experimental flash fiction

7 Flash Fiction Stories That Are Worth (a Tiny Amount of) Your Time

Reading Lists

You can probably power through all of these great short-short stories in one long bathroom break.

Flash fiction is many things: hilariously difficult to categorize; confusingly known as “microfiction,” “short shorts,” “minisagas,” “dribble,” and “drabble”; and sometimes, even dangerous .

But great might not be the first word that springs to mind. Remember, this is a style of writing so short (most cap it at 1,000 words) and so accessible that some have deemed it “Twitterature.” For every half-baked stab at micro-fiction in your Instagram feed, though, there’s a masterful short short story out there that you probably haven’t read yet. The best part? It won’t take more than three minutes to read them.

Here are seven examples of flash fiction (for a total of 21 minutes or less) that are totally worth your time.

“Chapter V,” Ernest Hemingway

“ For sale: baby shoes, never worn ” is far from Hemingway’s only foray into flash fiction ( if it was indeed his story ). This story from his collection In Our Time follows the typical arc of great flash fiction by starting with a straightforward but descriptive sentence to set the scene.

They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six in the morning against the wall of a hospital. There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the paving of the courtyard. It rained hard. All the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut. One of the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried him downstairs and out into the rain. They tried to hold him up against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of water. The other five stood very quietly against the wall. Finally the officer told the soldiers it was no good trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first volley he was sitting down in the water with his head on his knees.

After his matter-of-fact opening, Hemingway folds back the layers until that first sentence takes on an entirely new meaning by the end. What starts as an impersonal report straight out of a newspaper clipping ends as a vivid portrait of human suffering. Never fear, though: not all short shorts are this depressing… just the good ones.

“Widow’s First Year,” Joyce Carol Oates

Ernest Hemingway’s (apocryphal) six-word story might be more famous — but this four-word story from Joyce Carol Oates has it beaten in the brevity stakes:

I kept myself alive.

Pulled from the anthology Hint Fiction , a collection of works running 25 words or less, this story reveals a key trick of the flash fictionist’s trade: let the title to do the heavy lifting . In isolation, “I kept myself alive” might be construed as a feel-good mantra — but in the context of the title, it provides a morbid twist on the setup-punchline structure of a joke.

“Give It Up!” Franz Kafka

Not all flash fiction needs to be breathlessly blunt like Hemingway’s. In this single paragraph, posthumously published story, Kafka crystalizes the mood and paranoia that defines most of his work:

It was very early in the morning, the streets clean and deserted, I was walking to the station. As I compared the tower clock with my watch I realized that it was already much later than I had thought, I had to hurry, the shock of this discovery made me unsure of the way, I did not yet know my way very well in this town; luckily, a policeman was nearby, I ran up to him and breathlessly asked him the way. He smiled and said: “From me you want to know the way?” “Yes,” I said, “since I cannot find it myself.” “Give it up! Give it up,” he said, and turned away with a sudden jerk, like people who want to be alone with their laughter.

Edgar Allan Poe once described the need for a “unity of effect” in short stories: the act of carrying a single emotion throughout the piece to elicit a particular reaction from the audience. In just 130 words, Kafka is able to suck readers into his world and leave them shaken.

“Sticks,” George Saunders

This excerpt is from a 1995 story that’s become a modern classic of the micro-fiction form. Depicting decades of a man’s life through the prism of a hand-made lawn ornament, these two paragraphs reveal the keen eye for specificity that has since helped writer George Saunders win the Booker Prize.

Every year Thanksgiving night we flocked out behind Dad as he dragged the Santa suit to the road and draped it over a kind of crucifix he’d built out of metal pole in the yard. […] The pole was Dad’s only concession to glee. We were allowed a single Crayola from the box at a time. One Christmas Eve he shrieked at Kimmie for wasting an apple slice. He hovered over us as we poured ketchup saying: good enough good enough good enough. Birthday parties consisted of cupcakes, no ice cream. The first time I brought a date over she said: what’s with your dad and that pole? and I sat there blinking…

It might be a little longer than your average short short, but in two paragraphs, Saunders seamlessly works in an emotional arc that’s more impactful than most novels. Most impressive is how he suggests a fleshed-out backstory through a handful of asides: Rod’s helmet, the father’s old army medals. And, like all great flash fiction, its ending hits stunningly hard and stays with you for a lot longer than three minutes.

Read the full story  here .

“Taylor Swift,” Hugh Behm-Steinberg

Not all great flash fiction is bleaker than bleak! This winner of the 2015 Barthelme Short Prose Prize couldn’t be much farther from the gritty, sober tone of most flash fiction. Written in the oft-controversial second person, Behm-Steinberg’s story imagines a world where Taylor Swift (yes, the singer) is available in abundance to anyone who cares to order one from the internet.

