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Blackberry Pie

Blackberry Pie

Cora couldn’t explain why she was baking a blackberry pie at three in the morning, even though she hated blackberry pie. She couldn’t explain why she dug into every cardboard box, searching for all her kitchen tools. She couldn’t explain why she tossed everything else aside, leaving the apartment a devastating mess.

Maybe because she’d just moved in a week ago.

Maybe because her mom unexpectedly passed a few days later.

Maybe because she’d spent all day planning her estranged mom’s funeral, because her dad was hysterical from the pain.

Maybe it was all of the above.

Cora couldn’t explain why she’d spent the last two hours looking for her mom’s old handwritten cookbook, frantically tearing through every box in a grief-fueled rage. She couldn’t explain why she’d never thrown it out, even though she hadn’t used it in almost a decade. She couldn’t explain why she kept it, even when her mom cut ties with her after Cora finally had the courage to come out.

Maybe because she couldn’t remember if the little hardcover notebook had a pink or red rose on the front.

Maybe because when she’d called all her mom’s contacts to notify them, she’d barely recognized half the names.

Maybe because she needed to ensure that page twenty-two wasn’t all made up in her head.

Maybe it was all of the above.

Cora couldn’t explain why her eyes welled up with tears when she found the cookbook at the bottom of the very last box. She couldn’t explain why her heart broke to see the cover stained and scratched, the pages stuck together and torn.

Maybe because it was the only thing she had left of her.

Maybe because of all the strangers who told her how blessed they were to know her mom.

Maybe because all her dad’s efforts to reunite them had gone to waste.

Maybe it was all of the above.

Cora couldn’t explain why she made the pie with the utmost care – carefully measuring each ingredient and following the recipe word for word. She couldn’t explain why she made the crust from scratch and checked every berry for imperfections. She couldn’t explain why she painstakingly latticed the dough on top, adjusting until it was absolutely perfect.

Maybe because page twenty-two had Cora’s Favorite – Mom’s Blackberry Pie written at the top in her mom’s beautiful cursive.

Maybe because, as the pie baked, she realized that not all their memories were painful ones.

Maybe because she remembered early mornings waking up to blueberry pancakes and late nights licking the brownie spoon.

Maybe because she never picked up any of her mom’s calls that had started coming in just last month.

Maybe it was all of the above.

Cora couldn’t explain why she watched the sun rise as she waited for the pie to cool. She couldn’t explain why her vision blurred when she realized it looked just like her mom’s in the golden morning glow. She couldn’t explain why she began to sob after taking the first bite.

Maybe because it was so delicious – tart, gooey, and warm.

Maybe because, long ago, she used to call her mom her best friend.

Maybe because she feared her mom had died, wondering if she still loved her.

Maybe because she never got the chance to tell she did.

Maybe because she realized her mom never stopped loving her either.

Maybe it was all of the above.

 

Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize  Judged by Dan Chaon Longlist

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:

  1. Temptation
  2. a white horse runs without its rider
  3. The Bureau of Exiled Ghosts
  4. Closed for the Season
  5. The Walker at Night
  6. Wolfie
  7. Bakunawa and the Seven Sisters
  8. Pinning a Soul
  9. Windows into the Solar System
  10. In the Hedgerow
  11. Reckoner
  12. Disenchanted
  13. Out of the Woods
  14. Just Right
  15. Kelpie
  16. Triple Body Walking
  17. Little Red Cap
  18. Pip
  19. Mercy
  20. Song
  21. The Ethics of Hematophagy
  22. What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
  23. Some Vision of Horror
  24. My Mother the Sea
  25. The Hand
  26. Zen Lyrics for the Carhartt Guru
  27. Mother and Daughter
  28. Seed of the Starchild
  29. The Host
  30. Immortal Aubade
  31. The Ghost of No Regret
  32. Almalette
  33. The Tea Witch and the Heartless Gentleman
  34. The Return
  35. A Curse For The Merrow
  36. The 6:42 A.M. Caltrain from San Jose
  37. The Invisible Wild
  38. The Candles and Safe
  39. OWL FANTASMA
  40. One More Day to Stay
2025 micro prize: December 1, 2025 to February 1, 2026

