Published quarterly on the last day of January, March, June and September
September Freestyle Writing Contest
No Entry Fee!
Word limit: 600
Deadline: SEPTEMBER 15, 2015
Submissions: email to
brilliantflashfiction@gmail.com
Prizes:
50 euro first prize (or equivalent amount in your currency)
25 euro second prize
15 euro third prize Continue reading “FREESTYLE WRITING CONTEST!”
First prize: Helen McMahon
Second prize: Toni Minoza
Third prize: Tim Roberts
Contest Judge:
Liz Nugent, author of Unravelling Oliver
FIRST PRIZE: Only Water by Helen McMahon
Judge’s comments: This beautifully written piece illustrates how every day, we have the opportunity to make a more equal society, but we allow our prejudices to get in the way. The narrator gives the homeless character a nobility and grace which make his/her avoidance of him all the more poignant.
Only Water
By Helen McMahon
You, crying, your mouth wide open, a silent howl. Like a child, in shock, the moment after a fall, before the hurt comes.
You sit in a shuttered doorway on the busy side street, the lower half of your body swaddled in a sleeping bag, filthy and ripped. Then the sound comes, the wail—a high, thin sound, unmanly. It catches me off-guard. I look at you. I hesitate. Then, though fearful, I cross the street to you. I kneel down in front of you. You do not see me. I say: are you okay? You do not answer. I reach across and put my palm on your cheek. I say: you poor man.
Slowly, you come from that place of grief, focus on my face. I take your hand. I say: come with me. I lead you down the street, taking you by the arm. You shuffle like an old man though you are young. In defiance of the manager’s hard looks, I sit you at a table in a coffee shop. I buy a pot of tea. You are surprisingly fussy about it. You insist, though your hands shake, on pouring your own milk. Continue reading “EQUALITY- WRITING CONTEST RESULTS”
FIRST PRIZE WINNER of 100 EURO:
Jessica Knauss
Contest Judge
Laurie Scavo
Brilliant Flash Fiction
Webmaster & Photographer
Read more about Laurie HERE!
FIRST PRIZE WINNER
Stairs to the Beach
By Jessica Knauss
Josie had the tunnel-staircase built because the children were fed up with the clifftop ocean view and no easy way to get to the beach below. To the children’s uproarious approval, I proposed a slide, so they could zip down onto the soft shore and get all their energy out swimming, building sandcastles, and trying to run on the tractionless surface of the sand. Then they would have to walk a mile or so around the cliff, back to the house, and I wouldn’t hear a peep out of them the rest of the day, I was sure. I could practice the viola or watch films that weren’t oriented toward children whenever I wanted.
But Josie insisted on the stairs to avoid long stretches of time when she couldn’t see her adopted dependents. In the beginning, it worked fairly well. All ten children loved hiking down the tunnel to be greeted by their own private piece of ocean, and by the time they trudged back up several hundred risers, all the sand had been knocked out of their crevices, so Roxanne didn’t have to do much cleanup in the foyer. But once they’d had time to tone their legs and exercise their lungs, they were shooting up that long staircase so fast, the sand had no time to dry, much less to let go of their sticky skin and sopping hair. Continue reading “PHOTO PROMPT – CONTEST RESULTS”
No Entry Fee, Unlimited Entries
Send us your stories
written on the theme of EQUALITY
Word limit: 300
Deadline: JUNE 15, 2015
Submissions: email to brilliantflashfiction@gmail.com
Judge: LIZ NUGENT, Author of Unravelling Oliver
liznugent.ie
Prizes: 50 euro first prize (or equivalent amount in your currency)
25 euro second prize * 15 euro third prize
Winning stories will be published in
Brilliant Flash Fiction.
PHOTO PROMPT
Submit the best story inspired by this photo and win 100 euro (or the equivalent in your currency).
No Entry Fee
Unlimited Entries
Word limit: 1,000
Deadline: March 15, 2015
Submissions: email to brilliantflashfiction@gmail.com
Winner to be selected by writer/photographer Laurie Scavo.
First prize: Meaghan Hackinen
Second prize: Alan Morris
Third prize: Serena Molloy
Contest Judge
Ed Higgins, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Writing and Literature Ed Higgins has been teaching at George Fox University for over four decades. His classes have covered poetry, the modern novel, world literature, science fiction and much more. While officially retired now, he still teaches part-time. He’s also published an extensive body of his own poetry.
Here are his winning selections and why:
First Prize: “Cycling North Cascades Highway” by Meaghan Hackinen
I like the tightness of this piece, every word counts and intensifies the story. The imagery, too, is finely tuned, believable, fulsome without overwhelming other story elements. The narrator/protagonist comes off with panache and I love her wry voice. The Kerouac allusions might put someone off, but I found them apt and they contributed to the protagonist’s character. The kinetic imagery of the story’s close zooms down that hill with exhilaration—and I’m not even a cyclist.
Second Prize: “Life is Good” by Alan Morris
While a bit put off by the title here, fearing saccharine, I was quickly hooked. The dialogue seems real, as does the situation. The setting is nicely done with economy that’s supportive of the story. And the story’s ending affirmation is touching without slipping into feel-good cliché. The last line nicely snaps the lid on the whole story scene that’s been itself nicely played out. Continue reading “LIFE IS GOOD – CONTEST RESULTS”
Our Next Writing Challenge:
“Life is Good”
No Entry Fee
Unlimited Entries
Send us your stories written on the theme,
“Life is Good”
Word limit: 300
Deadline: January 15, 2015
Submissions: email to brilliantflashfiction@gmail.com
Prizes: 20 euro first prize (or equivalent amount in your currency)
10 euro second prize * 5 euro third prize
We asked you to finish this story:
Chicken Soup Ice Cream
She met him at an international student exchange.
He was German—not her first choice. But he was dark and subdued, unlike the Brazilians who talked too much and ran their eyes over every woman in the room.
“Hello. I’m Sharon,” she said.
He stood up. “My name is Hans.”
They drank plastic cups of fruit punch and communicated in simple English phrases until it was time to go, and then Hans grew agitated.
“Will you … can I … “ he began, fighting the language.
“All right,” Sharon said.
She wanted to see a movie but his English wasn’t good enough.
They went for ice cream instead.
“In Germany,” he said, “We have an ice cream shop that sells every flavor in the world … even chicken soup ice cream.”
Contest Judge John Givens teaches fiction writing workshops in Dublin. He got his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, studied art and language in Kyoto and worked in Tokyo as a writer and editor. Givens has published three novels in the United States and a collection of short stories in Ireland. His stories have appeared in literary journals in the US, Asia and Europe.
FIRST PRIZE (20 euro): Chris Minton
SECOND PRIZE (10 euro): Kate Raynes
THIRD PRIZE (5 euro): Petra McQueen
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