[Updated 13/11/19] Here’s a short blog post about micro fiction competitions. As always, do please read the guidelines before you enter anything. And also as always, good luck!
- 2019 Lennox Robinson Award
- Closing date: EXTENDED to August 31
- Prize: €100. The prize will be presented at a special event in Douglas Library, Cork, in October
- Theme: must relate in some way to the work of Cork playwright and Abbey Theatre artistic director Lennox Robinson
- Word limit: 100 words
- Entry details: free to enter. Open internationally
- Reflex Fiction Autumn Flash Fiction Competition
- Closing date: August 31 (runs quarterly)
- Prizes: 1st place £1,000, 2nd place £500, 3rd place £250. Winners and longlisted stories will be published on the Reflex Fiction website and will be eligible for publication in the print anthology to be published in June 2020 (if the writer grants permission to do so)
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 180-360 words
- Entry fee: choose your own entry fee (ie. you decide how much to pay. Suggested fee is £7, but you can pay less), multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
- STORGY Flash Fiction Competition 2019
- Closing date: August 31
- Prizes: 1st place £100 and a STORGY literary magazine gift bundle, 2nd and 3rd place a STORGY Gift Bundle. Winners and shortlisted entries will be published in a STORGY BOOKS print chapbook
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 500 words
- Entry fee: £5 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
- Stroud Book Festival Flash Fiction Competition
- Closing date: September 22
- Prizes: 1st place £500, 2nd place £250, 3rd place £100
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 500 words
- Entry fee: £5 per entry (second entry for £3). Open internationally
- 2019 Allingham Flash Fiction Competition
- Closing date: September 26
- Prize: €300. The winner will be invited to read at a special awards ceremony as part of the Allingham Arts Festival in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal (November 7-10)
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 700 words
- Entry fee: €5 per entry, up to five entries permitted. Open internationally
- Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition 2019
- Closing date: September 30
- Prizes: 1st place £500. Three other finalists will each receive £50. All four winning stories will be published in the March 2020 issue of Mslexia
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 300 words
- Entry fee: £5 per flash, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally to women writers
- Flash 500 Competition
- Closing date: September 30 (but has rolling quarterly deadlines)
- Prizes: 1st place £300, 2nd place £200, 3rd place £100
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 500 words
- Entry fee: €6.50/£5 for one story, €10/£8 for two stories. Open internationally
- Writer’s HQ Flash Quarterly Competition
- Closing date: September 30 (but there are rolling quarterly deadlines)
- Prize: A year’s membership to Writers’ HQ, with access to over £1,000’s worth of online writing courses and three one-day UK writing retreats. Winners will be published on the Writers’ HQ site and in an annual print anthology
- Word limit: 500 words
- Theme: none
- Entry fee: free (though donations to the WHQ ‘sponsor a writer’ bursary scheme are very welcome). Open internationally
- Edinburgh International Flash Fiction Competition 2020
- Closing date: September 30
- Prizes: 1st place £600, 2nd place £300, 3rd place £150. Seven flash fiction finalists will be invited to participate in the Edinburgh International Flash Awards Dinner to be held in February 2020 at the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh. There will be a dedicated page on the website for all finalists to promote their writing. The Scottish Arts Club will present a year’s free membership of the club to the main prizewinners. Publication in the anthology will be offered to the authors of the top 20 entries
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 250 words
- Entry fee: £6 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
- Bath Flash Fiction Award
- Closing date: October 13 (runs three times a year)
- Prizes: 1st place £1,000, 2nd place £300, 3rd place £100. Two commended stories will receive £30 each. 50 longlisted authors will be offered anthology print publication, and receive a print copy
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 300 words
- Entry fee: Early bird entries are £7.50 for one entry, £12 for two until August 18. Thereafter it’s £9 for one entry, £15 for two, £18 for three. Open internationally
- The Retreat West Flash Fiction Prize 2019
- Closing date: October 27
- Prizes: 1st place £350, 2nd place £200, 3rd place £100. Shortlisted writers will receive £15. All winning and shortlisted stories will be published in the annual Retreat West anthology
- Theme: none
- Word limit: 500 words
- Entry fee: £8 per entry, multiple entries permitted. Open internationally
- A Story for Daniel Flash Fiction Competition
- Closing date: October 31
- Prizes: 1st place £100 and story published on the website. One runner-up will receive a bundle of goodies including a 1,000-word critique (see website for details), and have the option to have their story published on the website
- Theme: stories with a joyful, hopeful or uplifting theme. This competition is held annually in memory of 21-month-old Daniel Farbrace and to raise awareness of blood stem cell donation
- Word limit: 500 words
- Entry fee: free to enter (or entrants can make a donation to one of three good causes in Daniel’s name), one entry only. Open internationally
- Kanturk Arts Festival Flash Fiction Competition 2020
- Closing date: November 30
- Prizes: 1st place €200, 2nd place €100, 3rd place €75
- Theme: must be inspired by, or suggested by, the image right
- Word limit: 500 words
- Entry fee: free to enter, one entry only. Open internationally
Photo: M Maggs/Pixabay; Jill Wellington/Pixabay , Viv Buckley
Word herding 