Flash Fiction Magazine Contest
Win Cash Prizes & Get Professional Feedback
- First Place: $500 + 12 months of workshops ($1,188 value) and publication on our website
- Second Place: $300 and publication on our website
- Third Place: $200 and publication on our website
Selected stories also receive:
- A permanent home on our Featured Stories page (our most viewed page)
- Featured in our mailing list sent to thousands of readers and writers
📅 Contest Opens October 15
More Than a Contest—It’s a Workshop in Disguise!
Sure, there are loads of contests out there, but how many give you the kind of feedback we do?
Our magazine is run by writers for writers, so we understand how crucial actionable feedback is. Since 2015, we’ve perfected our approach to writer feedback, helping thousands of authors improve their craft and achieve publication success.
Choose Your Editor: Unlike most contests, we let you select which editor you want to work with, giving you personalized feedback that matches your needs.
Our Approach to Feedback:
Your comprehensive reading includes:
✓ What Resonates: We’ll highlight the elements of your story that create impact
✓ Growth Areas: We’ll identify aspects that might benefit from reconsideration
✓ Craft Suggestions: We’ll offer specific, actionable ideas for your revision process
See Our Feedback in Action:
Words only go so far in describing our approach. We invite you to explore examples of the thoughtful critiques our editors provide:
The Effect on Your Writing
Writers who’ve participated in our contests tell us they’ve:
- Had their revised stories accepted by notable literary magazines
- Received recognition in other writing competitions
- Significantly improved their craft and acceptance rates
- Gained confidence and direction in their writing
What Writers Say About Our Feedback
“I want to thank you for the comments on my story. I’ve submitted many times to FFM, and I must say your review and edit of my piece was the most thoughtful and superb feedback I’ve had to date, arguably from any literary journal. I spent much of the night rewriting my piece.”
— Michael Kozart
“Just sending along a note to say that a magazine JUST accepted the revised version of this story that I wrote per your feedback. Thank you SO much again for your help — it got me published!!!”
— Rebecca Long
“Thank you for the extensive critique, suggestions of areas needing improvement, and great links for further review. Worth every penny of the fee and more. You exceeded my expectations.”
— M.D. Smith
“After taking her suggestions to heart, the redraft was not only accepted by another literary magazine but also named as a finalist in one of their short fiction contests. Thank you again; I’ve seen the light.”
— Dutch
“Wow, this is gold—the best feedback I have ever received. It’s hard to credit how much stays in my head when it should go on the page. Thank you for giving me a lot to work on.”
— Anna Mahoney
“Thank you for your incredibly detailed feedback!! I struggle to land my stories, and you showed me what needs work and where to start. I’m very grateful! Your suggestions gave me hope that I can rework this particular story.”
— Divya
Participation Guidelines
- Entry contribution: $30 per story, including professional editorial feedback
- You may select which editor you’d like to work with during submission
- You retain all rights to your work
- Unless you specify otherwise, we’ll consider your story for publication in Flash Fiction Magazine
- Multiple submissions are welcome
- Our editorial panel’s selections are final
- Entry contributions support our literary community and are non-refundable
- By participating, you agree to our contest guidelines
Stories We’re Looking For
- Fiction between 300 and 1000 words that offers a complete narrative experience
- Stories with discernible plot and character development (rather than vignettes or prose poetry)
- Previously unpublished work (including on our platform)
- We welcome adult themes when handled with artistic integrity, though we don’t publish children’s fiction or erotica
- Simultaneous submissions are acceptable—just let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere
Guest Judge – Laura Besley
Laura Besley (she/her) enjoys exploring big topics in small spaces. She has published four collections of flash & micro, most recently: Sum of her PARTS (V. Press, 2025). She is currently a Creative Writing PhD student at the University of Leicester, an editor with Flash Fiction Magazine and JMWW, and runs The NIFTY Book Club. Having lived in the Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong, she now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea.
Our Editorial Team
Aishwarya Mishra
Aishwarya is a writer and editor based in Jharkhand, India. She writes speculative flash fiction, short fiction, and poetry that pushes the limits of language and identity. Her flash fiction has appeared in XRAY, JMWW, and New Millennium Writings, and has been selected for the Best Small Fictions 2021 anthology. She has also been a recipient of Washington Square Review’s New Voices Award (fiction) in 2024.
