Wild Flash

I

by Andrew Bourelle

II

by Jan Kaneen

III

by Alpheus Williams

IV

by Michael Nafekh

V

by Emily Livingstone

VI

by Alex Schweich

VII

by Wiebo Grobler

VIII

by Michael Carter

IX

by Emma Miller

X

by Aeryn Rudel

The sun has set on Wild Flash.

Check back on Monday, August 19th for results.

Slackers rejoice!

Procrastinator’s Special keeps late submissions
open until August 11th, 2019.

“Nature is relentless and unchangeable.”

– Galileo Galilei

The natural world is a strange and frightening place. So much so that forces of nature make for some of the most compelling thematic elements of storytelling. Whether literal or metaphoric, majestic or horrific, capital-N Nature gives life and exacts swift death in equal measure, and we want you to harness some of that power for our Wild Flash contest.

While we’re looking for stories rooted in the natural world, there’s still room for the fantastic, surreal, and magical realist, we just ask that you lean a bit more toward the realist side of that equation for this one. We still want you to go dark and weird with it, but any otherworldly elements should at least spring forth from the terrestrial. Natural forces don’t need to dominate your stories—this doesn’t have to be a full-blown Human Against Nature conflict—but the forces of nature should play a significant role or provide a vivid atmosphere in your entries.

The top three entries will win cold, hard cash (USD):

$250 for Wild Flash winner

$125 for 2nd place

$75 for 3rd place

We also give mad props (do the kids still say “mad props”?)
to 4th-10th place,
publishing them in our Wild Flash mega-issue
and in a future print anthology, with contributor copy included.

Submit to Wild Flash

Follow these guidelines, and you could have some extra coin in your pocket, and some bragging rights as the Wild Flash winner.

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

– All contest submissions will be read blind, so we won’t be playing favorites. Sorry, Mom.

– Please paste your submission into the corresponding field. Do not list your name anywhere in your submission or we’ll assume that you don’t know how to read.

– Costs ~~$6 to enter during the Early Bird period~~ ~~$7 to enter~~ $9 to enter during Procrastinator’s 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 submission fee for you slackers).

– Submissions must be previously unpublished work, and you will retain copyright (duh). 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.

– ~~Early Bird deadline is June 25th, 2019~~. C~~ontest soft deadline is end of day (PST) August 5th, 2019.~~ Procrastinator’s Special final deadline is 11:59pm (PST) August 11th, 2019. Winners announced on August 19th and we’ll unleash the Wild Flash mega-issue shortly thereafter.

– And, most importantly, this is a WILD FLASH contest, so you must include some sort of force of nature. But again, this can be in any form imaginable.

So that means you can go all…

or all…

or even all…

Get carried away.