Apparently, you folks are a little morbid. We were thrilled to see so many unique angles taken on this contest’s death theme. Although, with such a strong turnout and such compelling writing, that made for cutthroat competition.

We saw entries pour in from 40 states here in the U.S. (get your act together, Wyoming, et al.) as well as from writers living in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Wales.

With such fierce competition, just making the shortlist required clearing quite a few hurdles. The following writers had stories that made it through several rounds of cuts, but didn’t quite squeak into the Top 10.

Close-but-no-cigar shout-outs go to:

Christopher Allen
Kristopher Armstrong
K.B. Carle
Spencer Chou
Nathan Coley
Joan Cooper
John Cornelius
Dwight Curtis
Tracy Davidson
Alex Ebel
Myles Ehrlich
Jeremy Goun
Ann Graham
Wiebo Grobler
June Guralnick
Timothy Johnson
Gaynor Jones
Sam Jowett
Robert Kaye
Raki Kopernik
Rick Krizman
Jose Medina
MJ McGinn
Chris Milam
Lawrence Morgan
James Murphy
Matt Paczkowski
Robert Penner
Erin Perry Willis
Jon Ross
R.A. Roth
Aeryn Rudel
Ryan Stone
Kaleb Tutt

The Top 10 that you’ll find below will be published in our forthcoming Killer Flash mega-issue, which will drop on Friday. They will also be included in our fourth-annual Prize Winners Anthology print issue, to be published in Fall 2018. 

Now check this out:

10th Place – “This House a Home” by Levi Krain

9th Place – “Incandescence” by Tom Weller

8th Place – “Baa Baa Black Sheep” by Tyler Dunning

7th Place – “Mama Always Said” by Roni Slye

6th Place – “Philosophy of Black Holes and Time Warps” by R.Gene Turchin

5th Place – “Bird’s Eye View” by Kathryn Burkett

4th Place – “Grief and Gravity” by Barlow Adams

And now on to those stories that really took our breath away.

3rd Place ($50)

“Animal Control”
by S.E. Casey

2nd Place ($100)

“What I Am Now”
by Alex Sobel

1st Place ($200)

“What We Find in the Guts of the Bodies
that the River Gives Us”
by Philip Webb Gregg

Congrats to the winners and a huge thanks to everyone who participated in our Killer Flash contest! It was a joy to read your work, and we couldn’t host these contests without you. Check back soon for the Killer Flash mega-issue.