2025 micro prize: December 1, 2025 to February 1, 2026

Elsewhere Prize

AWARDING $3,500 + PUBLICATION

JUDGED BY JEMIMAH WEI

July 17 to September 14, 2025

Ready for the opportunity to turn reality on its head? We’re bringing back our Elsewhere Prize! We want those stories that make a mystery out of the ordinary, that make the rational out of the mystical. Play with the edge of genre, but make sure your character is still the star of your story. From July 17 to September 14, 2025, we welcome submissions to the Fractured Lit Elsewhere Prize.
“We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes.”
Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth
For this contest, we want writers to show us the forgotten, the hidden, the otherworldly. We want your stories to take us on journeys and adventures in the worlds only you can create; whether you make the familiar strange or the strange familiar, we know you will take us elsewhere. Be our tour guide through reality and beyond.
For this prize, we are accepting micro and flash fiction, so we’re inviting submissions of stories from 100-1,000 words.
We’re thrilled to partner with Guest Judge Jemimah Wei, who 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.
Good luck and happy writing!

Guest Judge: Jemimah Wei

In flash I seek the crystallized vision of a writer’s imagination — prose that understands intimately the tides of boldness and restraint, that isn’t afraid to venture into uncharted realities, emotions, and psychologies, yet never loses the thread of their story’s heart. Give me hitherto unmapped routes to familiar emotion, sentences that clarify and surprise, and a sense of the writer’s vision within and beyond the story’s limits.

Jemimah Wei was born and raised in Singapore and is now based between Singapore and the United States. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, a winner of the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize, and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University. Her highly anticipated debut novel, THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER, is a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, and an IndieNext pick. It debuted at #1 on the Straits Times Bestseller list and has been named a best book of Spring 2025 by Harper’s BazaarElleVogueApple Books, and more. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore’s National Arts Council, Hemingway House, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Writers in Paradise, Jemimah’s writing has appeared in JoylandGuernica, and Narrative, amongst others. She is presently a senior prose editor at The Massachusetts Review.

The deadline for entry is September 14, 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.

2025 micro class with Tommy Dean: November 1 to November 30, 2025

2025 micro class with Tommy Dean: November 1 to November 30, 2025

Elsewhere Prize

AWARDING $3,500 + PUBLICATION

JUDGED BY JEMIMAH WEI

July 17 to September 14, 2025

Ready for the opportunity to turn reality on its head? We’re bringing back our Elsewhere Prize! We want those stories that make a mystery out of the ordinary, that make the rational out of the mystical. Play with the edge of genre, but make sure your character is still the star of your story. From July 17 to September 14, 2025, we welcome submissions to the Fractured Lit Elsewhere Prize.
“We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes.”
Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth
For this contest, we want writers to show us the forgotten, the hidden, the otherworldly. We want your stories to take us on journeys and adventures in the worlds only you can create; whether you make the familiar strange or the strange familiar, we know you will take us elsewhere. Be our tour guide through reality and beyond.
For this prize, we are accepting micro and flash fiction, so we’re inviting submissions of stories from 100-1,000 words.
We’re thrilled to partner with Guest Judge Jemimah Wei, who 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.
Good luck and happy writing!

Guest Judge: Jemimah Wei

In flash I seek the crystallized vision of a writer’s imagination — prose that understands intimately the tides of boldness and restraint, that isn’t afraid to venture into uncharted realities, emotions, and psychologies, yet never loses the thread of their story’s heart. Give me hitherto unmapped routes to familiar emotion, sentences that clarify and surprise, and a sense of the writer’s vision within and beyond the story’s limits.

Jemimah Wei was born and raised in Singapore and is now based between Singapore and the United States. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, a winner of the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize, and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University. Her highly anticipated debut novel, THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER, is a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, and an IndieNext pick. It debuted at #1 on the Straits Times Bestseller list and has been named a best book of Spring 2025 by Harper’s BazaarElleVogueApple Books, and more. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore’s National Arts Council, Hemingway House, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Writers in Paradise, Jemimah’s writing has appeared in JoylandGuernica, and Narrative, amongst others. She is presently a senior prose editor at The Massachusetts Review.

The deadline for entry is September 14, 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.

