“Yes, this is how it is done. Beautiful, brooding, erotic, mysterious, idiosyncratic words shaped into thunderbolts, shocks that reveal what we didn’t know we know. Words filled with promise, bewildering and enchanting us. This is flash at its best, flash now.”
Jane Ciabattari, columnist, BBC Culture, The Literary Hub
The following stories have been chosen by final judge Dawn Raffel to appear in Best Microfiction 2025. Congratulations!
- Mikki Aronoff, “Crossing Margo's Larder Off your Bucket List” (The Illanot Review)
- Steve Almond, “Communio Sanctorum” (Vestal Review)
- Nin Andrews, “I Ask My Doctor to Pray for Me” (Plume Poetry)
- Amy Barnes, “The Princess of Tides” (Literary Namjooning)
- Andrew Bertaina, “Moonlit Fields” (Literary Namjooning)
- Guy Biederman, “Rosetta Post-Its” (New Flash Fiction Review)
- Shlagha Borah, “Umami” (ANMLY)
- Kelli Short Borges, “It Was a Year” (Fictive Dream)
- Timothy Boudreau, “Bug Facts” (FlashFlood)
- Angelita Lapuz Bradney, “Shape-shifting for beginners” (Emerge Literary Journal)
- Leone Brander, “When the Dog Died” (Wigleaf)
- Nicole Brogdon, “Dangling Over the Sea” (Whale Road Review)
- Melissa Llanes Brownlee, “The Devil You Don't Know” (The Ilanot Review)
- Kati Bumbera, “Afterlife for Rent” (Does It Have Pockets)
- Laton Carter, “Clara Schumann Washing Dishes” (Salamander)
- Christine H. Chen, “Where Is Home” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
- Christine H. Chen, “Mary” (The Ilanot Review)
- Kim Chinquee, “Breaking Bread” (Ghost Parachute)
- Hayli May Cox, “Somewhere, Deep inside her Lacrimals, Something is Blocking Cora’s Tears” (Lookback Window Genres)
- Tim Craig, “Pet Shop Boys” (New Flash Fiction Review)
- Karen Crawford, “Stuck” (Flash Boulevard)
- Barbara Diggs, “Questions The Caseworker Should Have Asked After My Ex Accused Me of Neglect” (The Disappointed Housewife)
- Dara Yen Elerath, “The Tired Daughter” (Waxwing)
- Patricia Engel, “Lookback Window” (Aster(ix))
- Federico Escobar, “Self-Portrait in the Time of Disaster” (Sad Girl Diaries)
- Alexis Rhone Fancher, “Cruel Choices” (The Mackinaw)
- Grant Faulkner, “Plotting” (Boudin)
- Epiphany Ferrell, “I Fell in Love with a Caveman” (Wigleaf)
- Sarah Freligh, “Seawatchers” (Pithead Chapel)
- Jeff Friedman, “Sleepwalking” (Wigleaf)
- Avital Gad-Cykman, “You're Safe” (The Ilanot Review)
- Emma Goldman-Sherman, “Appetites” (NUNUM)
- Ryan Griffith, “Anya Underground” (Peatsmoke Journal)
- Mary Grimm, “Mother Teaches Us to Play Tennis at Brookside Park” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
- Mary Grimm, “Open the Door” (Apple Valley Review)
- Stella Hayes, “Luda, The Girl Who Was My Best Friend” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
- David Henson, “A Memory of Dreams, A Dream of Memories” (Bright Flash Literary Review)
- Suzanne Hicks, “Vandals” (matchbook)
- Lindsay Hill, “Motel Radio” (New England Review)
- Richard Holinger, “Mars” (Midway Journal)
- Vanessa Hua, “Forecast” (Split Lip Magazine)
- Katie Humphries, “Empty Nest” (Tahoma Literary Review)
- Ingrid Jendrzejewski, “Spent” (Everyday Fiction)
- Jonathan Johnson, “Newlyweds” (Glacier)
- Jessica Klimesh, “The Day I Went Missing” (Gooseberry Pie)
- Kathryn Kulpa, “Mushrooms” (Centaur Lit)
- Kathryn Kulpa, “Settle” (Dirtbag)
- Matt Leibel, “How to Become an Auctioneer” (matchbook)
- Richard Leise, “Of Ducks” (jmww)
- Jenny M. Liu, “Baby on the Verge” (jmww)
- Melanie Maggard, “What I Can't See” (The Citron Review)
- J.W. McCollum, “CDEFGA” (Pithead Chapel)
- Kathleen McGookey, “Without You” (MacQueen's Quinterly)
- Marie-Louise McGuinness, “When She Falls” (Milk Candy Review)
- Joshua McKinney, “The Poet at Twilight” (MoonPark Review)
- Frankie McMillan, “Separation” (Landfall 248)
- Skyler Melnick, “Two Girls” (HAD)
- Dawn Miller, “The Wives” (Milk Candy Review)
- Claudia Monpere, “River” (Emerge Literary Journal)
- Lynn Mundell, “Valuables” (New World Writing Quarterly)
- Will Musgrove, “Laugh Track” (The Cincinnati Review)
- Catherine Ogston, “The End of the World Comes While You Are Singing Acapella in a Room Full of Strangers” (The Phare)
- Pamela Painter, “I Have Lied to You” (10 by 10)
- Angeline Schellenberg, “Screentime” (Vast Chasm)
- Nina Schuyler, “Outside” (Ghost Parachute)
- Robert Scotellaro, “Forest Nuns in the Wild” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
- Parth Shah, “Defpotec” (Wigleaf)
- Cheryl Snell, “The Incident” (The Ekphrastic Review)
- Chelsea Stickle, “Our First Night Together” (Identity Theory)
- Charisse J. Tubianosa, “Tikbalang” (The Offing)
- Cathy Ulrich, “the girl goes” (Centaur Lit)
- Karen Walker, “The Meaning of Words Unknown to Doug” (Does It Have Pockets)
- Sheree Winslow, “Christmas Markets, Strasbourg, France” (The Masters Review)
- Francine Witte, “Where Did You Go?” (The Mackinaw)
- Jenny Wong, “Fish Soup” (Identity Theory)
- Didi Wood, “Woolworth” (Gooseberry Pie)
- Janaya Young, “Invisible Roads” (matchbook)
- Tara Isabel Zambrano, “Manual for an American Novice in a Small Indian Town” (Centaur Lit)
- Tara Isabel Zambrano, “Once in our home in Agra, the monsoon was over” (Your Impossible Voice)
- Addison Zeller, “Holothurian” (The Disappointed Housewife)
- Elena Zhang, “Three Hearts to Love Myself” (Lost Balloon)