It’s a bizarre story: a meditation on capitalism, fame, and consumer culture. It’s also riotously funny. Here’s an excerpt:

You’re in love; it’s great, you swipe on your phone and order: the next day a Taylor Swift clone shows up at your house. It’s not awkward, it’s everything you want. She knows all her songs, and she sings them just for you. When you put your Taylor Swift to bed (early, you got a big day tomorrow) you peek over the fence into the Rosenblatt’s yard, and the lights are blazing. Your best friend Tina has three Taylor Swifts swimming in her pool. She has a miniature Taylor Swift she keeps on a perch, a Taylor Swift with wings. You’re so jealous. She’s not even paying attention to them, she’s too busy having sex with her other Taylor Swifts, they’re so fucking loud it’s disgusting. You hate Taylor Swift…

This goes to show that flash fiction’s sole purpose isn’t just to depress readers. Instead, its constraints can allow the writer to distill their ideas into just a couple hundred words.

“Untitled,” Adhiraj Singh

“im sorry, its a girl” said the doctor to the father.

“no, im sorry, youre a sexist” said the girl child to the world.

Taken from writer Adhiraj Singh’s parody collection, Terribly Tatti Tales , this story manages to fun at the poor grammar and heavy-handedness of most “Twitterature,” while simultaneously delivering a hilarious and rousing story in and of itself.

“Gator Butchering for Beginners,” Kristen Arnett

If you’re interested in more stories short enough to read on your commute, Electric Lit’s own Recommended Reading Commuter showcases the best flash, graphic, and experimental narratives out there. Take, for example, this particularly disturbing excerpt from up-and-coming Floridian writer Kristen Arnett on the minutiae of skinning an alligator:

It’s easy enough to slip the skin. Wedge your knife below the bumpy ridge of spine to separate cartilage from fat; loosen tendon from pink, sticky meat. Flay everything open. Pry free the heart. It takes some nerve. What I mean is, it’ll hurt, but you can get at what you crave if you want it badly enough.

Start with the head…

…and to hear where “Gator Butchering” ends , check out the full story . Spoiler: it’s about alligators, but it’s also not about alligators.

When it comes to flash fiction, you can’t be blamed for raising an eyebrow — especially if your only experience has been a badly-written paragraph on your Facebook wall. But hopefully, these stories demonstrate just how exciting it can be to read a story that goes straight to the heart without a single wasted word.

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Lucid: A Collection of Experimental Flash Fiction

Janice abel , mylinda abert , rob astor ...more.

60 pages, ebook

First published September 12, 2012

About the author

Janice Abel

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Top 24 Websites for Flash Fiction

But have you ever wondered whether anyone actually read your flash fiction piece you published online? This list gives you a good idea of how many eyeballs it reached by ranking the markets.

I used the analytical program  SimilarWeb to estimate the number of monthly visitors each literary journal receives [UPDATED SUMMER 2016], and then I averaged the last three months together.

Does this tell you which is the best magazine? Nope. Does it tell you whether the fiction the journal has published is any good? Nope. Does it tell you whether they have good graphic design, or excellent editorial skills, or whether the magazine will endure? Nope, nope, nope.

This is for curiosity’s sake . Don’t use the list in the wrong way, by pretending this is a judgment on quality.

Also, remember that some of these journals provide other material — longer fiction pieces, nonfiction, interviews — and that some percentage of the visitors might be looking at that rather than the flash fiction. Still, I think this gives you a ballpark of flash fiction and micro fiction readers based on number of visitors.

(if you’re looking for Flash Fiction Competitions, check out my list of the top 17 Flash Fiction contests )

I created this ranking because when I was looking for flash fiction markets (on various websites and on Duotrope ), I encountered a huge load of subpar journals . You know the type — jenky formatting, lousy design, old “new” issues, few back issues, etc. I didn’t want to submit to any of them. Or read them, for that matter.

Which made me wonder: in the same way I ranked regular literary journals by using the Best American Short Stories , maybe I could also use a different system to rank some of the best places for Flash Fiction. And so was born the idea of measuring website traffic.

The magazines below are largely literary, but after this list I offer a few bonus ones which should satisfy writers looking for some alternative genres.

Also, many of the literary magazines below publish micro fiction as well as flash fiction. The difference between the two? Micro fiction tends to run under 300 words, while flash fiction is under 1000 words. So micro fiction is even flashier than flash fiction.

I hope you enjoy this list and enjoy reading and submitting to all these journals!