2025 micro prize: December 1, 2025 to February 1, 2026

2025 fracture & fuse prize: September 14 to November 16, 2025

Elsewhere Prize

AWARDING $3,500 + PUBLICATION

JUDGED BY JEMIMAH WEI

July 17 to September 14, 2025

Ready for the opportunity to turn reality on its head? We’re bringing back our Elsewhere Prize! We want those stories that make a mystery out of the ordinary, that make the rational out of the mystical. Play with the edge of genre, but make sure your character is still the star of your story. From July 17 to September 14, 2025, we welcome submissions to the Fractured Lit Elsewhere Prize.
“We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes.”
Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth
For this contest, we want writers to show us the forgotten, the hidden, the otherworldly. We want your stories to take us on journeys and adventures in the worlds only you can create; whether you make the familiar strange or the strange familiar, we know you will take us elsewhere. Be our tour guide through reality and beyond.
For this prize, we are accepting micro and flash fiction, so we’re inviting submissions of stories from 100-1,000 words.
We’re thrilled to partner with Guest Judge Jemimah Wei, who 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.
Good luck and happy writing!

Guest Judge: Jemimah Wei

In flash I seek the crystallized vision of a writer’s imagination — prose that understands intimately the tides of boldness and restraint, that isn’t afraid to venture into uncharted realities, emotions, and psychologies, yet never loses the thread of their story’s heart. Give me hitherto unmapped routes to familiar emotion, sentences that clarify and surprise, and a sense of the writer’s vision within and beyond the story’s limits.

Jemimah Wei was born and raised in Singapore and is now based between Singapore and the United States. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, a winner of the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize, and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University. Her highly anticipated debut novel, THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER, is a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, and an IndieNext pick. It debuted at #1 on the Straits Times Bestseller list and has been named a best book of Spring 2025 by Harper’s BazaarElleVogueApple Books, and more. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore’s National Arts Council, Hemingway House, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Writers in Paradise, Jemimah’s writing has appeared in JoylandGuernica, and Narrative, amongst others. She is presently a senior prose editor at The Massachusetts Review.

The deadline for entry is September 14, 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.

2025 elsewhere prize: July 17 to September 14, 2025

2025 elsewhere prize: July 17 to September 14, 2025

Elsewhere Prize

AWARDING $3,500 + PUBLICATION

JUDGED BY JEMIMAH WEI

July 17 to September 14, 2025

Ready for the opportunity to turn reality on its head? We’re bringing back our Elsewhere Prize! We want those stories that make a mystery out of the ordinary, that make the rational out of the mystical. Play with the edge of genre, but make sure your character is still the star of your story. From July 17 to September 14, 2025, we welcome submissions to the Fractured Lit Elsewhere Prize.
“We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes.”
Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth
For this contest, we want writers to show us the forgotten, the hidden, the otherworldly. We want your stories to take us on journeys and adventures in the worlds only you can create; whether you make the familiar strange or the strange familiar, we know you will take us elsewhere. Be our tour guide through reality and beyond.
For this prize, we are accepting micro and flash fiction, so we’re inviting submissions of stories from 100-1,000 words.
We’re thrilled to partner with Guest Judge Jemimah Wei, who 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.
Good luck and happy writing!

Guest Judge: Jemimah Wei

In flash I seek the crystallized vision of a writer’s imagination — prose that understands intimately the tides of boldness and restraint, that isn’t afraid to venture into uncharted realities, emotions, and psychologies, yet never loses the thread of their story’s heart. Give me hitherto unmapped routes to familiar emotion, sentences that clarify and surprise, and a sense of the writer’s vision within and beyond the story’s limits.

Jemimah Wei was born and raised in Singapore and is now based between Singapore and the United States. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, a winner of the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize, and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a Felipe P. De Alba Fellow at Columbia University. Her highly anticipated debut novel, THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER, is a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, and an IndieNext pick. It debuted at #1 on the Straits Times Bestseller list and has been named a best book of Spring 2025 by Harper’s BazaarElleVogueApple Books, and more. A recipient of awards and fellowships from Singapore’s National Arts Council, Hemingway House, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Writers in Paradise, Jemimah’s writing has appeared in JoylandGuernica, and Narrative, amongst others. She is presently a senior prose editor at The Massachusetts Review.

The deadline for entry is September 14, 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.

2025 ghost, fable, and fairy tales prize: CLOSED

2025 ghost, fable, and fairy tales prize: CLOSED

Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize

AWARDING $3,500 + PUBLICATION

JUDGED BY DAN CHAON

February 15, 2025, to April 13, 2025

We invite writers to submit to the Fractured Lit Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize from February 15, 2024, to April 13, 2025.

