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Flash Fiction Prize 2022: Results

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

From all of us at Fish, Congratulations to the writers whose Flash Stories were short or long-listed, and in particular to the 10 winners.

 


 

Winners

Tracey Slaughter

Here are the 10 winning Flash Fiction Stories, as chosen by Tracey Slaughter, to be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2022.

Comments on the flash stories are from Tracey Slaughter, who we sincerely thank for her time and expertise. 

 


 

FIRST PLACE

The Stone Cottage:  by Partridge Boswell

Lyrical pull and enveloping atmosphere distinguished this piece from the first reading, drawing
me into its arresting sensory focus. While understated in terms of narrative action, the dramatic energies of its stonework setting sung, instilling each detail with emotional depth. Its textured, sense-rich approach to sound made its rhythmic sentences and close-range images layered, evocative and rewarding to re-read.

 

SECOND PLACE

On the Other Side of the World: by Linda Nemec Foster

What attracted me to this piece was how it utilized the dynamics of flash to vibrant structural effect, laying frames of scenic detail cleverly alongside each other to compose a lyric collage of glimpses. What struck me was its skill in capturing brief instants of foreign experience, through an enticing but contained series of images which it left to resonate compellingly.

 

THIRD PLACE

Millstone:  by Z Aaron Young

A dense, disturbing narrative-drive set this piece apart, drawing the reader ever deeper into the meshes of its drama, through to its intensely clever twist. It leads us through the turns of this darkly compelling plot through contained use of dialogue and encounter, making striking use of flash’s minimalism to deliver a honed and high-impact story.

 

 

SEVEN HONORABLE MENTIONS (In no particular order)

 

Crabwalk: by John Walshe

What I found compelling about this piece was its rhythmic energies and attention to sentence tempo and tension to evoke character. Its evocative beat and cleverly timed repetitions delivered a vivid impression of the narrator, keeping the reader ‘jumping big steps’ with its child speaker, and were also skillfully linked to the overall story arc and its dynamic core image-pattern.

 

Firelight:  by Kathryn Henion

The strength of this piece is in its lively mobilizing of setting detail in the service of storytelling. It places us in a vivid slice of landscape through crisp and evocative imagery, and involves us atmospherically in the character’s key childhood glimpse of adult life.

 

Beauty Curse:  by Seamus Scanlon

This piece stood out for its dynamic tone, making skilled use of dialogue and voice to grip the reader’s attention in its edgy narrative. It also allowed this strong vocal focus to drive an innovative form and movement, generating original narrative energy.

 

Kabul, August 2021:  by Marie Altzinger

Making use of sliding frames, this piece juxtaposed two points of view on a central crisis, effectively inhabiting different female angles and voices to political ends. It used this form powerfully but with tight control, letting the explosive off-screen drama arise through subtly selected detail.

 

Taking Revenge on Gustav Klimt:  (or The Paintbrush that isn’t a Paintbrush)  by David Lewis

Taking on an effective and tonally-alive point of view, this piece dissects a slice of artist’s model’s life with wry, cutting amusement at the sexual politics of image-making. Sharp, clever, economical and tongue-in-cheek.

 

A Mother Knows:  by Russell Reader

The economy of this piece worked powerfully to control strong emotion and to cover a long history in brief vocalized details. Spoken tension connects us effectively with character, subtly revealing a moving subtext beneath the minimal and controlled narration, approaching a heavy topic through bare contained voice.

 

While the Planet Still Remains:  by Fiona J Mackintosh

Immersive second-person narration and lyric rhythm at the sentence level were at the heart of this piece’s impact. It took on a vast and weighty subject, containing it effectively through sustained focus and a personal approach, building a clever analogy into its ending.

 


 

A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS:

 

Partridge Boswell is a stay-at-home rover, father of seven, and author of the Grolier Award-winning collection Some Far Country. When not hitchhiking or freighthopping, his bindlestiff poems have recently found homes in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Southword and The Moth. Co-founder of Bookstock Literary Festival, he teaches at Vallum Society for Education in Arts & Letters in Montreal and troubadours widely with the poetry/music group Los Lorcas, whose debut release Last Night in America is available on Thunder Ridge Records. Please say hello when you see him busking on Grafton Street.

 

Linda Nemec Foster is a poet and writer, currently living in Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA). She is the granddaughter of immigrants from southern Poland who settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Many of her relatives and friends still live in Poland (some of them near the Ukraine border) and she has visited them and that part of the world many times. The author of 12 collections of poetry (e.g. The Blue Divide, 2021 and The Lake Michigan Mermaid, 2018), Foster was the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids from 2003-2005.

 

Z. Aaron Young is an MFA candidate in the NYU Low-Residency program and considers himself a fiction writer and spare-time philosopher. His writing has appeared in various folders across his laptop and has been read by tens of people. His hobbies are extremely easy to list and he very much enjoys music. When he’s not sleeping, he can be found more or less awake.

 

J.P. Walshe lives in Malahide, Co. Dublin and works in libraries.  When not surrounded by books he can be found on the sofa trying to forget about them.  After starting but then writing nothing for eight years he’s taken up where he left off and finds it a much more productive way to spend insomnia.  He once rode a bike cab in San Diego and taught English while pretending to know grammar in Barcelona.”