1.  3 AM Magazine – 85,000 visitors monthly

I’d known about 3 AM Magazine since 2009, but I never knew they got so much traffic. Apparently, they’re more than just a cult fascination. In addition to creative work like fiction and poetry, they offer a blog, reviews, interviews, and essays. They’re looking for experimental fiction under 2,500 words.

2. Flash Fiction Online – 35,000 visitors monthly

Flash fiction online has a cool lightening logo and they’ve published an annual anthology for the last three years with dubious graphic design but great content. They’re open to reprint submissions, and what’s more, they’re one of the few to offer pro payment for stories (.06 cents a word). Many of the staff like speculative and sci-fi, and the journal has that focus, but their tastes extend beyond that genre.

3.  Word Riot – 25,000 visitors monthly

Word Riot releases a monthly issue with flash fiction and flash nonfiction. They’ve got a great pedigree, having set up shop in 2002, which makes them practically ancient because literary journal years are like dog years. They are looking for pieces under 1000 words.

4. Everyday Fiction – 22,000 visitors monthly

Everyday Fiction is a popular home for flash fiction, with stories of mass appeal published often. What’s most helpful is a list of categories in their sidebar, where you can target the type of stories you prefer to read: humor, horror, sci-fi, literary. They pay a token amount ($3 a story).

5.  Brevity  – 20,000 visitors monthly

Originally connected with the journal Creative Nonfiction , Brevity has captured the niche of flash nonfiction on the web. Look over the published authors in their bullpen — they have quite a few heavy-hitter names. They’re looking for pieces under 750 words, and they pay $45 for each one.

6.  Pank  – 16,000 visitors monthly

Founded by the inestimable Roxane Gay, Pank draws in huge crowds. They don’t only publish flash fiction, and there is no maximum amount of words on their website, but their pieces tend to be shorter. Pank also has a publishing arm — Tiny Hardcore Press — and is on my list of Best Online Literary Journals .

7.  100 Word Story – 14,000 visitors monthly

100 words is truly micro fiction. They post photo prompts and publish one winner every month, and also have book reviews, interviews and essays.

8.  Smokelong Quarterly – 14,000 visitors monthly

Smokelong Quarterly is more important than these numbers would suggest. Smokelong and NANO fiction were the flash-fiction journals I knew best before I compiled this list. In fact, Smokelong was in competition as the standard name for flash fiction — fiction you can read during the length of a cigarette. It was founded in 2003, and has developed a solid reputation as a premier publisher of flash fiction. They publish fiction under 1000 words.

9.  Hobart – 13,000 visitors monthly

Hobart publishes flash fiction and flash nonfiction on a very regular basis — almost every day. They ask for pieces under 2,000 words, although they say that under 1,000 is even better. Hobart has a great reputation, and if you read just a few pieces you get a great sense of their swagger and heart.

10.  Drunken Boat  – 12,000 visitors monthly

Drunken Boat is looking for pieces that use the “medium of the web as part of its compositional strategy.” Meaning, they like video, sound, animation, and hypertext integrated with language. Ambitious, but they have some amazing work.

11. Flash Fiction Magazine – 11,000 visitors monthly

They really do deliver on their promise to publish a flash fiction piece daily. It’s a great place to get your reading fix. In exchange for signing up for their email list, they send you a free ebook of a whole bunch of flash fiction. No erotica or children’s stories, and if you get published there, you have to wait 2 months to submit again.

12.  The Collagist – 10,000 visitors monthly

Matt Bell was the editor here for a number of years, but he’s moved on and now Matthew Olzmann and Gabriel Blackwell edit. It’s a monthly journal published since 2009, originally started as a project of Dzanc books. It’s got great excerpts of forthcoming novels, as well as novellas and flash fiction.

13.  Lunch Ticket – 8,000 visitors monthly

Lunch Ticket is published by Antioch University’s MFA program. There’s no stated limit to flash fiction, but normal fiction submissions run under 5,000 words. In addition to flash fiction, they’re looking for translations, YA fiction, and visual art.

14.  NANO Fiction  – 7,000 visitors monthly

NANO Fiction is another one of those journals you have to know if you travel in flash fiction circles. They publish so many amazing short shorts it’s hard to keep up. They also sponsor the $1000 NANO Prize for fiction under 300 words, pay $20 per accepted piece, and this is their stated aesthetic: “We are looking for work that experiments with form while still balancing narrative.”

15.  Fiction Southeast  – 4,000 visitors monthly

Not to be confused with Southeast Review , Fiction Southeast has a number of marquee writers like Joyce Carol Oates and Donald Ray Pollock. They are looking for fiction under 1500 words, and also sponsor the Ernest Hemingway Flash Fiction Prize .