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 past and future; stories that scare us with their resonance, their attention to detail, and characters who get in and out of trouble. Don’t be afraid to use parts and pieces of all of these storytelling tropes and traditions in order to Frankenstein something never before seen. This contest produces some of the most imaginative submissions each year, and we look forward to reading your creations!

Guest Judge Dan Chaon 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 place winners will receive publication and $300 and $200, respectively. All entries will be considered for publication.

 

Guest Judge: Dan Chaon

To me, flash fiction is not just a very short story or a poem in prose. It’s a unique form in its own right. Perhaps the closest corollaries are the koan and the riddle and the joke. Or the stiletto. The best flash fiction pierces you—it’s a stab, a slap, visceral and shocking, though “flash” doesn’t necessarily mean “flashy.” It may be as quiet as a barely exhaled final breath.

Dan Chaon’s newest book, One of Us, is forthcoming in October 2025. He is the author of seven previous books, including Ill Will, a national bestseller, named one of the ten best books of 2017 by Publishers Weekly. Other works include the short story collection Stay Awake (2012), a finalist for the Story Prize; the New York Times Best Seller Await Your Reply; and Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award. Chaon’s fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize anthologies, and the O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Cleveland.

The deadline for entry is April 13, 2025. We will announce the shortlist within 10-12 weeks of the contest’s close. All writers will be notified when the results are in. 

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 micro/flash 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 micro/flash 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.
    • Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work. For this contest, 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

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fractured lit anthology 5 prize: CLOSED

fractured lit anthology 5 prize: CLOSED

Anthology 5

AWARDING $3,500 + PUBLICATION

JUDGED BY TARA ISABEL ZAMBRANO

December 1, 2025, to February 2, 2025

Time to send us your freshest, most exciting flash fiction! We’re excited to host our fifth anthology contest. Every year, writers send us their best flash fiction, and they never disappoint! This year, we want your most arresting stories, those that shine the light on the dark parts of our worlds and your character’s psyches. Give us the flash that only you could write with characters only you could create, who fill the page with resonating actions and good trouble, the characters who find themselves through bad choices and resolute actions. Fill our queue with sparkling language, original metaphors, and sparkling sentences that transport us into the narratives we’ve always wished to read but haven’t found yet!

Our fifth anthology will showcase todays best flash fiction writers. $5,000 will be awarded between 20 winners. Submissions are open for the Fractured Lit Anthology Volume 5 from December 01 to February 02, 2025.

This year, stories will be selected by Guest Judge Tara Isabel Zambrano, who will choose 20 winners from a shortlist of 40 stories.

We’re excited to assemble another anthology of fiercely original stories of all flash fiction lengths and topics. Surprise us with your brevity and originality, and we’ll make sure your story is read far and wide!

Guest Judge: Tara Isabel Zambrano

Whether your title is several lines long or a word, it should be representative of the story. Get me hooked from the first line. Build a world inside your thousand words. Use precise, sensory details, unreliable characters, and movement. Use fresh insights into relationships and original metaphors. Whats at risk? Is it enough to make someone care? Go weird, weirder, but don’t let the story be all about shock and surprise and language just for the sake of it. The story should connect at an emotional level. Don’t give me easy answers but help me understand the nature of the conflict, the struggle. When it’s finished, it should make me want to read it again and discover something new, even if it’s a subtle detail.

Tara Isabel Zambrano is an award-winning writer of South Asian descent. Her multigenre writing has appeared in Tin House OnlineElectric LiteratureSoutheast ReviewPost Road, and other notable venues. She is also the author of a short story collection, Ruined a Little When We Are Born (Dzanc Books, 2024) and Death, Desire, and Other Destinations (Okay Donkey Books, 2020). Find out more at https://taraisabelzambrano.com/ and @tizambrano on Instagram.

The deadline for entry is February 02, 2025. We will announce the shortlist within 10-12 weeks of the contest’s close. All writers will be notified when the results are in. The book is published 10-12 months after the announcement of the winners.

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 micro/flash 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. (This opportunity is now closed.)
    • Please send micro/flash 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.
    • Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work. For this contest, 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.

