Folked-Up Flash

I

The Precipice

by Jiksun Cheung

II

Wolves from the Sky

by Liz Fyne

III

A Surplus of Daughters

by E.B. Schnepp

 

IV

The Axe

by Lisa Beebe

V

Closer

by Neil Clark

VI

A Becoming

by Nikki Gonzalez

VII

The Beetle Men of Meadow Brook

by Jo Withers

VIII

The Borrowers

by Kristina Saccone

IX

Skins

by Alice Laciny

X.i

Root Cellar

by Max Firehammer

X.ii

The Dancing Twins

by Terri Potvin

Folked-Up Flash is closed.

Check back at 9AM (PST)
on Tuesday, March 1st for results!

Slackers, rejoice!

Procrastinator Special keeps late entries
open until end of day (PST) on Monday, Feb. 21st.

“Avoid the moor in the hour of darkness,
when the power of evil is exalted.”

– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Submit to Folked-Up Flash

Whether dark magical realism or bleak Southern gothic, Neil Gaiman or Cormac McCarthy, Kelly Link or Flannery O’Connor, The Little Mermaid or The Wicker Man, Tim Burton or the Coen brothers, your strangest folk horror and darkest fairy tales can emerge from the gloaming and find roost deep in the mist-enshrouded barrens of Folked-Up Flash.

Here at Molotov HQ, we’ve long gravitated toward these types of stories, and so it’s high time for an entire contest chock-full of them. And let’s face it, most fables and fairytales already thrum with an undercurrent that’s darker than midnight on a moonless night. 

Your task is to make that subtext explicit, a kind of Brothers Grimmer, if you will. But we’re also not looking to publish 10 new takes on “Hansel and Gretel” where the witch actually manages to eat the children. Variety is the key (to that little secret door you found behind the bookcase). So, we also want to see entries with no magic at all, where characters brave cold, harsh elements both outside of and within themselves. Simply set your stories in a rural or old-timey setting, mix in a heaping dose of dark or offbeat atmosphere, and you’re on the right track. 

We like literary approaches, but we also dig genre and pulpy takes as well.  Art house or grindhouse. Subvert the usual fairytale and folk horror tropes or create something nobody’s ever seen before. 

In lieu of magic beans, the top three entries will win cash money.

$300 for Folked-Up Flash winner

$200 for 2nd place

$100 for 3rd place

We also give mad respect to 4th-10th place,
publishing them in our Folked-Up Flash mega-issue
and in a future print anthology.

(Grab a copy of the recently released Vol. 6 HERE.)

Submit to Folked-Up Flash

Follow these guidelines, and you could come away with cash, online/print publication, and sweet, sweet glory.

– All submissions must absolutely be under 1,000 words, and we tend to look more kindly on 750 or fewer because… TALKING SQUIRREL!

– All names are concealed on contest submissions during judging, so we won’t be playing favorites. 

– Please paste your entry into the corresponding field. Do not list your name anywhere or we’ll assume you were raised by wolves and don’t know how to read.

– Costs $8 $10 to enter during the Procrastinator Special. (Sorry, no refunds.)

– We reserve the right to extend deadlines if necessary (and you can expect our usual week-ish Procrastinator’s Special with corresponding increase in entry fee for you slackers).

– Submissions must be previously unpublished work, and you will retain copyright. By entering this contest, you give us permission to publish your work (if selected for our Top 10) both online and in a future print anthology.

– No limit on how many entries you can submit, but you must submit them one at a time. Don’t just mash them all in there.

– Contest soft deadline is end of day (PST) Tuesday, February 15, 2022 final deadline is end of day (PST) Monday, February 21, 2022. Winners announced on March 1st, and we’ll unleash the Folked-Up Flash mega-issue shortly thereafter.

– And, most importantly, this is a FOLKED-UP FLASH contest, so you must include some sort of folk horror/dark fairytale element or an old-timey or rural setting. But again, this can be in any form imaginable.

So that means you can do something like this…

or this…

or this…

or this…

or even this…

May your entry live happily ever after.

Submit to Folked-Up Flash