • Highly Commended: 'Richter Scale 8' by Slawka G. Scarso
  • Highly Commended: 'Siren’s Song' by Hannah Whiteoak
  • Highly Commended: 'When Grief Auditions' by Tommy Dean

The winning and highly commended stories can be read here and will appear in the 2022 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology.

Thank you again to our four judges, Christopher Allen, Joanna Campbell, Tracy Fells and Damhnait Monaghan.  Their job this year was extremely difficult, with an extra round of voting required to reach our final ten. In the end, they were unable to separate the two stories vying for third place and we felt the fairest thing would be to award two third place prizes.

Congratulations again to all our prize-winning and highly commended authors, and to all those who were shortlisted. And, a big thank you to everyone who entered this year’s competition and trusted us with their stories.

Published on Leave a comment on National Flash Fiction Day 2022 Microfiction Competition Shortlist

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!

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Published on 1 Comment on 2022 NFFD Anthology & Microfiction Competition: we are open for submissions!

National Flash Fiction Day is OPEN for submissions!

It's that time of year again; National Flash Fiction Day is OPEN for submissions to the 2022 NFFD Anthology & Microfiction Competition! We'll be reading submissions from 1 December to 15 February.

Please note that these are two separate projects run by two separate teams with two separate submissions processes.  You can read about both below....

NFFD Anthology

The theme of this year's National Flash Fiction Day Anthology is FREEDOM.

What do you think of when you think of freedom? Freedom from, freedom to do, freedom to be?

Does your mind go to prisons and zoos or to protest marches and politics or to leaving the office on a Friday, packing a bag and heading off on holiday? Or is it simply freedom of thought? Or is it George Michael belting out that classic? But maybe you have a very different view of freedom; go on, surprise us!

Feel free to interpret FREEDOM however you wish, in 500 words or fewer.  You do not need to include the word 'freedom' in your piece.

This year, we are thrilled to announce that we will be awarding two Editor's Choice Awards.  The 2022 editors, Karen Jones and Chris Drew will each select one piece from the accepted stories to receive a £50 prize.  Find out more about our editors here and keep an eye on our news feed for their interviews early next year.

You can read our full anthology submission guidelines here or go straight to our submission manager, Duosuma, where you can submit your work.

NFFD Microfiction Competition

We're reading flash of up to 100 words on any theme.

This year, we're offering:

  • £150 for first place
  • £100 for second place
  • £50 for third place
  • seven awards of £20 for highly commended pieces.

All winning and highly commended flash will be published both online and in the NFFD print anthology.

Our judges are that Christopher Allen, Joanna Campbell, Tracy Fells, and Damhnait Monaghan.  We'll be posting interviews with our judges in the new year, but in the meantime, you can read more about our panel here.

We are not able to consider simultaneous submissions this year, so please don't send us work that will be under consideration elsewhere before we announce the  results on or before 15 March 2022.  Our full competition guidelines and details of how to submit by email can be found here.

 

Our Anthology and Microfiction teams look forward to reading your work!