Flash City was wild!

There’s a lot you can do with a concrete jungle, and we were happy to see so many different angles taken with this contest’s prompt. While Flash City may not have been the most highly populated contest we’ve ever hosted, the quality on display was top-tier. Whether from the grime of a dank alleyway or within the antiseptic habitat of an off-world colony, your entries brimmed with grit and humanity. 

Each contest, we tend to see unintended themes emerge, and this go-round we found a lot of stories focusing on relationships and family, especially with fathers. On the flipside, loneliness and isolation also played a factor in some stories that crept into the Top 10.

There was an apocalyptic and dystopian tilt to a good number of entries, but also poignancy and bittersweetness to be pulled from the rubble. Things got a bit gory, as we had some severed appendages and pools of blood. Phantoms and monsters also abounded, as though we were already in October. 

The following writers had stories that avoided the cut for several rounds, but didn’t quite squeak into the Top 10.

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

Colin Alexander
Karen Arnold
Tara Campbell
Jess Doyle
Justine Eells
Wiebo Grobler
Christina Harrington
Keith Hoerner
Kathy Hoyle
Henry Knollenberg
Suzanne Martinez
Michael Mulcahy
Marijean Oldham
Dan Shields
Kimberly Snyder
Alex Sobel
Christopher Stanley
Alpheus Williams
Maura Yzmore

The Top 10 that you’ll find below will be published in our forthcoming Flash City mega-issue, which will be served up within a week. They will also be included in a future Prize Winners Anthology print issue.

10th: “Kham Duc” by Bobby Burnette Lee

9th: “The Woman in the Moon” by Aeryn Rudel

8th: “The Road to California City” by Michael Carter

7th: “They Flew” by Jean-Paul Lor

6th: “Human Things” by Emily Livingstone

5th: “Repetition Compulsion” by Alyssa Jordan

4th: “Death by Death” by Jo Withers

And now for the three stories that really went the distance…

3rd Prize ($100)

“The God of Minor Inconveniences”
by Holden Wright

2nd Prize ($200)

“Every Wall Is a Window”
by Henry Heffer

1st Prize ($300)

“My Brother, the Skyscraper”
by Jo Gatford

Congrats to the winners and a huge thanks to everyone who participated in our Flash City contest! 

Check back within about a week for the Flash City mega-issue.