Short Stories
Welcome to our Contemporary Flash Fiction category, showcasing bite-sized stories from a diverse mix of emerging and established literary voices. These quick reads, each under 1,000 words, offer a snapshot into modern life, relationships, and the human condition.
Despite their brevity, these stories pack an emotional punch. They capture poignant moments and thought-provoking insights that linger long after the final word. From slice-of-life vignettes to surreal and speculative tales, the styles and themes are as varied as the authors themselves.
We’ve curated works from some of today’s most promising up-and-coming writers, eager to make their mark on the literary landscape. But you’ll also find new flash fiction from acclaimed authors you may already know and love.
Whether you’re looking for a quick fiction fix on your coffee break or a palate cleanser between longer reads, these short shorts are sure to intrigue, entertain, and satisfy. Dive in and discover a world of contemporary storytelling talent, one flash at a time.
- You Complete Me by Adele Evershed
- When the Moon is Full and Bright by Ty Green
- Trick of the Light by Dan Caine
- Trapped In A Bottle by Ruben Michael Molina
- Time Window by Doug Dawson
- Things That Recede with Time by Lauren Howlett
- Thief by Kristy Gherlone
- Them By Meg Pokrass
- The Storm by Kristin Leprich
- The Soldier Who Loved Dogs
- The Shine of a Sinful Heart by Ximena Escobar
- The Rusted Swing Set by Sheila Good
- The Message on Emily’s New Phone by Charles Lee
- The Many Laments of Dagda Lichfield by Kit Zimmerman
- The Manhattan Club by John RC Potter
- The Magic Spot
- The Loser by Arthur Mackeown
- The hunt for the desired ratio by Marie Hanna Curran
- The Guitar Man and the Pigeon by Ben Westerham
- The Feral Nature of Werewolves, A History
- The Deceased’s Wife by Charles Milton Lee
- The Cold Sausages in my Neighbourhood by Owain Evans
- The Closet by Doug Dawson
- The Birthmark by Loretta Martin
- The Birds Weep by Steve Carr
- That Look by Neil Brosnan
- Telekinesis for Beginners by Michelle Lee
- Taming the Devil by Chris Martin
- Tajima By Miss Mitford
- Switching Gears by LB Sedlacek
- Swallowed by Angela Carlton
- Stuck Between the Pages by Julia Vellucci
- Strutters’ Ball by Barry Basden
- Some Freaks Sleep When They Go To Bed by Scott Pomfret
- Slowing to Park by Chris Martin
- Sherkin by Neil Brosnan
- Saving Alice by Angela Carlton
- Retreat by Jack Coey
- Questions For Vampires by Anastasia Gustafson
- Open Hands by Angela Townsend
- Nobody Shall Sleep By T. Dem
- Night of Fire and Glass by Justin Bendell
- My Job by Ronald Robert Moore
- My Daughter’s Best Friend by Michelle Reynolds
- My darkest fear! by Wendy Montoya
- Monday the 28th of August
- Missing Pipes, Nuts and Screws by Adaora Ogunniyi
- Miracle Stain Remover
- Looking for the Unseen/Seen by Anshika Arora
- Jacobs Shadow by Kate E. Lore
- In Denmark by David Sydney
- I Knew You’d Come Back to Me by DD Creed
- Heart of the Matter by Loretta Martin
- Girl with Pearls in Her Eyes by Fanni Sütő
- Full Moon Nights by Roopa Raveendran Menon
- Footloose by E. W. Farnsworth
- Falling Out by Lenka Miklosova Vrazda
- Escape by Murdock O’Mooney
- Encounter With a Talking Head by VM Landi
- Don’t Look For Us by Christine LaChance
- Disclosure optional by Keith Nunes
- Delivery by Denis Bell
- Dear You By Angela Carlton
- Damn if You Do…by R.S. Nelson
- Cold Shoulder by Hugh Cartwright
- Chasing Zero by Jean Ryan
- Catching Up 2143
- Buy it Now!
- BLACK HOLE by Alex Khansa
- Ant Death by Lorna Wood
- Alien bloom 982
- A Thank You From Evelyn by Eric Tarago
- A Quick Twist by Patrick Hanford
- A Narrow Bridge by Avital Gad-Cykman
- A Job of Work by Salvatore Difalco
- 1979, Hungary By Zary Fekete
- “Hi” by Lauren K. Sweeney
- Helping Me Up by Bruce Ransom
- Headless by David Sydney
One evening in late October, I thrashed my old rusty scythe at my overgrown lawn, whilst practising the odd golf swing. That’s when the flying saucer arrived. It hovered, casting shadows. Startled, I struck my foot, saved only by the scythes bluntness.
“I am not a warring man.” Igor watched the old man lead a German Shepherd through the rubble which Berlin had become.
Encounter With a Talking Head by VM Landi Every year during the summer my son and his wife, their two kids, and I would make the trip to the Jersey shore for a week. The oldest girl, Barbara, was around 3 the first year we took them, and her sister, Lena, was close to 2….
I’ve been caught up in your lies. I’m not the spider but the bug who waits to get swallowed in your web, those delicate strands. Yes, I’m wrapped inside where everything tends to hang.
Kim stared at her computer. She was looking at rough draft number she didn’t know what. She’d lost count, there had been so many changes. Her characters were no longer her characters. Her publisher wanted them all to be despicable.
You would hate it if you knew how many times I apply lipstick now that you’re gone. I’m putting it on, like, every five minutes to get through the next fifteen, though I know they use fish scales to make it
Long-suffering Gwendolyn O’Malley felt mid-sentence, the tiredness that comes with uttering pointless words.
He listened to the sound of rain on the roof. It sounded to him like crackling, and he imagined a raging fire above his head. He couldn’t catch fire himself because he was soaked in perspiration. He’d run until he was out of breath and ended up where he thought they wouldn’t be looking for him
Useful. Keeping busy. Reading the trails, bringing home food.
Warm day, scurrying along, pavement warm, sun bright, right overhead.
“Hey guys, watch this.”
“God, he looks so big through that thing.”
Werewolves never existed. Humans created them from lore used to explain their loss of livestock at night. Humans rejected the notation that mere feral wolves could so quietly and so effectively take down and devour whole cattle in the dead of night without being detected
I sat up gasping for air; my throat felt tight again. I glanced at the clock; although I already knew It was 3:30 am. The same time I have been waking up for the past week!
I pick up today’s paper. There’s a ring of light—bright and blurry—against a black backdrop. Headlines call it the first ever photo of a black hole.
here are ghosts on the Underground.You don’t notice them because they look just like you, or a ticket inspector. They clutch their lost life as
A Narrow Bridge by Avital Gad-Cykman I’ve sang this ancient song in moments my mouth started singing on its own, and I listened with interest to learn what would come out of it. “The whole world is nothing but a narrow bridge, a narrow bridge, a narrow bridge.” It’s so narrow, my backyard is bigger….
I stood in the paddling pool. It was the first week of the summer holidays and mum was throwing the party she told dad she wouldn?t. My mum was everywhere, handing out drinks, but my dad was in a gap in the curtains, watching.