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Fractured and Fused Prize

Fractured and Fused Prize

AWARDING $3,500 + PUBLICATION

JUDGED BY Sherrie Flick

September 15 to November 16, 2025

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One of our goals is to provide flash writers with new and inspiring prompts to fuel their imaginations and produce inventive and fresh stories. We’ve designed a new contest based on the theme of “Fractured and Fused.”
We invite writers to submit to the Fractured and Fused Prize from September 15, 2025, to November 16, 2025.
Objects break and people shatter, but what’s fractured may be fused. For this contest, we’re looking for stories that utilize the tension and conflict in something being fractured, or that revel in the catharsis of someone finding what makes them complete after a shattering. We always want stories with realistic and monstrous characters, who refuse stasis, who would rather act and be wrong than sit out their lives silently. If it’s broken, find a narrative that fixes it; if it’s perfect, find the fissures and show us the cracks. Let your character get into trouble and work to find a way out, to take on the fractures, to sew them into their new identities. Get messy with character, structure, language, and plot. Fractured and Fused, but for the better.
Guest Judge Sherrie Flick will choose three prize winners from a shortlist. We’re excited to offer the winner of this prize $3,000 and publication, while the second- and third-place winners will receive publication and $300 and $200, respectively. All entries will be considered for publication.
We hope this prompt inspires you to create something outside of your normal routine that allows you to tap into the wellspring of your creativity and helps you tell the story only you can tell.

Guest Judge: Sherrie Flick

What I’m looking for in a piece of flash fiction is strong compression, great characterization, and a succinct but well-rendered setting. I’m very interested in voice, and I’m very interested in the concept of time. I love to be surprised, and I’m the biggest fan of excellent sentences and perfect titles. I’m not so much interested in experimentation for experimentation’s sake, but again, I love to be surprised. Bring me your sharp edges and uncovered truths. Let them resonate so that emotion rises up from it all.

Sherrie Flick’s recent awards include a 2023 Creative Development Grant from the Heinz Endowments and a Writing Pittsburgh fellowship from the Creative Nonfiction Foundation. She is the author of three story collections: I Have Not Considered Consequences, Thank Your Lucky Stars, and Whiskey, Etc., all published by Autumn House Press. Her debut essay collection, Homing: Instincts of a Rustbelt Feminist, was published by University of Nebraska Press. The essay “All in the Family: Waldo and His Ghosts” was listed as notable in The Best American Essays 2023. She is co-editor for the Norton anthology Flash Fiction America, served as series editor for The Best Small Fictions 2018, and is a senior editor at SmokeLong Quarterly. She served as the 2025 McGee Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at Davidson College and recently joined the fiction faculty for West Virginia Wesleyan’s low-res MFA. She lives in Pittsburgh.

The deadline for entry is November 16, 2025. We will announce the shortlist within twelve to fourteen weeks of the contest’s close. All writers will be notified when the results are final.

OPTIONAL EDITORIAL FEEDBACK:
You may choose to receive editorial feedback on your piece. In your cover letter, please let us know which piece you’d like your editor to focus their review on. We will provide a two-page global letter discussing the strengths of the writing and the recommended focus for revision. Our aim is to make our comments actionable and encouraging. These letters are written by editors and staff readers of Fractured Lit. Should your story win, no feedback will be offered, and your fee will be refunded.

Guidelines
    • Your $20 reading fee allows up to two stories of 1,000 words or fewer each per entry—if submitting two stories, please put them both in a SINGLE document.
    • We allow multiple submissions—each set of two flash/sudden stories should have a separate submission accompanied by a reading fee.
    • Writers from historically marginalized groups will be able to submit for free until we reach our cap of 25 free submissions. No additional fee waivers will be granted.
    • Please send flash micro fiction only—1,000 word count maximum per story.
    • We only consider unpublished work for contests—we do not review reprints, including self-published work (even on blogs and social media). Reprints will be automatically disqualified.
    • Simultaneous submissions are okay—please notify us and withdraw your entry if you find another home for your writing.
    • All entries will also be considered for publication in Fractured Lit.
    • Double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12 (or larger if needed).
    • Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history (if applicable). In the cover letter, please include content warnings as well, to safeguard our reading staff.
    • We only read work in English, though some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
    • We do not read anonymous submissions. However, shortlisted stories are sent anonymously to the judge.
    • All AI-generated work will be automatically disqualified.

Some Submittable Hot Tips:

Please be sure to whitelist/add this address to your contacts, so notifications do not get filtered as spam/junk: notifications@email.submittable.com

If you realize you sent the wrong version of your piece: It happens. Please DO NOT withdraw the piece and resubmit. Submittable collects a nonrefundable fee each time. Please DO message us from within the submission to request that we open the entry for editing, which will allow you to fix everything from typos in your cover letter to uploading a new draft. The only time we will not allow a change is if the piece is already under review by a reader.

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