Bartholomew Makes Wigs
Debra Daniel Writer’s Note: One day at my hair salon, my stylist was altering a wig to fit one of his clients. […]
Tag: flash fiction
I Ain’t Got Those Red Dress Blues No More
Adele Evershed Writer’s Note: This piece was inspired by the poem ‘What Do Women Want’ by Kim Addonizio. I was in a […]
The Boys of the Loup Garou
Karen Arnold It happened so slowly, the falling apart. We got used to it, each frayed stitch, each reduction, each thinning and […]
Skin Beetles
Rosaleen Lynch Mam boils the skull until flesh falls off, and scrapes the rest, but fat melts into bone, leaving it a […]
The Tantrik
Ani Banerjee Adjacent to the burning ghat in Benaras, in the narrow winding maze of lanes filled with stores selling marijuana […]
Unfurl
Lyndsey Croal I know the change is coming from the scratch in my throat. Next, my fingers elongate and sharpen as […]
Everything is Flat
L. Soviero Flat building. Flat windows. Flat sky. Flat sun. Alex kicks a can. It ricochets off the building wall. […]
The Parting Glass
Helen Chambers Move fireside-close; warm away your bone-ache. A bitter evening to be out. You’re the last to stumble this way […]
Manna
Jude Higgins Her mother’s at the door, criticising the litter of mouldy leaves and walking boots on the porch. But then […]
Whiskertense and Bristlefur Electric, We Prowl
Mathew Gostelow Whiskertense and bristlefur electric, we prowl. The night is ours and we have become one with her chill air. Three […]
Cult Status
Fiona McKay I was in high school when the Preacher arrived. Revivalist this, born again that. A show, all of it, or […]
Small Gods
Becky May We reminisce about dahl baht, the way it coated our tongues, the rice fluffed to perfection, the greens we´d try […]
Heart in Hand
Colleen Kearney Rich When the clerk at the hardware store asks about her fingerless gloves, the fancy red leather ones she treated […]
What Did Graham Know About Spiders?
Steve Campbell Janet slumped down onto the sodden floor, back against the side of the bath, a high-pitched ringing in her ears. […]
The Geometry of Dead Girls
Kik Lodge You can never leave the place you die in, Harriet says, and Fay nods like a hand puppet. […]
There’s A Shit Monster In The Shape Of Your Father, Moaning On Your Bathroom Tiles
Eliot Li …and the plumber in navy blue coveralls rattles his sewer auger, ready to impale it. Moments before, the […]
Witch
Janice Leadingham Your wife called to me, John Bell. She came to the craggy grin, the doorway to my home under […]
Science Never Sleeps
Stephanie Carty Stella is a scientist of men. She logs every detail in the notebook of her mind: the creasing of […]
Warning
Eda Tse Decide this time you’re done. Find a secluded section of the park. Put your back into it when you dig. […]
Double-Glaze
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Travelling to Ireland from France could sometimes cause culture shock. This piece started with my father’s reaction to […]
The Weight of Feathers
Lindz McLeod Writer’s Note: Near my home, there’s a high tunnel where pigeons nest; whenever I pass through it, I wondered whether […]
Delete water, insert rubbish
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: Delete water was provoked by a very vivid memory of myself and a few student friends huddled over […]
Mr. Dupont and the Death of Romance
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: I set out to write a flash about a quiet teenager who seems more mature than her parents’ […]
White Feathers, Scarlet Heart
Sarah McPherson Pristine snowfall; the familiar made unfamiliar by winter. The early morning light touches each heap and hollow lightly. She is […]
Things Left Behind in an Oxfordshire Field in 1989 the Day After an Illegal Rave
Amanda Saint A pair of scuffed Kicker boots (size 5) —love-heart patterned socks tucked neatly inside, rainbow laces tied together to make […]
Snapshot
Peter Burns Sixth day standing at this bus stop staring across at him in the bookies, he comes out plunging his […]
Saints, Sinners, and the Dirt Track to Redemption
Kate Axeford Saints It started with the cows. Jacob saw them straight-lining it out of Hobson’s farm as if they sensed […]
On the Backroads
Jeanine Skowronski 1. We dig holes, because Wren insists there’s treasure buried in this dirt. We unearth silver slips of paper, two […]
The Only Constant is Change
Mary Byrne Writer’s Note: This flash piece was inspired by a very real woman who used to sit at my tram stop, […]
Night on Preston’s Bald
J. Dianne Dotson Writer’s Note: This story bounds ahead of a real-life terrifying encounter on a mountaintop in East Tennessee many years […]
Slaughterhouse of Love
Max Hipp Writer’s Note: I’d been thinking about how isolating love feels when it goes wrong and how marriages crack along childhood […]
Annie Is Sleeping
Sherri Turner Annie will wake in the morning later than usual. She will have a hangover that she doesn’t remember getting. […]
A Climmer’s Chance
Christine Collinson Writer’s Note: I was listening to a podcast on birds through history when I first came across ‘Climmers’ (or Climbers). […]
Love, Departed
Emily Devane Writer’s Note: This piece started with a voice, and a feeling: I am looking for the key to the drawer […]
Truth or Death
Lori Sambol Brody Writer’s Note: I set out to write a flash novella about a high school theater kid (Julia) navigating her […]
What We Leave Behind
Stephanie King Writer’s Note: This is part of a series I call “Monologues,” a loose collection of those really voicey flash pieces […]
The best vintages have a distinctive character
Eleonora Balsano Fresh blood is the colour of Pinot Noir, bright red and translucent. I’ve never said this to the […]
However far she runs away from home
Rosie Garland My mother lives in a house full of gravestones. Every morning, she vacuums around their beds and washes their […]
She Remembers it Like This
Emily Devane Always, the sun shines and the black telephone dangles from its cloister wall like a stricken beetle. Always, […]
I took my skeleton for a walk today
K.A. Nielsen My skeleton tilted their skull up, stretched their bones wide in the cool, crisp sun. We stood in the […]
A Fable of Two Halves
David Luntz Writer’s Note: Myths and fables have long interested me. So, I tried writing a quirky fable that shows how we […]
Seed of a Rainbow
David Luntz Writer’s Note: Seed of a Rainbow is the third flash in a series I’ve written about a fictional uncle (“Uncle Kev”). […]
Two Flash Fictions: After Dad Fell Down to Earth And Mom Deflated & As a kid, I thought Canada was the place you went when you died
Rosie Garland and Meg Pokrass Writers’ Note: Since 2020, we – that’s Meg Pokrass and Rosie Garland – have been collaborating on flash fictions […]
The Psychic Plays Dress-Up
Chelsea Stickle Writer’s note: The psychic snuck up on me one day. She tapped me on the shoulder and introduced herself as […]
Welcome to the Pixel Exhibition
Paul Thompson On screen you are an abstract masterpiece. I secretly take screenshots as we talk, print and rearrange them on my […]
This Seagull
Richard Barr This seagull was bigger than my cat. Noticeably so. It was rush hour. All at once the people, so many […]
Osmosis
Shannon Frost Greenstein It doesn’t taste as bad as you would expect. I thought it would be like swallowing a mouthful of […]
I’m a Corpse Flower, and I’ve Got a Bone(r) to Pick with You, Botany
Shannon Frost Greenstein So. Botany. Let me just say it, right out loud, because it’s what everyone is already thinking, anyway. I’m […]
The Vanishing
Jared Beloff 1. The house went without a sound during Mrs. Thompson’s daily trip to the mailbox last fall, her back turned […]
My Boyfriend’s Wife
Iona Rule When I’m with my boyfriend, who is also her husband, he serves me spaghetti in their pond green bowls. I […]
