Dear readers,

Today we’re excited to share the two finalists in our 2025 Fall Flash Fiction Contest, as well as a few words from our judge Kelli Borges Short on the finalists and the winning flash, “Sam & Ruby on the Brink” by Kathryn Kulpa, published yesterday. We hope you’ll take a few moments to read Kathryn’s piece if you haven’t had the chance.

Our second and third place winners are:

Second Place: “Mother Said I Was Air” by Dawn Miller, to be published tomorrow.

Third Place: “Resistance” by Laura Nagle, to be published on Friday.

Our winning writer received a cash prize of $600; our second place winner will receive $250, and our third place winner, $150. Congratulations to all three writers and a big thank you to Kelli for judging our six finalists and naming a short list of three winners. Over the next few weeks, we will publish our other three longlisted stories, we well as three more flash entries we accepted as part of the contest. We are grateful to all the writers who submitted their work.

About the three winning stories, Kelli had this to say:

First Place: Sam and Ruby on the Brink whooshed me away from the very first sentence. I found myself holding my breath as the story rocketed toward a well-earned and deeply resonant ending. Set in the Roaring Twenties, the tension and pacing are perfection, the language fresh and unexpected. Ruby, a “flapper in a flivver,” is just sixteen and eloping with Sam, of whom her parents disapprove—the two of them hurling down the road in an old jalopy when the world, quite literally, cracks open. Chaos ensues, the earth beneath threatening to swallow them whole. Stunning lines, like, “Ruby bit a slice of tongue, tasted blood, a heady cocktail of smoke and salt tang, like somebody’s bathtub bourbon,” shine, but the real highlight of this beautiful story is in the support these youngsters share in saying “I do, I do,” to trust, to the challenges of marriage, and to each other. The ending is perfection, with grandchildren sitting at Grandpa Sam’s leg, raptly listening to the retold story of the elopement and resulting “jagged red scar like a wolf bite.” The entire story, from beginning to end, is filled with metaphor and brilliant symbolism, a gorgeous and hopeful example of deep and enduring love.

Second Place: Mother said I Was Air is a powerful tale about a woman finding the agency to walk away from an abusive relationship. I’ll admit I’m a sucker for the topic and was instantly drawn into the world of this woman and her twelve-year-old daughter, whose continued love and longing for her father layers the story with bittersweet poignancy. I savored the exquisite, poetic language and unexpected slant—the woman is a palm reader who earns “insurance money” for herself and her daughter by reading the palms of other women, who listen intently, “breath caught in their throats at what they’d hear about their sons, their daughters, their meddling in-laws—the women translucent, bones thin as wafers of soap.” Nuanced and fresh, Mother Said I Was Air feels magical, with themes of exchanging and catching breath, a transference of strength from woman to woman. Beautiful.

Third Place: Resistance is smartly titled, its double meaning adding a layer to this compelling story about an aging father and his son. The father is actively dying. The son, who has spent his career studying bacteria, knows that “some strains are damned hard to kill—almost as stubborn as his father…but bacteria die in the end, like everything else.” The question, then, is not if, but when—and most importantly, how? The father is resistant to going to the hospital, the son and his sister must make a decision. Will they force him, knowing that doing so will only painfully draw out the inevitable? Agency to choose and dignity are central themes, and the ending is a satisfying, well-crafted loop back to the beginning. This one will stick with me.

To contact or to read more about Kelli, check out her website kellishortborges.com and find her on X/Twitter at KelliBorges2, and on Instagram @mamak_8. Kelli writes from her home in Phoenix, Az., where her family has lived for six generations. Her fiction has appeared in Fractured Lit, Moon City Review, Lost Balloon, BULL, SoFloPoJo, and elsewhere. Recently, her work was chosen for the Wigleaf Top 50 long list and the 2024 and 2025 editions of Best Microfiction. She’s currently working on her first novel. Thank you, Kelli!

A final shoutout to two staff members who especially helped in the review of our contest entries this year: Susan Pohlman and Elizabeth Spencer. Thanks to you both!