Fiction Inferno: The literary magazine that burns you up

First Annual Fiction Inferno Very Short Fiction Competition!

 

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We have a winner!

Out of a final count of 128 entries, all of them delightful, we have selected twenty-three that we feel rose above the rest and exemplified the Very Short Fiction qualities we most admire:

  • Efficient and effective use of language
  • Clear structure
  • Inexorable movement from a beginning to an end
  • A point (meaning one that we actually understood, of course)

Also important to note is that the winning entries all share another important trait. We liked 'em a whole lot. Which is not say we didn't like the rest of 'em too. Actually, we wish we could publish the whole 128 (and actually thought hard about doing that), but have decided that we will stick to the original plan, just this once. All entries were judged without names. There was a good deal of subjectivity, though, and a different judge may well have come up with a different list. All that is beside the point. Congratulations to all those chosen for publication and better luck in future to the rest!

First place, Second place, and runners up entries will be published in the Summer Issue, expected release around the first of August.

So, without further ado:

Fiction Inferno is pleased to announce the results of our very first (and possibly annual and possibly last--we'll just have to see)

Very Short Fiction Competition

First Place

Lost
Kristy Legassie
 

Second Place

Terraforming
Lynn Bey
 

Runners Up

The Ballad of Blood-Man
Paul G. Tremblay
Withdrawn at author's request

Cuppa
Ellen Lindquist

Dreams that Drip
Toiya Kristen Finley

In the Care of Angels
M. W. Anderson

Inference
R. M. Urell

Lessons in the Afternoon
Lynn Bey

The Night Land
M. J. Hewitt.

Not Amused
Christian Bauer

Number 9
Peggy Duffy

On Glimpsing Desdemona in a Dry Goods Store
Michael C. Boxall

The People in the Background
Kane S. Latranz

Powder Wigs
Paul M. Jessup

Sanguine Salve
David McKee

Seller's Market
R. M. Urell

Someday soon I will submit this personal advertisement to all of the world's newspapers.
C. Daly

Swansong
Tansy Rayner Roberts

A Taste of Copper
M. W. Anderson

To the Moon of Zennadon
M. J. Hewitt

Transmission Beyond Instant
John A. Broussard

The treasure of Jirá
Toiya Kristen Finley

What Words Cannot Say
Vanitha Sankaran
 

This one didn't actually make it as a runner up, but none-the-less deserves an honorable mention as quite possibly the ultimate flash story ever:

The Invisible Story or No Words

Delo White

The End.
 

Just in case somebody missed it, here's the
Max E. Keele Collection of Very Short Stories.

THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO ENTERED! THE VERY SHORT FICTION COMPETITION FOR 2002 WAS A BLAST. MAYBE WE'LL DO THIS (or something like it) AGAIN SOMETIME....

 

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For more information, contact editor@fictioninferno.com

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