Gods & Monsters Challenge Winner & Shortlist

Gods & Monsters Challenge Winner & Shortlist

And the winner is…

What the Bones Remember by Melinda Li

We loved this story from its opening line. The way it plays with paradox creates this liminal space between a god and their people. The story had a great structure with the god returning in new forms, each one an escalation from the one before it. This story, though traditional, drew us in, kept us reading with intrigue, and captured our imaginations! And we love it when a last line echoes in our minds long after reading the story!

We’re also publishing China Plate by John Hanley

Shortlist:

  1. It’s a Monster, Baby by Caroline Beuley
  2. Return by Morgan Cross
  3. Barnacle Moon by Dorit d’Scarlett
  4. Tokoloshe by Jessica Evans
  5. From Clay, God by James R. Frohman
  6. China Plate by John Hanley
  7. What the Bones Remember by Melinda Li
  8. Silence of Mothers (Selene Speaks) by Becky Petterson
  9. The one with the birds… by Robert Taylor
  10. Chimei by Wanying Zhang

 

Weed

Weed

The sky went dark on a Monday, pushing the straining sun behind a curtain of smoke, creating an opaque swath of grayness where light would catch – lost – never making it to the retina, never lighting up the things we had been used to seeing: tree leaves in the sunlight, a glint off the lake, a squinty view of a deer through the trees, the forest floor spotted and daring looking, and so, in this relative darkness – thick and vast – we see with our hands out in front of us, using them as a guide, a buffer, a shield against a stumble over the rake in the yard, the log in the road, the slick of wet leaves on the front path, our own feet, ourselves – clumsy and fumbling as ever.

It’s only been a week since the smoke and its particles put up a blanket across the sky. It’s only been a week and, already, I struggle to recall the exact way the sun used to glow through the cluster of birches off the back side of the house, the dark woods backlit behind them. The smoke and the flames have been on the news for months, years. The fires continue to burn and move, overtaking everything, and while they have never been where we are, this time, their effect is inescapable, and one day we woke up to a sky unchanged by morning light, and we wondered but didn’t speak our questions out loud. The next night we stayed up to watch the sky, absent of stars, never turning into morning. Then the following night, we stood on the back stoop, waiting to see one single star. Hank grabbed his headlamp and said, “Go to bed. I’ll be up in a bit.” I watched him from the bedroom window, on all fours, his face close to the ground, studying something, the brightest setting shining from his forehead. I thought I heard a yell in the dark, but I went to bed anyway. 

The next morning, I woke to his side of the bed undisturbed and the truck gone from the garage, and now, the sky is dark and the house is empty except for me and the dog, and I work at remembering the way the street looked with the light of an unshadowed sun shining through the branches onto the dirt, brightening the way ahead.

Last week, before the sky went gray, Hank had razed a long section of ground in the yard. He had wielded the machete he bought at the flea market in Brownfield, hacking at a particular green stalk that sprouted in the dark soil. With every swing of the metal, rocks and pebbles – disturbed from the earth – flew all around him with vengeance. The little bits of green – the offenses – threatened the well-being of Hank’s beloved roses and blueberry bushes, his tulips and herbs. I could hear him ranting about the roots and sprouts and green bits, how he knew they would choke the life out of the plants he’d chosen, the ones that belonged. As if he knew the world was about to change and there was no way he’d stay and live in it with me and his doomed flora, Hank took the truck and hit the road.

Now, I stand at the edge of the property and turn my light to the brightest setting, checking again to see if what I think I see is true, if growing out of the black dirt – where he had stamped down and beaten back every stem and every green speck with his worn work boots – there are in fact thirty or forty little green shoots a couple centimeters high; the weed is not obliterated; even in the grayness, it is very much alive. And, considering the massacre of leaves and stems, branches and soil that took place here only a week ago, a barely comprehensible and resilient little thing.

My arms are folded against the morning chill, and I hear Hank and his friend Vesta “the Garden Guru” talking a month or so ago – their words cutting through the emptiness of the dark yard: “invasive”, “not from here”, “alien”. I see the ways they averted their glances, avoiding my hair – thick and black, long around my shoulders; my eyes – narrow and dark; my skin – olive in the sun, contrasting me with all the whiteness: her, Hank, every neighbor for miles, the shutters on the house. She had spat her words: “That weed is downright stealing the space of what’s ours. You know what I mean.” I did, and she knew it. And now, watching the little plant push through the soil, I laugh; it bursts from me in the silent woods – a loudness echoing through the trees.