'All of These Things, I'd Like to Have, Just One More Time' by Jeanine Skowronski

The straps of an oversized JanSport hovering over my bony shoulders, a tenderized textbook held over a too-fast beating heart; a salad with Sunday dinner, but made by Grandpa Gino: the standard ingredients tossed with lemon (not vinegar), salt, pepper, unwashed hands; eau de Grandma Gigi, garlic cloves and Shalimar; my father telling me to look both ways before crossing the street; my boots, those black leather boots, lace-ups with thick rubber soles that bounced off the hard surfaces of campus, heels that held together long after they should have fallen apart; a late night at The Green Hand: vodka shots in rocks glasses, Depeche Mode on the jukebox, the swish-swish of my 25-year-old hips; my mother snapping me out of another broken heart; coffee after a two-hour commute, triple skim latte, milk mustache cooling in the autumn breeze; a happy Halloween — you, you, only you, just you, you at that costume party in a wrestler’s singlet; you whispering “I love you” into my neck on Christmas Eve; you in our shoestring apartment, in our first house, that money pit with the post-mounted mailbox; you leaving love notes on my palms in blue ballpoint pen; you biting your lip as my brother licked sauce from his fingers; you flipping me off in photos, picking up after our dogs, setting the salmon to broil; you beneath the cheese rind brim of your baseball cap, you in black — no, of course not, you in blue, your color, all those shirts, the Superman tank, the plaid Orvis, that long-sleeved thermal, first too small, later too big, your forearms still thick even as other parts withered, still holding me as I tried to support you; you, just you, all of you, again, again, again.

'They’re Not Going to Come in, Marge' by Jennifer Fliss

She falls in love like her peers fall and break bones. She watches the mailman and the recycling man who stop and wave. She uses old piano wire to cut cheese for a cheeseboard. Diane across the street taught her this trick, back when Diane was alive. Now it’s a young family – bless them, husband, wife, two kids under five. Marge doesn’t like blue cheese, but includes it because maybe they will. She watches out the window as kids hopscotch and everyone comes and then goes. She knows. But she likes the ceremony of it, falling in love, having hope.

Congratulations to our Best Small Fiction Winner, Fiona J. Mackintosh!

Huge congratulations to Fiona J. Mackintosh whose FlashFlood piece 'Flight Path' was selected for Best Small Fictions 2023, to be published by Alternating Current Press!  We're looking forward to reading 'Flight Path' in its new home later this year.

You can read more of our nominated pieces from past years on our Nominations and Awards page, and of course, check back at midnight tonight -- our first Flood story goes live at 00:01 on Saturday, 24 June!

FlashFlood 2023 is OPEN for submissions for one week only!

We are delighted to announce that we are open for submissions for FlashFlood 2023 from 12:01 a.m. BST on Sunday, 30 April to 23:59 BST on Saturday, 6 May.

You can read our submission guidelines here, and read about this year's editors here.  

We're looking for submissions of up to 300 words on any theme.  (Shorter pieces are very welcome; there is no minimum word count.)  We are happy to read up to three pieces per author per year. 

Work previously published in 2021 or before is fine as long as you give us full publication details.  (We prefer you don't send us anything published too recently as we don't want to steal any thunder from your original publisher.)  We consider all previously unpublished pieces for award nominations; we nominate for Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction and Best of the Net.

Please note that we do not accept AI generated work at this time.  Whilst we appreciate that AI can come up with some very interesting things, we have a very human team of editors volunteering their precious and limited time.  We simply don't have the resources to deal with a deluge of AI generated work.  Please be kind to our editors by only submitting work that you yourself have written**.  

 

** (We're assuming that you're a human reading this, but if you are indeed an AI capable of independently reading this, writing flash, and navigating our submission engine without the aid of a human, then we might be able to make an exception!)

 

FlashFloods 2022 Best Small Fictions Nominations

 We are thrilled to announce our 2022 Best Small Fictions nominations:

 

• A girl by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
   
• Detached by Anika Carpenter
   
• Flight Path by Fiona J. Mackintosh
   
• me and the foxes battle it out along the railway line by Deborah Tomkins
   
• When Walking Away Becomes Walking Toward by Noémi Scheiring-Oláh
  

Best of luck to all our nominees!

FlashFlood's 2022 Best Microfictions Nominations

We are pleased to announce FlashFlood's 2022 Best Microfictions Nominations.  

• Game by Catherine Deery
   
• Lovers by Vincent Anioke
   
• Moon’s Lament by Thad DeVassie
   
• Our Mothers’ Jewellery by Sherri Turner
   
• Souvenirs by Susie Aybar
   
• Why Do Some Gals Get All the Breaks? by Sharon Boyle
   

Best of luck to our 2022 nominees!

FlashFlood's 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominations

We are delighted to announce FlashFlood's 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominations:

 

• Lovers by Vincent Anioke
   
• Old-schooled by Steve Nelson
   
• Perfect Stranger by Brooke Randel
   
• Souvenirs by Susie Aybar
   
• They Say that if You Put a Shell to Your Ear You Can Hear the Sea by Katie Holloway
   
• They Say You Can Never Go Back But You Try by S A Greene

 

Congratulations to our 2022 nominees!