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Closing date May 31st
All entries submitted can be on any subject, and written in any style or form. However, we do not recommend poems or stories written for children.
Judge: David Swann
Word limit: 250 words (no minimum). Title not included.
Entry fee: £6 for each flash fiction submitted.
Prizes: 1st £1,000, 2nd £500, 3rd £250 + Highly Commended 3 x £25
What is flash fiction?
Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category. Some are as low as 250 words (such as ours), while others consider stories as long as a thousand words to be flash fiction.
Other names for flash fiction include sudden fiction, micro fiction, micro-story, short short, postcard fiction and short short story, though distinctions are sometimes drawn between some of these terms; for example, sometimes one-thousand words is considered the cut-off between “flash fiction” and the slightly longer short story “sudden fiction”. The terms “micro fiction” and “micro narrative” are sometimes defined as below 300 words.
Flash-fiction often contains the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, obstacles or complications, and resolution. However, unlike a traditional short story, the limited word length often forces some of these elements to remain unwritten – that is, hinted at or implied in the written storyline.
Judge: Michèle Roberts
Word limit: 5,000 words (no minimum). Title not included.
Entry fee: £8 for each short story submitted.
Prizes: 1st £5,000, 2nd £1,000, 3rd £500 + Highly Commended 10 x £50
Judge: Wendy Cope
Line limit: 42 lines (no minimum). Title not included.
Entry fee: £7 for each poem submitted.
Prizes: 1st £5,000, 2nd £1,000, 3rd £500 + Highly Commended 10 x £50
Entry details here
Abegail Morley 