What with all that present buying and mince pie tasting, you probably don’t have much time for writing at the moment. However, if you have a tiny thing lying about, looking for a good home, perhaps one of these upcoming flash fiction competitions might be just the thing? At least with something brief you can polish it up during ad breaks or the boring bits of the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special (those infuriating training videos!). Then, when the New Year rolls around, you’ll be ready for world domination in micro form.
In the meantime, merry Christmas, one and all.
- Bath Flash Fiction Award
- Closing date: February 10
- Prizes: 1st place £1,000, 2nd place £300, 3rd place £100. Two commended £30 each. Anthology publication for all 50 longlisted authors in 2019 anthology
- Word count: 300 words
- Entry fee: £9 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
- Reflex Fiction Spring 2019 Award
- Closing date: February 28
- Prize: 1st place £1,000, 2nd place £500, 3rd place £250. All long-listed stories will be eligible for publication in the anthology to be published in April 2019
- Word count: 180-360 words
- Entry fee: €9/£7 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
- Retreat West Spring Flash Fiction Competition
- Closing date: March 31
- Prizes: 1st place £200, two runners-up will win £100 each
- Word count: 500 words
- Theme: Fire
- Entry fee: £8 per story, multiple entries. Open internationally
- Edinburgh International Flash Fiction Competition (Scottish Arts Club)
- Closing date: April 30 (opens Feb 1)
- Prize: £500
- Word count: 250 words
- Entry fee: £5 per story. Open internationally
London Independent Story Prize- Closing date: May 5 (with reduced entry fees for early bird entries)
- Prize: £200. The first, second and third placed stories will be published on the London Independent Story Prize site. All entrants will be considered for print and/or digital publication in the forthcoming LISP
- Word count: 300 words
- Entry fee: early bird £5 until Jan 13, regular entry £7 Jan 14-March 3, late entry £9 March 4-30, extended entry £12 March 31-May 5. Multiple entries permitted, open internationally
- The Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2019
- Closing date: May 31
- Prizes: 1st place £1,000, 2nd place £500, 3rd place £250. Three highly commended prizes of £100 each. The winning and highly commended entries will be published in the Bridport Prize anthology
- Word count: 250 words
- Entry fee: £8 per entry. Open internationally
Word herding 