This past weekend, I did a deep dive into flash ghost stories. I leaped into the realm of flash specters and those that haunt with an open mind, not in search of something clearly defined as I did when researching flash Fairy tales and Fables. I wanted to find stories...
I don’t know where Mom learned to drive. I don’t know where she learned to hold the wheel firm or belt my chest with her right arm whenever we stopped suddenly for the stray deer lying in the road, still half-breathing, or the broken homes that spilled their bricks...
A seed is an escape pod. A plant egg detaches from its mother from the start, Jody says as she presses two speckled brown beans into each of our palms. Jody used to just be our babysitter, but now she’s Dad’s girlfriend. “But don’t go asking your dad about it yet,”...
The Tortoise and the Hare. The Ants nod the Grasshopper. Both are examples of famous fables with the inclusion of animals and a moral. Can a fable be so clearly defined? Is the formula simply animals + a number 1,000 words x morals = flash fable? I believe what sets a...
Behind the books on her shelves she finds the artifacts of their girlhood, all of them fuzzed with dust: pocket-sized dolls with safety-scissor haircuts, crayon stubs, origami frogs, magnetic letters. She frowns when she finds the Tagalog flashcards, a reminder of all...
The New Oxford Dictionary defines a fairy tale as a children’s story that includes magical beings and places. I was pleasantly surprised to find the words, “happily ever after,” omitted from the above definition. In my search for fairy tales, the stories I enjoyed...
The top drawer of the old bureau painted to look new held thirty-six onesies, freshly laundered and folded into tiny squares and arranged just so, like a box of strawberry fudge. The highchair Meryl’s coworkers at the diner had pitched in to buy stood like an empty...
Protection Erik is raising three chicks in his backyard. Erik is always telling us how he’ll have fresh eggs once they’re grown, bright orange yolks from the paprika-mixed grains he’s feeding them, tough shells that require a good thwack to crack. We’re all jealous so...
1 Remember when the river ran just beyond our door, when rains replenished this ribbon unfurled blue and raspberries ripened close so we could smell them through our bedroom window. Remember when the robins flew in with their red breasts and you sucked the red of this...
We're proud to announce the 25 titles of our shortlist! The submissions we received were resonant, inventive, and so engaging that we've had a hard time narrowing down the list! From this list, judge Sian Griffiths will choose her final 3 winners and 5 honorable...
Thursday nights, half the country gathered in their living rooms to watch Chad Dylan Scott shake blonde hair out of his eyes, curse his football teammates, and strip down to his Hail Mary boxers. His abs were like the ridges in an ice tray, rigid, but a jostle and a...
We're proud to announce the 53 titles of our longlist! The submissions we received were resonant, inventive, and so engaging that we've had a hard time narrowing down the list! From this list, 25 stories will make it to the shortlist for judge Sian Griffiths to choose...