News
Welcome to NFFR #32, Animal Life

Thank you to everyone who submitted works. As usual it was incredibly hard to make our selections due to the stellar quality of the writings you shared with us.

read more
Issue 31

Issue 31 includes new work by Jack B. Bedell, Courtney Clute, Giselle Gerbrecht, Jude Higgins, Josie Kochendorfer, Joel Hans, Rosaleen Lynch, Imogen Rae, Max Steiner, and Cecilia Wright.

read more
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!

read more
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...

read more
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...

read more
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...

read more
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...

read more
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  Submissions should be unpublished and in .rtf, .doc, or .docx format.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...

read more

I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours by Eliot Li

I tell you I’ve only ever shown it to a girl who I met on a tour bus in Moscow, where I was traveling with my parents. She had bad acne, and she really liked Duran Duran.

Amelia Earhart Knew Seven Latin Words for Fire by Joe Kapitan

Ignis, the flaming wreckage, bubbling rubber, liquified cloth, her skin charred and blistering, acrid smoke, the tiny thunders of survival’s kicks

Electric Storm by Kathryn Aldridge-Morris

It’s been twenty minutes since the first bolt of lightning ripped a scar through the purple night sky. Since my mother said to swim in the rain ― it’s fun. Since her boyfriend Colin said he’d join us― to check we’re ok.

The Storyteller of Aleppo by Donna Obeid

In the barren cold camp, you wear a dusty cape and top hat, wave my cane as if it were a wand and tell me your dream-stories, one after the next, your words spun and tossed like tethers into the air.

Bog Iron by Shane Larkin

We make stops on the way to our bog plot to look at the little skeletons. Dad tells me about them. Curlews and skylarks in dancing poses. Tiny skulls.