Flash Fiction Competition Finalists
1ST PLACE |
Layover
by Elodie Barnes
Why we love Layover
Ill-at-ease and adrift, we find Bridget in the in-between, at the airport. Leaving a part of her recent past behind her and heading towards a future that may not be easy, we see her come to terms with the idea of going home. Tinged with melancholy, Barnes's Layover shows us the silver linings.
About Elodie Barnes
Elodie Barnes is a writer and editor. Her writing is born at the edges of nature, memory, trauma and the body, and is published regularly in online and print journals including the Best Small Fictions anthology of 2022. Find her online at elodierosebarnes.weebly.com, or on Instagram @elodierosebarnes.
2ND PLACE |
Please Send Proust
by Kit Mas
Why we love Please Send Proust
Please Send Proust is a comical and pithy look into the life of the young protagonist, Edwin, as he searches for a way to escape his present and grasp a sense of home. Mas offers readers a light-hearted and relatable epistolary short story.
About Kit Mas
Kit Mas is a writer currently living in New York City. Recent stories include “The Supernumerary” (Pigeon Review Prize Short Listed 2022); “Captain Gardiner” ( Crowvus Christmas Ghost Story Competition – Long List), “The Merciful Kindness of Heaven” (Henshaw Press - Short List; Parracombe Prize - Long List), “The Pileated Woodpecker'' (Tulip Tree Review Semifinalist). His story “The Kapellmeister of Kothen: A Fugue” won the Gotham Musical Words Contest (as Christopher G. Moore). Sharing sometimes on X(Twitter) @KitMas8 and Instagram @kitmasstory.
3RD PLACE |
Do You Want a Mango?
by Sravya Lekha
Why we love Do You Want a Mango?
Lekha’s Do You Want a Mango? offers a complex reality of newfound home, home found in a family, and a home which can never be returned to. We love Lekha's take on the bittersweet idea of a home that no longer exists physically, but lives on in the minds of the protagonist and their family.
About Sravya Lekha
Sravya Lekha grew up in upstate New York, where her overactive imagination filled journals upon journals with stories that will never see the light of day. When she isn’t memorizing anatomical factoids as a sleep-deprived medical student, Sravya finds the time to write a sentence or two.
Shortlist
Managed Retreat by Daniel Addercouth
Being American-Born Chinese by Rachel Bai
Layover by Elodie Barnes
And Time Turns by Jacob Chagoya
Of Bees, Stars, and Red No. 40 Food Dye by Celia Daniels
What Trouble? by Ginger Keller Gannaway
Emeritus Confetti by Fiona C. Hankenson
Do You Want a Mango? by Sravya Lekha
There I Will Take Your Hand by Nancy Ludmerer
Please Send Proust by Kit Mas
Longlist
Managed Retreat by Daniel Addercouth
The Wretch and The Crone by Aisling Alvarez
Green-Eyed by Mikki Aronoff
Making the Rounds by C. Avery
Being American Born Chinese by Rachel Bai
Layover by Elodie Barnes
A Home of Non Existence by Byeol
And Time Turns by Jacob Chagoya
Fitting Fan Belts by Melody Cleven
Safe as Houses by Brontë Cook
Of Bees, Stars, and Red No. 40 Food Dye by Celia Daniels
When the Tide Breaks by Candelas Distefano
Kusina by Daenielle Feliciano
The 90s were loud by Bess Fernandez
What Trouble? by Ginger Keller Gannaway
A Homes Walks Out by Caroline A. Gilliat
I Found Her by Marisela Gomez
The House Remembers by Eluney Gonzalez
Song of Carrie by Emily Han
Emeritus Confetti by Fiona C. Hankenson
Stepping Back and Moving On by Linda Hibbin
Pete’s Dream by Ru Huang
Sweet Potatoes by Kevin Ionno
Grief by Maggie Nerz Iribarne
On the Fourth of July by S. Kavi
An Ode to the Long Drive by Olivia Keegan
You Held My Hand, But Had Nowhere to Take Me by Carella Keil
Coffin Maker by Aly Kuch
Do You Want a Mango? by Sravya Lekha
Funeral Prayer in Fujian Province by M. Liu
There I Will Take Your Hand by Nancy Ludmerer
Please Send Proust by Kit Mas
Brick by Brick by Andrew Montgomery
A Historic Home by Katie Nelson
Petunias by Nicole Nunez
Saving Home by Carla Rojas Paz
Retrieval of her Mind by Saiva
367 Nights by Erin Latham Shea
Conversation on a Front Porch by Molly Stevens
Ruins by Charlie Swailes
Bench by Molly Traut