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 Anna Cabe
About the prize-winning story, Judge Gwen Kirby said, “Like the best flash fiction, ‘Blackboxing’ is a study in compression and contrasts. The chatbot, the friend, the protagonist’s body, the disembodied: each part of this story puts pressure on the others, creating a textured, nuanced vision of loneliness and friendship that rewards reading after reading. “
Finalists:
- Body Count by Savera Zachariah
- A Thousand Ways to Eat a Heart or: Is It Worth Going Inside the Sagrada Familia? by Hannah Eko
- Miss Piggy on the Dashboard by Sara Fraser
- Plaque by Eliza Gilbert
- Lessons from Birth by Elana Lavine
- Cranberry Thyme by Dan McDermott
- Ah Ma is a Reusable Bag by Wanying Zhang
- The Weight of Jade by Deborah J. Chinn
- Simulcast by Abby Melick
- What Were You Thinking by Christina Berke
- Sometimes Grief Is a Moonrise by Allison Field Bell
- Kismet by Claire Guo
- Tiny God by Jennifer Murvin
- Dead Mother Card by Emily Rinkema
- Pure Trash by Dawn Tasaka Steffler
Shortlist:
- Body Count by Savera Zachariah
- What Were You Thinking by Christina Berke
- The Wreck of the Medusa by Jo Binns
- Blackboxing by Anna Cabe
- The Weight of Jade by Deborah J. Chinn
- Cat Lady by Amy L Cornell
- A Thousand Ways to Eat a Heart or: Is It Worth Going Inside the Sagrada Familia? by Hannah Eko
- Meiyueby lx fang
- Sometimes Grief is a Moonrise by Allison Field Bell
- Three Months After Turning Forty by Ashley Foster
- Miss Piggy on the Dashboard by Sara Fraser
- Plaque by Eliza Gilbert
- Kismet by Claire Guo
- Lessons from Birth by Elana Lavine
- Advertence by Lyndsie Manusos
- Cranberry Thyme by Dan McDermott
- Grooves by Jay McKenzie
- Simulcast by Abby Melick
- The Cardinal by Alison Morretta
- Tiny God by Jennifer Murvin
- The Last Wrong Turn by Tracie Renee
- Every Solid Thing Casts a Shadow by DC Restaino
- Fishy Pants by Kathy Rhodes
- Dead Mother Card by Emily Rinkema
- I Want That Tomorrow by Sheila Rittenberg
- The Pitch Perfect by Abhishek Sengupta
- Pure Trash by Dawn Tasaka Steffler
- L’Emergency Bars by Liz Swanson
- With These Wings I Set Thee Free by Leslie Wibberley
- Ah Ma is a Reusable Bag by Wanying Zhang