Another round of difficult decisions to narrow our shortlist to 20 stories to send to Judge Jemimah Wei! Congratulations to the shortlisted writers! We're all wondering who the winners will be! Collective Memory In the Temple of the Ugly Women House of the Minotaur...
by Timothy Boudreau Patricia Q. Bidar’s Pardon Me for Moonwalking was recently released by Unsolicited Press. Get your copy HERE or wherever you buy books. Guest interviewer Timothy Boudreau recently met with Patricia for a lively exchange about the collection,...
Judge Gwen Kirby has chosen her grand-prize winner and the 15 finalists, who we will publish in 2026! Please congratulate these writers and get excited about reading their stories soon! We think these are some of our best from 2025! Grand Prize Winner: Blackboxing by...
We love how writers interpret and are inspired by this theme and prompt each year! It helps us see our own world through a new lens, and these stories always resonate! Here are the 40 longlisted titles for your review! We'll be back next week with our shortlist, which...
Albert Abdul-Barr Wang conducted this conversational interview via email during June and July of 2025. Allison Field Bell was kind enough to discuss her multiple practices in writing and photography, just as Finishing Line Press released her latest chapbook, Without...
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 she says in this interview, and has mentioned...
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 than usual to decide, but we're excited to share with...
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 it took us longer than usual, but we're excited to...
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 “city of hospitals,” as she tries to make sense...
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 this year! The winners are: 1st place: Triple Body...
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 horse runs without its rider The Bureau of Exiled...
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...