16. Literary Orphans – 4,000 visitors monthly

Literary Orphans likes to pair photography with writing, or as they say it, building a “collaborative writing and arts platform.” They say 1500 words is their sweet spot and 2000 is their upper limit. They are also launching The Rookery, which is an archive for digital journals in danger of e-death.

17.  Monkeybicycle  – 4,000 visitors monthly

Monkeybicycle publishes a lot of short-shorts under 2000 words, but they also publish one-sentence stories every Wednesday. They also have a nice backlog of podcasts and columns that are interesting to peruse, in addition to their fiction, nonfiction and interviews.

18.  Wigleaf  – 4,000 visitors monthly

Wigleaf sponsors the Top 50 Very Short Fictions, which is a lovely place to read fantastic short-shorts and to discover new journals. They are looking for stories under 1000 words and post weekly. They also regularly appear in storySouth’s Million Writers Awards.

19.  Vestal Review – 2,000 visitors monthly

Vestal Review brags they’re the longest-running flash magazine in the world. I won’t dare to contest that (they recently celebrate their 15th anniversary) although I’ve noted suspicious claims  from literary journals before about age. They hold a Flash Fiction award for the best story under 500 words published anywhere, and the winner receives $100 and re-publication.

20.  DecomP – less than 1,000 visitors monthly

DecomP wins a fair amount of awards , including a bunch in the Queen’s Ferry Press “The Best Small Fictions of 2015.” They don’t have a word limit for flash fiction, but regular fiction is limited to 4,000, so it’s probably far below that. They also have a massive database of archived work dating back to 2004.

21.  Juked – less than 1,000 visitors monthly

Juke publishes a few short-shorts every couple of weeks, and they’re looking for fiction under 2,500 words. They not only publish online but have print issues, too.

22.  Cheap Pop – less than 1,000 visitors monthly

Cheap Pop is new but they got verve. They have a micro-fiction contest under 500 words in any genre, and publish anywhere from four to eight pieces a month.

23.  Nanoism  – less than 1,000 visitors monthly

I couldn’t find visitor information on Nanoism, but I’m listing it still because I think the idea of Twitter-fiction is great. That’s right — a 140 character limit. They’ve been publishing stories since 2009.

24. New Flash Fiction Review – less than 1,000 visitors monthly

This is a newish flash fiction journal, started in 2014. They have contests, offer mentoring, and publish regular issues.

If you’re looking for a great collection of flash fiction, check out THE BEST SMALL FICTIONS  edited by Tara L. Masih:

A Few Bonus Flash Fiction journals:

If you like “dark” fiction (think Twilight Zone), check out Lamplight , which gets about 4,000 visitors monthly.

Doesn’t get enough traffic to register in the rankings, but check out FRiGG Magazine , which publishes two issues annually, and accepts stories under 1000 words.

Superstition Review is published by Arizona State University students, has been since 2008, and solicits flash fiction.

For pieces under 150 words, check out the monthly literary magazine  Hoot , featuring postcard-sized writings.

Willow Springs is looking for short-shorts under 750 words, and pays $40.

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MetaStellar is a new, free science fiction, fantasy and horror magazine that was launched in the fall of 2020.

Since then, it’s published more than 300 stories by 180-plus authors, and we currently get between 1,000 and 5,000 pageviews a month.

Link to site: https://www.metastellar.com/

Hi, I also have blog having flash fictions… I have 2000 monthly visitors… Please could you publicize my blog too?

Hi. Just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for the compilation. Looks like some interesting ones listed.

Great list, but I’m looking for pubs that will use flash fiction works already published on the Internet or in anthology form. I have two (one published in an anthology book) and one on the Internet.

Quite a few of the links are spam-like in nature. Also many are quite dated / closed / non-paying. List needs drastic updating.

Fiction Attic Press publishes new flash fiction every week. We pay $15 per flash fiction, $20 per essay, and $50 for novellas-in-flash. We’ve been publishing flash fiction and essays since 2005. Find us at fictionattic.substack.com or fictionattic.com.

Thanks for sharing this list. I have a website where writers can share not only flash fiction but short stories in other genres.

Though my traffic is relatively small but I know it will grow.

Here’s the link if you want to check it out. inkwrit.com and yes I’m happy to announce that the site got monetized by Google last June.

Really amazing article. It’s really helpful. Thanks for sharing.

I don’t know how you selected the people you list, but I hope you’ll add this:

Writer Advice seeks flash fiction (750 words or less). Draw us in. Open our eyes. Dazzle, delight, and entice us. Winners receive cash prizes and are published. Low fee for solid feedback. Deadline: 06/02/24. Details, tiered fees, and cash prizes: https://writeradvice.com/latest-contest-information/ .

