Get Ready for the 2025 New Flash Fiction Prize

Our annual flash contest will be open for submissions September 15 to October 15. Here are a few words from this year’s judge, Grant Faulkner, on what he values in flash:

“I think what makes good flash is what makes good stories in general. Capturing the decisive moment with arresting detail. Writing to the questions, not the answers. The ability to create a mood, an intimacy, a connection that seems to go beyond the page. The ability to evoke. The ability to use the shadings of words, the nuances of language. The mot juste. And then I think the ending tends to be more important in flash stories than in longer forms. You have to stick the landing.”

Grant Faulkner (he/him) is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published three books on writing and two story collections. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton’s Flash Fiction America and New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, andThe Writer.

He serves on the National Writing Project’s Writer’s Council, LitNet’s Steering Committee, and Aspen Words’ Creative Council. He’s also the co-host of the podcast Write-minded, and publishes the weekly newsletter, Intimations: A Writer’s Discourse.

The expected release of NFFR #39 is December 1, 2025. Our entry fee is $10. The winner of the contest will receive $250, and two runners-up will be awarded $100 each. All of the usual guidelines apply regarding word count limit (500 words). We are very devoted to reading anonymously, so be sure not to include your name on your document or in the name of your document.