 

Kathryn Henion’s fiction has appeared in over twenty journals, including Beloit Fiction Journal, Saranac Review, Natural Bridge, and Green Mountains Review. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University, where she was editor of the biannual literary magazine Harpur Palate. Currently she serves as fiction editor for the online journal of art and literature, Anomaly, and lives, works, and writes in Ithaca, NY. www.kathrynhenion.com

 

When Seamus Scanlon won the Fish Flash Fiction Prize with The Long Wet Grass (2011) he thought he had arrived (in West Cork). When the story became a one act play (2014) he thought he had arrived (on Broadway).  When the story became a film (2015) he thought he had arrived (in Hollywood). When the play was translated into Japanese and staged in Tokyo (2018) he thought he had arrived (in the East). Will the Beauty Curse (2022) finally lift his arrival curse? Stay tuned www.seamusscanlon.com

 

Marie Altzinger was born in Luxembourg, and moved to Ireland at the age of six. Discouraged by a schoolteacher obsessed with the descriptive style of Gerald Manley Hopkins, Marie gave up creative writing for a quarter of a century. Thankfully she eventually saw the error of her ways, and now has two huge suitcases stuffed with PTCs (Pieces to Consider). Marie lives in Dundrum, Dublin, with her wonderful husband, fabulous daughter, and super dog. 

 

David X. Lewis has written journalism for Reuters, speeches on AIDS for WHO, and documents for a Geneva organisation that sacked him. He now focuses on creative writing from Ferney-Voltaire, France. The opening of his third (unpublished) novel was nominated for a Pushcart in 2021, when he also won the Bangor 40-word competition. In 2022 he will be published by Bath Flash Fiction and (twice) in Sticks and Stones, an Oxford anthology of “flash greats”. 

 

Fiona J. Mackintosh (www.fionajmackintosh.com) is the Scottish-American author of a flash collection, The Yet Unknowing World published by Ad Hoc Fiction. She has won the Fish, Bath, Reflex, and Flash 500 Awards, and her short stories have been listed in several cool competitions in the UK and Ireland. She lives just outside Washington D.C., but she’s thankful that her imagination can carry her across continents and time, both during lockdowns and in happier times.      

 

Russell Reader lives in Keele, England, with his husband and two sons. He won first prize in the New Writer Magazine’s Prose and Poetry Awards and has been published by Litro, InkTears, Flash, Grist, and Bath Flash Fiction. One day he would like to write a story that isn’t sad and grim.

 


 

Short-list:

(alphabetical order)

 

There are 41 flash stories in the short-list. There were 948 entries in total.

Title

First Name

Last Name

 

 

 

Kabul, August 2021

Marie  

Altzinger

The day you chipped a tooth and touched a nerve

Lesley

Bungay

Labels

Letty

Butler

Fishes I Have Known

Ric

Carter

Brez

Ava

Dan-Gur

Karma Chameleon

Anne

Eyries

Echolalia

Elizabeth

Field

On the Other Side of the World

Linda 

Nemec Foster

The Door Opens

Geoffrey

Graves

Firelight

Kathryn

Henion

Lost Treasure

Maria

Jackson

Herring

Sarah

Kartalia

Cleft by the lines of cowards

Nelum

Kaur

Blood Brothers

Jim

King

Koel

Alfie

Lee

Flash Fiction

Alfie

Lee

A Human Jellyfish Goes Missing

David

Lewis

Taking Revenge on August Klimt  
(
or The Paintbrush that isn’t a Paintbrush)

David

Lewis

A Becket Tale: 1972

Finbar

Lillis

Rocket-ship set-up guide

Kik

Lodge

While the Planet Still Remains

Fiona J

Mackintosh

“Going, Going, Gone!”

Michael

Mahoney

The Prodigal’s Brother

Patrick

McCann

A Brush with Circe

Lauren

McNamara

Never Let Me Go

Geoffrey

Mead

GHOSTS

Catherine

Neville

Posted

Brigita

Orel

A Mother Knows

Russell

Reader

Falling Woman

Hannah

Retallick

For a Time, I

Hannah

Retallick

Meltdown

Nicholas

Ruddock

Bed Time

Yvonne

Sampson

The Sister as a Fox

Shannon

Savvas

Deciduous Trees

Adrian

Scanlan

The Twins

Seamus

Scanlon

Beauty Curse

Seamus

Scanlon

The Kiss

Jo

Skinner

Coppélia Doll Variation

Michaela

Tamma

The Proposal, Lyme Regis, 1936

Ken

Wilson

Satellite of love

Alison

Woodhouse

Millstone

Z. Aaron

Young

 

 


 

Long-list 

(alphabetical order)

There are 72 flash stories in the long-list. There were 948 entries in total.

