Ted by Rachel M. Hollis My son turned six and all he wanted was a potato. Raw. Whole. When he opened his gift—a spud wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper—he drew a smiley face on it. Named it Ted. ‘Doe…

The 250-word Microfiction Challenge is an international creative writing competition that challenges participants to create very short stories based on genre, action, and word assignments in 48 hours.

"The Bone Hermit," flash fiction by Lyndsey Croal

Six days of burnt bulbs. Of whispers, no vowels and nothing

So happy to receive my contributor’s copy of What Whispers Back: Spinning Hawaiʻi’s Spooky Tales from Bess Press in the mail last night. It’s so pretty!

Caution by Liz deBeer Inside a cavity of a crooked white birch, a bird’s black beads dart, sweeping the snowy landscape for predators, calling out, “Chree, Chree, Chree,” when it eyes a lanky girl …

Just before the mold was declared an emergency, Mr. Ng placed a massive order for egg noodles. “Noodles are comfort food,” he told me. “People will want comfort during this strange time.” Earlier t…

We had been standing in front of the Komodo dragons for fifteen minutes by that point, and she was already getting tired. She pressed her small face as close to the barrier as possible as the giant…

A flash fiction website for writers and readers. One 75 word tale published daily. Plus author interviews and writing group map

I can’t pinpoint the exact date in our teen years that Gracie got the bright idea to become her favorite popstar. All I know is, once that lightbulb turned on, there was no switching back. She had …

Randy’s playing poker at the senior center, as he does every Wednesday, when his friend Joan walks in and waves him over. Standing beside Joan in the doorway is a woman Randy has never seen before,…

Dr. Lian Kessler built the system to teach empathy. That’s how she pitched it. A synthetic intelligence designed not to diagnose, but to understand. A neural net trained on case studies, anonymized…

The first thing that disappears is your name. It doesn’t vanish dramatically. No thunder, no announcement. It’s just missing from the places it should be. The barista hesitates when calling your or…

Why she was invited for her son’s promotion, the banquet and celebration, she didn’t know. And by that, she did know—deep down, she knew—but the pain of knowing is not worth its admission. So…

by Hege A. Jakobsen Lepri When B mentioned she’d seen someone wearing the same kind of hat her dad used to wear, her mother finally looked up from her knitting. ‘A hat,’ her mother said…

The pool filter hums all night. I used to think of it as a heartbeat, proof the place was alive, but now it sounds like a machine trying to remember how to breathe. Half the rooms stay dark. The ne…

People in elevators are anxious. This is partly because people in elevators are going somewhere, and the elevators are not that somewhere. But it is also

Peeling Mike Hutka, when he was home from selling on the road, never seemed to leave his house and yard. The car stayed in the driveway day and night. “He has

by Sherry Morris WE NAME HIM OLLIE. On our weekly whoosh-by, I wave while Dad taps a beat on the steering wheel and growl-gravel croons, ‘Halllooo, Ollie. Well, hellooo Ollie,’ just like that trump…

Tickets are now available for LOUIE STOWELL: LOKI - A BAD GOD’S GUIDE TO CAUSING CHAOS at St Peter's Church, Budleigh Salterton on Sat 26 Sep 2026. Click the link for further information and to secure...

Book club for lovers of the novella-in-flash. Monthly meetings online.

Here’s what’s coming up from your your friendly neighbourhood freelancers, lit mags and awesome independents over the next couple of months.