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Blog – Posted on Tuesday, Apr 23

Flash fiction stories: 25 examples of lighting-fast stories.

Flash fiction is one of the most fascinating creative mediums in this day and age: incredibly difficult, but also incredibly rewarding. After all, flash fiction requires writers to effectively cramming a whole narrative into 1,500 words or less.

But when writers rise to this challenge, the results can be exquisite. This post is dedicated to those dazzling flash fiction examples. We'll cover works by the masters of the medium, from Franz Kafka to Joyce Carol Oates. Some stories are a few paragraphs long, some a few lines, and others only a few words — but all of them display storytelling ability that's out of this world. Without further ado, here are 25 flash fiction examples worth a (very quick) read!

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great short stories out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized short story recommendation 😉

Which short story should you read next?

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1. “ Angels and Blueberries ” by Tara Campbell

Word count: 744 words

First lines: “Why is the sky blue?” you ask. Well, it all depends on who’s answering.

Campbell’s sweet, wholesome story posits various explanations for the color of the sky, one of which (naturally) involves angels and blueberries. Besides making you crave a fruit smoothie, it’ll open your eyes to the delightful possibilities of imagination when we disregard science for a few minutes.

2. “ As the North Wind Howled ” by Yu Hua

Word count: 1,371 words

First line: Sunlight had sneaked in through the window and was creeping toward the chair where my pants dangled. I was lying bare-chested in bed, rubbing some gunk from the corner of my eye. It must have collected while I was sleeping, and to just let it stay there seemed inappropriate.

Translated from the original Chinese, this brilliantly bizarre story follows a man who awakens one morning to find a stranger pounding down his door. The stranger insists that he’s come to visit his sick friend — the only trouble is, our narrator has no idea who he’s talking about. The uncanniness escalates from there, culminating in a dark yet comic ending that deftly comments on the oppressive nature of social obligations.

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3. “ Baby Dolls ” by Becky Robison

Word count: 175 words

First line: My mother isn’t always Raggedy Ann, but she was when I was born.

This super-quick vignette from Becky Robison manages to be profoundly moving and disturbing at the same time. It details the circumstances of the narrator’s birth, during which her mother was dressed as Raggedy Ann … or had perhaps morphed into her, depending on how you interpret the poetic prose.

4. “ Curriculum ” by Sejal Shah

Word count: 490 words

First lines: The map was printed on a handkerchief. It is a map of a place that no longer exists.

One of the most praised pieces of flash fiction examples in recent memory, “Curriculum” is divided into three parts: Area Studies, Women’s Studies, and Visual Studies. As you might expect, however, the details of each are not purely academic, but provide a rich context for the narrator’s life — particularly her relationships to cultural identity, womanhood, and her mother.

5. “ Give It Up! ” by Franz Kafka

Word count: 128 words

First line: It was very early in the morning, the streets clean and deserted, I was walking to the station.

“The Metamorphosis,” “The Trial,” and “The Castle” are all very good stories, but “Give It Up!” is a perfect summation of the Kafkaesque: disconcerting and ultimately hopeless. Clocking in at just over 100 words, it’s also one of the most impressive feats of flash fiction by an author largely known for his full-length works.

6. “ Girl ” by Jamaica Kincaid

Word count: 681 words

First lines: Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline.

From the author of A Small Place comes this insightful passage on what it means to be a girl, presented in an almost stream-of-consciousness series of instructions. From how to cook and clean to the most appropriate ways to present oneself to men, “Girl” potently demonstrates the many near-impossible standards that women are expected to fulfill without faltering. Don’t worry, though — there are a few surprisingly optimistic moments in the piece as well.

7. “ John Redding Goes to Sea ” by Zora Neale Hurston

Word count: 750 words

First lines: The villagers said that John Redding was a queer child. His mother thought he was too. She would shake her head sadly, and observe to John’s father: “Alf, it’s too bad our boy’s got a spell on ’im.”

“John Redding Goes to Sea” delivers on its title in a surprising yet sweet way: John is a 10-year-old boy, and the “sea” is the nearby river where he launches his twig ships. This 750-word story is a lovely rumination on dreams, obstacles, and how we change as we grow older. And in the vein of Their Eyes Were Watching God , it’s full of Hurston’s signature lyrical description and historically accurate dialect — both proof of her careful attention to detail .

8. “ Housewife ” by Amy Hempel

Word count: 43 words

First lines: She would always sleep with her husband and with another man in the course of the same day, and then the rest of the day, for whatever was left to her of that day, she would exploit by incanting, “French film, French film.”

