News
A Changing of the Guard

We have some exciting news about changes at NFFR. First off, we welcome web designer, Keith Powell, who has worked with some of the classic qualities of the NFFR original design (sheep, sheep, and sheep!) and Keith has done wonderful, miraculous things. Please take a look!

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2021 New Flash Fiction Prize Results!

Thanks so much to this year's judge, Tara Isabel Zambrano! The results are in and we're looking forward to bringing you the contest issue soon including all the stories from the shortlist. Congratulations everyone! Thank you to everyone who entered this year. Your...

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2021 New Flash Fiction Prize Shortlist

Thank you to everyone who entered the New Flash Fiction Prize this year. The following 10 stories have been chosen by the editors and sent on to this year's judge, Tara Isabel Zambrano. A Taste of SaltThat Black NothingBoxCreation MythOlla's DaughterGrandma's Shrunken...

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Dear Leo #7

In Praise of Writing “Dull” by Leonora Desar Or how a simple writing prompt is better than all the good ideas— One day, instead of writing, I was doing my usual. I googled: “writers better than I am” and “writers that will inspire me to get off my butt.” I came across...

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Exciting BIFFY 50 News!

Huge Congratulations to the writers of 3 NFFR Stories that have been named to the Best British & Irish Flash Fiction 2019-2020 aka the BIFFY50! Also high five to Founding Editor Meg Pokrass as well for her story in Electric Lit, one of our Meg favorites! More Than...

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The Anton Chekhov Prize for Very Short Fiction

Contest Guidelines: Open June 5th, 2020. Entries for the Anton Chekhov Prize for Very Short Fiction should be 800 words or less.  Submissions should be unpublished and in .rtf, .doc, or .docx format. Deadline is July 15th, 2020. The entries will be read blind by...

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Best Small Fictions 2020 Nominations!

Congratulations to the following writers! Here are links to read their wonderful stories. The Truth about Men by Angela Readman Game Theory by Merridawn Duckler Eternal by Hugh Behm-Steinberg Fable Number 1: Des Moines, Iowa by Luke Rolfes Ward Rounds by Alexis...

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Pushcart Prize Nominations, 2020

The following stories have been nominated by our staff for the Pushcart Prize, 2020! Congratulations! Nuala O'Connor "There But For" Rebekah Bergman "Certain Solitary Creatures" Hugh Behm-Steinberg "The Names of Things" Frankie McMillan "The Winter Swimming of my...

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Open Call: Prose Poetry Issue!

We are open for submissions for a prose poetry issue through December 1st! Send us your very best prose poetry, no more than 250 words for each poem, 3 poems in a single word document (750 words max per all 3). Please know that we can’t do special formatting with our...

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Dear Leo #6

Writing Your Inner Child Or how to see with “Salvador Dali Eyes” (an awesome story by Douglas Campbell that you’re going to wish you wrote yourself)by Leonora DesarSometimes (often) being an adult is lame. Not to mention writing about it. By writing from a kid or...

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Lady Gaga Considers the Shrimp Scampi by Steve Almond

There were fifty thousand little monsters screaming for an encore, Spaniards, Germans, skinny little French boys, Italians making wet sounds with their tongues.

Little Red Riding Hood by Katerina Kishchynska

Grandma gets her episodes at least once a month. She’ll grow out her jaws and if it happens on a rainy day, claws will tear out of her fingers.

Initiation by Stuart Dybek

The doors snap open on Addison, and the kid in dirty hightops and a sleeveless denim jacket that shows off a blue pitchfork tattooed on his bicep jogs forward beneath a backward baseball cap and grabs the purse off a babushka’s lap.

Hermit & Bleeding Faucet by Ana María Shua

With the population now well aware of the physical and mental benefits of asceticism (low cholesterol, bradycardia, a delicate sense of happiness, spiritual fulfillment), everyone wants to become a hermit.

Their Closet by Pamela Painter

“What are you thinking?” her husband asked her. In their twenty years of marriage he had never asked her that.