Having graduated from the Seagull School of Publishing in 2024, she is excited about using her love of language and literature to help other writers find the pulse of their stories. Apart from writing, she loves dancing and hopes that one day her bones would forget the difference between the two forms of movement.
Shanna Yetman
Shanna Yetman is an environmental writer and Latina living in Chicago. She enjoys character-driven fiction with a social-justice edge. Her writing has centered on motherhood, and now, the climate crisis and how we can reimagine our planet’s future. Shanna has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Maryland and a BA in English Literature from Wellesley College. She’s an alumna of the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference and has taught at UIC’s Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy (SISE). Her fiction has appeared in 365tomorrows, DreamForge Anvil, Sky Island Journal, Cheap Pop, MoonPark Review and the Daily Drunk. She’s placed or won contests with WOW (Women on Writing), Reflex Fiction, and New Millennium Writings. When she’s not writing, she serves on her local school board and tortures her children with long walks through Cook County’s local forest preserves.
Cecilia Kennedy
Cecilia Kennedy is an Ohio Buckeye transplanted in the Greater Seattle area. She’s a copywriter, writer, and editor who once taught English and Spanish courses in Ohio for twenty years. She earned a doctorate in Spanish literature from The Ohio State University, and in 2016, she moved to Washington state with her family. Since 2017, she has been writing and publishing short stories in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies online and in print. Her stories have appeared in Tiny Molecules, Rejection Letters, Maudlin House, Coffin Bell, Open Minds Quarterly, Headway Quarterly, Flash Fiction Magazine, Kandisha Press, Ghost Orchid Press, and more. The Places We Haunt (Potter’s Grove Publishing) was her first short story collection, which was released in 2020 and re-released by DarkWinter Press (Baxter House Editions) in 2024. Her second short-story collection is called Twenty-Four-Hour Shift: Dark Tales from on and off the Clock (DarkWinter Press, 2023). In 2023, she earned a Pushcart nomination. Additionally, serves as a concept editor for Running Wild Press and writes a humor blog (Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks).
Allison Renner
Allison Renner’s fiction and photography have appeared in South Florida Poetry Journal, Ellipsis Zine, Six Sentences, Rejection Letters, Atlas and Alice, Misery Tourism, Versification, FERAL, and vulnerary magazine. Her chapbooks Green Light: A Gatsby Cycle and Won’t Be By Your Side are out from Alien Buddha Press.
Kathleen Danielson
Kathleen Danielson is a fantasy and historical fiction writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kathleen has a BA in English from Carleton College, where she minored in creative writing. In addition to Flash Fiction Magazine, her work appears or is forthcoming in the Magazine of History and Fiction, Black Moon Magazine, and All Worlds Wayfarer, and she was a semifinalist for the 2020 University of New Orleans Press Publishing Lab Prize. She is also part of the 2024 WriteHive Mentorship Program, for which she is working on a historical fantasy manuscript. When she’s not reading, editing, writing, or trying to stop her cat from walking on her computer keyboard, she is usually bouncing between too many sewing, knitting, embroidery, baking, and painting projects.
Emily Hoover
Emily Hoover is the author of the novella in stories, Snitch (Wordrunner eChapbooks, 2021), the poetry chapbook, My Mother as a Serrano Pepper (Zeitgeist Press, 2023), and the forthcoming micro-chapbook of flash fiction, Sinners to the Back of the House: Stories About Women Who Leave (Bull City Press, 2025). Her poetry, fiction, and reviews have been published by Sundress Publications, The Citron Review, FIVE:2:ONE, BULL, Necessary Fiction, The Los Angeles Review, Ploughshares blog, The Rupture, and others. Her creative works have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfiction anthologies as well as selected as an honorable mention for Madville’s 2019 Runaway Stories Anthology and Cleaver Magazine’s 2022 flash contest. She lives in Las Vegas and is a Senior Lecturer of English and Creative Writing Coordinator at Nevada State University.
Common Questions
How are selections made?
Stories are considered based on originality, craft, emotional resonance, and narrative cohesion. Finalists are shared with our guest judge for final consideration.
May I submit more than one story?
Absolutely. You must submit one at a time. Each story receives its own dedicated reading and feedback.
Where can I read previous selections?
Visit our Featured Stories page to explore work from past contests.
We’d be honored to read your work and join you in the revision process.