 

Title

First Name

Last Name

 

 

 

Kabul, August 2021

Marie

Altzinger

SISTERS

Carrie

Beckwith

The Stone Cottage

Partridge

Boswell

A Cry Beneath The Leaves

Michael P

Bowles

White is the Color of Decay

Matthew

Brandon

Things I Would Do if I Was a Disgraced Soviet
Scientist, Living in Exile on the Riviera

Kati

Bumbera

The day you chipped a tooth and touched a nerve

Lesley

Bungay

Labels

Letty

Butler

Fishes I Have Known

Ric

Carter

All That Remains

Charlene

Cason

Man Up

Yvonne

Clarke

Brez

Ava

Dan-Gur

Trying to Write a Haiku

Rosamund

Davies

Driving Home

Christina

Eagles

On taking Macy’s Kittens to the Sawmill

Henry

Edwards

Caravan

Susan

Elsley

Subject: Humanity 2022-4022

Stephen

Enciso

Mountain Air Folly

Tanya

Esnault

Karma Chameleon

Anne

Eyries

Warp Factor

Tom

Farrell

Echolalia

Elizabeth

Field

Leaving hospital with a suitcase

Nick

Fordham

On the Other Side of the World

Linda 

Nemec Foster

Burhan Now or Never

Nancy

Freund

Aliens

John

Fullerton

Keys

Laura

Geringer Bass

In the Light

Cicely

Gill

Odette at Tea-Time

Heather Lynne

Goddard

The Door Opens

Geoffrey

Graves

An Imitation

Leonie

Gregson

Last Wave

Michael

Hainsworth

Sticks and Stones

Daniel

Harwood

Turning Back Time

Hannah

Hawthorne

Firelight

Kathryn

Henion

It’s a Living

Tova

Hope-Liel

Lost Treasure

Maria

Jackson

Fishtail or Why I Can’t Recommend a Birthing Pool

Jupiter

Jones

Was this an Act of God

Roger

Jones

Herring

Sarah

Kartalia

Cleft by the lines of cowards

Nelum

Kaur

Blood Brothers

Jim

King

This Isn’t Working Anymore

Keith

Law

1-800-KARS-4-KIDS

jeffrey

lazar

Colour of Night

Roland

Leach

Koel

Alfie

Lee

Flash Fiction

Alfie

Lee

The Dragon’s Inn

Alfie

Lee

Jack

Alfie

Lee

Gilbert

Alfie

Lee

Commonwealth

Alfie

Lee

A Human Jellyfish Goes Missing

David

Lewis

Taking Revenge on August Klimt
(or The Paintbrush that isn’t a Paintbrush)

David

Lewis

A Becket Tale: 1972

Finbar

Lillis

Rocket-ship set-up guide

Kik

Lodge

Broken

Laurie

Mackie

While the Planet Still Remains

Fiona J

Mackintosh

Going, Going, Gone!

Michael

Mahoney

Suspicion

Robert

McBrearty

The Prodigal’s Brother

Patrick

McCann

Mantelpiece

Alan

McCormick

Fearing

Paul

McKeogh

A Brush with Circe

Lauren

McNamara

Never Let Me Go

Geoffrey

Mead

Nouvelle Cuisine

Geoffrey

Mead

Electric Cold

Jane

Messer

Beyond

Hailey

Millhollen

The Baptism

Alison

Milner

Cornered

Katrina

Moinet

GHOSTS

Catherine

Neville

Ed Vedder

Dominic

Nunan

How to take Prizewinning Photos

Tom

O’Brien

The Mummies of Guanajuato

Pamolu

Oldham

Versions of Him

Helen

O’Neill

Posted

Brigita

Orel

Disassociation

Carolyn

Peck

The closest I came to having sex after twelve years
of marriage to a man with anhedonia [cont.]

Kathryn

Phelan

A Mother Knows

Russell

Reader

Turkey Legs

James

Reid

Falling Woman

Hannah

Retallick

For a Time, I

Hannah

Retallick

The Fly Trap by the Window Adjacent to My House

Hannah

Retallick

Meltdown

Nicholas

Ruddock

No Future in Being a Postman

Michael

Salander

Bed Time

Yvonne

Sampson

The Sister as a Fox

Shannon

Savvas

Deciduous Trees

Adrian

Scanlan

The Twins

Seamus

Scanlon

Beauty Curse

Seamus

Scanlon

Man of Letters

Wilma

Scharrer

Cider on Your Lips

Kim

Schroeder

King Cat

Lucy

Shuttleworth

Way Out West

John

Simms

The Kiss

Jo

Skinner

Eventuality

Jonathan

Splittgerber

Underpaid

Jamie

Stacey

The Spirit of Things

Nora

Studholme

Coppélia Doll Variation

Michaela

Tamma

Some creatures trapped in ice

Hilary

Taylor

Dog Nose

Brendan

Thomas

The Movements

Cole

Tucci

Never too late

Melanie

Veenstra

Crabwalk

John

Walshe

Shedding Skin

Nicole

Watt

Savannah Animals Fun For Kids

Susan

Wigmore

The Proposal, Lyme Regis, 1936

Ken

Wilson

The electric is-ness of life

Michele

Wong

Satellite of love

Alison

Woodhouse

Snowfall

Amy

Wright

Millstone

Z. Aaron

Young

You Can Only Jump Forward

Glen

Zehr

 

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