More info on Fractured Lit’s Ghosts, Fables, and Fairytales Prize coming soon! Stay tuned for details on submissions, guidelines, prizes, and key dates. Full information will be shared shortly, so please check back for the official announcement and important updates.
Fractured Lit
“I believe in flash, and I especially believe in microfiction”: An Interview with Melissa Llanes Brownlee
by Dawn Tasaka Steffler Melissa Llanes Brownlee’s Bitter Over Sweet was the 2023 winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards. This accomplishment was huge for Melissa, but also for the Flash community. As...
2025 Writing Micros with Urgency and Immediacy Generative Class
Join us for a 90-minute generative writing session focused on writing microfiction! Fractured Lit is excited to bring this class back to our submitters to help them write exciting and fresh micros they can enter into our yearly Micro Prize.
Editor in Chief Tommy Dean has developed an inspiring and welcoming class where participants can learn craft moves from excellent model texts and write to multifaceted writing prompts. Past students have published stories inspired by Tommy’s prompts in today’s best flash fiction literary magazines.
Fractured Lit Flash Fiction OPEN | Judged by Gwen Kirby | Shortlist
This shortlist didn't come any easier to decide as we received so many great stories with unique premises and characters! There was a great response to this contest, and so many great stories that it took us longer...
Fractured Lit Flash Fiction OPEN | Judged by Gwen Kirby | Longlist
Writers and Readers! We've been spending our time this summer and into the fall reading for this contest, and we've finally set our longlist! There was a great response to this contest, and so many great stories that...
Too Sick, Too Silly, Too Gross: An Interview with Caren Beilin
Caren Beilin’s new book, Sea, Poison, is a short, sprawling novel, remarkably complex in its brevity and wonderfully playful despite the heaviness of its themes. It tells the story of Cumin Baleen, a writer living in a...
fractured & fused prize: September 14 to November 16, 2025
We’ve designed a new contest based on the theme of “Fractured and Fused.”
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.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.
Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize Judged by Dan Chaon Winners and Shortlist
We're so excited to announce the winners of this contest! Judge Dan Chaon had a difficult decision, but narrowed it down to three winners. Congratulations to everyone on the shortlist. This was a fierce competition...
Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize Judged by Dan Chaon Longlist
Congrats to all of our long-listed writers! Your story stood out to our readers and editors, and we're excited to continue reading to find the perfect shortlist to send to Judge Dan Chaon! Longlist: Temptation a white...
2025 micro prize: December 1, 2025 to February 1, 2026
More info on Fractured Lit’s Micro Prize coming soon! Stay tuned for details on submissions, guidelines, prizes, and key dates. Full information will be shared shortly, so please check back for the official announcement and important updates.
2025 elsewhere prize: CLOSED
We want those stories that make a mystery out of the ordinary, that make the rational out of the mystical. We’re thrilled to partner with Guest Judge Tara Campbell, who will choose three prize winners from a shortlist.
2025 ghost, fable, and fairy tales prize: CLOSED
We’re looking for stories that use flash fiction’s unique use of brevity and lyricism to create new twists on these familiar traditions. We want stories that take a slant approach, that create and illuminate the shadows, that awaken us to new ways of looking at our…