A quintessential work of microfiction, this single sentence encapsulates the experience of a bored but clearly aspirational housewife. We’ve copied it here in its entirety for you to enjoy:

9. “ Likable ” by Deb Olin Unferth

Word count: 335 words

First lines: She could see she was becoming a thoroughly unlikable person. Each time she opened her mouth she said something ugly, and whoever was nearby liked her a little less.

Another superb meditation on womanhood, Unferth’s story dissects what comes after the stage of Kincaid’s “Girl”: that is, the process of growing older and becoming less “valuable” in the eyes of society. This heart-wrenching piece will resonate with any woman over the age of 40, and force the rest of us to confront what exactly makes the narrator feel so unlikable.

10. “ My Dead ” by Peter Orner

Word count: 1,283 words

First lines: Her name was Beth. We didn’t know each other. We took her car and headed to Missouri from Chicago. I remember that by the time we’d gone a few miles south on the Stevenson we’d already run out of things to say.

This piece tells the tale of two relative strangers attending a séance. But rather than using horror to compel readers, Orner turns instead to good old-fashioned wit: “What’s the hurry?” one of the characters says at one point. “Everybody’s already dead.” However, the ending will get your heart racing with its sudden hairpin turn into drama… and not in the spooky manner you might think.

11. “ Possession(s) ” by John Smolens

Word count: 875 words

First lines: When your wife dies, you find music tastes different and food sounds the same.

Though we’d normally steer clear of anything to do with a writer and his dead wife , “Possession(s)” proves that it can be done without a hint of misogyny — and indeed, with remarkable nuance. The narrator of this story describes the excruciating process of adjusting to a new life when one’s spouse passes away — namely, figuring out what to do with her things. Infused with incredible emotion and rendered in beautiful prose, “Possession(s)” is an affecting account of mourning that you won’t soon forget.

12. “ Ramona ” by Sarah Gerkensmeyer

Word count: 1,132 words

First lines: Ramona used to say, “When it’s on the outside I feel self-conscious.”

“Ramona” is another great flash fiction example: a compelling combination of Miranda July-esque, intimately observational prose and unexpected elements of the surreal. The narrator is best friends with (and has romantic feelings for) the eponymous Ramona, who wears her heart outside her body… literally. Pain, love, and an incisive sense of nostalgia all intertwine in this roughly thousand-word short story.

13. “ Riddle ” by Ogbewe Amadin

Word count: 1,159 words

First lines: I think Aunty Adesuwa is a witch. Mama says so sometimes.

If you’ve ever pondered the true nature of good, evil, and the shades in between, you’ll likely sympathize with young Idara. Her mother claims that Idara’s aunt is an evil witch — but from what she knows of Aunt Adesuwa, this can’t possibly be true. Or can it? Contemplative and haunting, this story (and especially its resolution) has the staying power of a much longer piece.

14. “ Sorry Dan ” by Erik Cofer

Word count: 734 words

First lines: I like you, Dan, I really do. You’ve been the face of this company for many years, overseeing a period of unprecedented net growth. And on a more personal level, you’ve become a dear friend. Heck, our wives attend spin class together twice a week! But unfortunately, friendship only means so much in today’s cutthroat business environment.

The full title is this one is actually “Sorry Dan, But It’s No Longer Necessary For a Human to Serve As CEO Of This Company”... which pretty much sums it up. Published in McSweeney’s in 2014, Cofer’s satirical letter to a boss made obsolete by his robotic counterpart has only become more relevant over the past few years . Not to mention that its apologetic-but-firm tone flawlessly imitates actual downsizing notices.

15. “ Sticks ” by George Saunders

Word count: 392 words

First lines: Every year Thanksgiving night, we flocked out behind Dad as he dragged the Santa suit to the road and draped it over a kind of crucifix he'd built out of metal pole in the yard.

“Sticks” is one of the best-known pieces of flash fiction this side of Hemingway’s alleged baby shoes — perhaps because it puts a serious spin on the infamous Seinfeld Festivus pole . The narrator’s father keeps a metal pole in their yard and decorates it not just for the winter holidays, but for every significant occasion: Groundhog Day, Veteran’s Day, the Super Bowl, etc. Yet his affection for the pole doesn’t seem to extend to his own children. Fans of David Sedaris’ dysfunctional family anecdotes: this is the story for you.

16. “ Taylor Swift ” by Hugh Behm-Steinberg

Word count: 500 words

First lines: You’re in love; it’s great, you swipe on your phone and order: the next day a Taylor Swift clone shows up at your house.

