{"id":2768,"date":"2026-03-02T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/?p=2768"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:00:15","slug":"2026-national-flash-fiction-day-microfiction-competition-shortlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/2026-national-flash-fiction-day-microfiction-competition-shortlist\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Competition Shortlist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">This year, we were thrilled to receive 427 entries to the National Flash Fiction Day Micro Fiction Competition.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/2026-microfiction-judges\/\">judges<\/a>,<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">\u00a0Joanna Campbell, Debra A. Daniel, Emily Devane and David Swann had the difficult job of whittling down the stories to a shortlist of 27. This was no easy task and we\u2019d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and for the speed and conscientiousness with which they carried out the judging.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">It isn\u2019t easy to tell a story in 100 words, yet we were blown away by the variety of themes, subjects and styles we saw in the submissions. Thank you to everyone who sent in their work; we appreciated the chance to read your flash.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\"><b><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">If you see your flash below,<\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">\u00a0feel free to tell everyone, but as judging is still in place\u00a0<\/span><b><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">please do not reveal your title<\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Now, without further delay, our 27 shortlisted stories are:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">A Ghost of Christmas Past<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">After another 12-hour day tied to my desk, my shadow makes its excuses and leaves<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">All the Ways We Died<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Brisket and Bruises <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Debt<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Fallujah<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Gather Yellow, said the Voice in her Head<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">How Knees Learn<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">I Wish I Could Tell You It Meant Nothing<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">I\u2019m invited to watch them feed her body into the incinerator<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Irma Recovery, Florida Keys<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">It snowed for twenty years until the world lost its colour<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">My Mother Loved a Good Meat Raffle<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Rewind<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Starfish<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Strawberry Sky<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Sunlight glinting<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">The Climate Crisis Isn\u2019t fought from a Tesla in Ojay <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">The summer my father died, there was a heatwave in Almer\u00eda<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">The Things It Wasn\u2019t<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">The Universe Expands Her World Contracts<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">There\u2019s a Satyr Trapped Behind Our Fridge<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Transported<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Two Seismologists Share a Bed<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Vroomville: A cautionary tale<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">Warranty<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, serif;\">What You Think About When Your Visitors Tell You to Keep Fighting<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year, we were thrilled to receive 427 entries to the National Flash Fiction Day Micro Fiction Competition. Our judges,\u00a0Joanna Campbell, Debra A. Daniel, Emily Devane and David Swann had the difficult job of whittling down the stories to a shortlist of 27. This was no easy task and we\u2019d like to take this opportunity &#8230; <a title=\"2026 National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Competition Shortlist\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/2026-national-flash-fiction-day-microfiction-competition-shortlist\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Competition Shortlist\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}