2014 Flash Fiction Contest

Contest Judge: Ashley Farmer

Prize: $300, online publication, publication as a limited-run broadside or micro-chap, and a copy of the judge's latest book

The 2014 Flash Fiction Contest has ended. Congratulations to the winner, John Englehardt, for his piece "This Is Great But You Don't Need It." Our judge, Ashley Farmer, says "This story is a heart-breaker and a rule-breaker, a clear breath and a gut punch. It’s unorthodox in its point of view and risky in its sincerity. A full life and full world in three short pages, yet I’d stay there for longer if I could."

The 2015 Flash Fiction Contest judge will be announced later this year.

Our 2015 Innovative Short Fiction Contest is currently open for submissions.

Contest Guidelines

About The Contest

The winning flash fiction piece will be published on The Conium Review Online Compenium site. The story will also be made into a broadside or micro-chap that will be given away for free to attendees of next year's AWP conference. The winning author receives $300 and a copy of the judge's latest book.

This year’s contest judge is Ashley Farmer. Ashley is the author of The Women (Civil Coping Mechanisms, forthcoming in 2016), Beside Myself (Tiny Hardcore Press, 2014), and Farm Town (Rust Belt Bindery, 2012). She's also the Co-Managing Editor of Juked. If you are a family member, coworker, or student of the judge, you are ineligible for this contest.

Contest Deadlines
Submissions must be received between October 15th, 2014 and December 15th, 2014. All submissions must include a $10.00 entry fee. The winner will be announced in early 2015.

Submission Guidelines
All manuscripts must be submitted through our Submittable page between October 15th, 2014 and December 15th, 2014. Your submission may include up to three flash fictions, each individual piece should be under 1,000 words. Upload your submission as a single manuscript file. Your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. The judge reads blind, and she will recuse herself from considering any manuscript where the writer is identifiable.

In the "Biography Statement" field, please include a two or three sentence third-person bio. This bio will not be viewable by the contest judge. If you win the contest, your bio appears alongside the published story in The Conium Review Online Compendium.

Submissions must be unpublished, original work. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but you must withdraw your story immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.

This contest abides by the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses code of ethics. Thank you for submitting!

About the 2014 Contest Judge

Ashley Farmer is the author of the poetry collection The Women (Civil Coping Mechanisms, forthcoming 2016), the story collection Beside Myself (PANK/Tiny Hardcore Press, 2014), and the chapbook Farm Town (Rust Belt Bindery, 2012).

A former editor for publications like Atomica Magazine, Salt Hill Journal and others, she currently serves as a managing editor for Juked.

Ashley resides in Louisville, Kentucky, where she's at work on both a memoir and a fiction collaboration with her husband, Ryan Ridge.

Praise for Beside Myself:

"These stories are unlike any flash I have ever read . . . They are perfect and exhilarating, filled with the promise of the impossible." --The Masters Review
"Beside Myself—closer to poetry than fiction—haunts with its lovely use of language." --Electric Literature
"How do we read a book like Beside Myself? Like a gift. We study it from all sides, consider how it feels in our hands, read, consider, then read it again." --The Rumpus