The premise of this wonderfully weird story is that anyone can order a perfectly replicated clone of Taylor Swift straight to their front doorstep — or multiple clones, if you want to build yourself a herd. Another one of those much-praised bit of flash fiction examples from the past few years, “Taylor Swift” is like a Black Mirror episode meets celebrity fanfiction meets… well, you just have to see for yourself.

17. “ Three Is A Rational Number ” by Michele Finn Johnson

Word count: 1,055 words

First lines: Lola’s lost her rational numbers worksheet. She’s got the whole school bus looking for it — when Lola says to do something, it’s like she’s an orchestra conductor and we all just fall in line.

This is a funny, poignant glimpse into the minute melodrama of seventh grade: the narrator’s twin sister, Lola, starts dating the “goon” of Darby Junior High, Billy Maguire. Needless to say, her brother isn’t exactly thrilled, and even less so when Lola starts cheating off Billy’s algebra papers. Vivid details and an authentically juvenile voice will transport you right back to your own seventh-grade bus scandals — especially if they involved copying homework.

18. “ The Huntress ” by Sofia Samatar

Word count: 374 words

First line: For fear of the huntress, the city closed like an eye.

A gorgeous piece of almost folkloric flash fiction, “The Huntress” describes its titular predator in ambiguous terms (“a stench of fur,” “she left a streak”) that somehow makes its terror even more palpable. Though critics are divided on whether the Huntress is meant to be a metaphor , the evocative strength of Samatar’s writing leaves an incredible impression.

19. “ The Wife on Ambien ” by Ed Park

Word count: 1,039 words

First lines: The wife on Ambien knows the score. I mean this literally. Rangers, 4–3 in overtime. Devils fall to the Flames, 3–1. Knicks lose again at home. In the morning, I open the paper and none of this checks out.

What does the wife on Ambien do? Quite a lot, according to Ed Park — even if she doesn’t remember it. This hypnotizingly anaphoric account of her musings, activities, and general welfare is equal parts sad and hilarious, complete with an ending that will have you questioning the narrator’s stability as well.

20. “ The Visitor ” by Lydia Davis

Word count: 342 words

First lines: Sometime in the early summer, a stranger will come and take up residence in our house.

Widely renowned as the queen of flash fiction, Lydia Davis has produced countless micro-stories over multiple anthologies, but perhaps none as excellent as “The Visitor.” Beginning with an anecdote about the narrator’s sister and a strange houseguest she once entertained, this barely 300-word story soon moves into unexpectedly sweet territory, and its usage of the past to anticipate the future is nothing short of subtle genius.

21. “ This Is How You Fail to Ghost Him ” by Victoria McCurdy

Word count: 959 words

First lines: Swipe right. Swipe right. Tinder. Bumble. Be unable to remember which, but this younger, generically handsome boy whose face reminds you of a Playmobil figure has driven from the suburbs tonight to meet you.

More of a thinkpiece than flash fiction per se, “This Is How You Fail to Ghost Him” nonetheless deserves a place on this list for its acerbic wit and all-too-cutting observations of modern dating life. If you read “ Cat Person ” and loved it, you’re sure to enjoy McCurdy’s writing here too.

22. “ Unnecessary Things ” by Tatyana Tolstaya

Word count: 677 words

First lines: This Teddy bear once had amber eyes made from special glass — each one had a pupil and an iris. The bear itself was gray and stiff, with wiry fur. I adored him.

Though translated from the original Russian, this piece retains a stunning sense of clarity in its rumination on “unnecessary things”: items that do not, or no longer, serve a commercial or useful purpose. Our narrator happens upon a teddy bear that fits this description, but her feelings for it still overwhelm her — and might just cause the reader to shed a tear, too.

23. “ War of the Clowns ” by Mia Couto

Word count: 571 words

First lines: One time two clowns set themselves to arguing. The people would stop, amused, to watch them.

This 571-word story gives new meaning to the phrase “clowning around,” as two battling jesters resort to more and more aggressive tactics. And while they entertain their spectators at first, their violent delights most definitely have violent ends.

24. “ Where Are You? ” by Joyce Carol Oates

Word count: 523 words

First lines: The husband had got into the habit of calling the wife from somewhere in the house — if she was upstairs, he was downstairs; if she was downstairs, he was upstairs — and when she answered, “Yes? What?,” he would continue to call her, as if he hadn’t heard and with an air of strained patience: “Hello? Hello? Where are you?”

Joyce Carol Oates’ simple yet elegant style lends itself extremely well to flash fiction examples, as this piece demonstrates. In just over 500 words, she paints a striking portrait of an elderly married couple and the discord between them, which stems from their inability to communicate.

25. “Widow’s First Year” by Joyce Carol Oates

Word count: 4 words

First lines: I kept myself alive.

Our final entry also comes from Oates, and probably holds the record for most succinct display of emotion in flash fiction history. Here it is, all four words of it — though of course, you also need the title to understand the full impact: I kept myself alive.

Want more quick reads? Check out these 11 interesting short stories that may change the way you think. Or try something a little different (but just as fast) by picking up some of the best graphic novels !

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Locked Room Mystery: Experimental Flash Fiction By Vincent Casaregola

Vincent Casaregola, author of “Locked Room Mystery”, teaches literature, film, and writing at Saint Louis University. He has published his fiction work in a variety of literary journals.

All doors remain locked, always, and thus no one could possibly enter or leave—no windows, no access. If light there be, and we cannot know, its origin, too, is true mystery. From outside, the space seems contained and defined, at least at first glance, but then it changes, morphs to something vast, then back to infinitesimally small.

I remain in awe, wondering at what shapes the mystic structure might contain, secrets unrevealed, and so it triggers, then controls imagination, calling forth interiors of shadowy awareness, of dreams or vague memories of dreams, of murmured voices and other sounds indecipherable, sending electric pulses through already over-sensing nerves. I am outside, or am I inside as well? What dream or mystery is revealed here?

What others will see, I know not, but for my part, I begin to see a vast interior of ill-lit spaces, nearly empty but for silent, shadowy figures in alcove-like enclosures. Despite its expansiveness, no echoes resound in this mostly empty space, as if the air itself were too thin to carry them. Then, eventually, I discern a dark object moving that becomes, at last, a walking cat, progressing in deliberate, cat-like silence, pausing by each alcove to sniff scents, to gauge opportunity or danger.

What others will see, I know not, but for my part, I begin to see a vast interior of ill-lit spaces…

Then I hear the cat’s thoughts, still quiet but firm and definite—it knows what it knows, as it continues its tour of the semi-darkened hall. In one corner, it finds a somber politician, reading history and sipping silently an Irish whiskey. His brow is furrowed with thought and sadness, imaging what might have been.

In another, a woman in a leather jacket, of the kind aviators once had worn, kneels on the hard tile floor—it must hurt—but no matter, as her attention is fixed on the pile of maps beneath her hands. She is focused, but not yet desperate, intent on finding a way out, a way home.

Elsewhere, a man nods rhythmically to some music we can only infer but not hear,

as if he wore headphones, but he does not, and even though his head moves rapidly,

the hair, swept back, stays in its dark place. His eyes remain closed and his expression trance-like—perhaps drugged, perhaps in musical rapture.

In another alcove rests a booth encased in glass. Therein sits a wizened, mustached man, skin wrinkled to old paper and body twisted and compressed into an angry fist of rage—

Blame Rudolf: Noir Short Fiction By Bernard Onken

a nightmare imprisoned in a nightmare. He opens an anguished mouth to shout and rant, but nothing emerges—all sounds have spilled from him too long ago.

At last the cat pauses and then enters one final space where a woman curls, sensual and catlike in her chair, blonde hair curled as well, and in a purring voice she says, “Well . . . hello, Schroedinger.”

If you’ve enjoyed “Locked Room Mystery”, you can visit our free digital archive of flash fiction here . Additionally, premium short fiction published by    Mystery Tribune  on a quarterly basis is available digitally  here .

For online archive of short fiction (longer pieces) on    Mystery Tribune  website, you can visit  here .

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BRILLIANT FLASH FICTION

Published quarterly on the last day of January, March, June and September

Tag: experimental flash

Flash fiction workshop.

Virtual FUNDRAISING WORKSHOP WITH NANCY STOHLMAN

Saturday, JUNE 12, NOON MDT (Denver, CO, time)

About the workshop:

“The Wacky, Weird, and Wonderful: Dazzling Narratives and Experimental Flash Fictions”

The constraints of flash fiction have ironically created a new sort of genre freedom, and flash fiction writers are embracing contortions that wouldn’t work in other forms: a motley circus of tightrope walkers and jugglers and trapeze artists plunging against their boundaries and defying narrative in breathtaking ways. In this one-hour workshop we’ll examine, discuss, and take bold risks with experimental narratives, attempting the kinds of literary acrobatics and daredevil antics that emerge when plots are forced to bend in small spaces.  

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Independent publisher of long, short, and very short fiction

Beguiled by a Wild Thing

Reflex fiction volume four.

£ 3.99 – £ 5.99

Beguiled by a Wild Thing contains 167 flash fictions from 142 writers from across the world. These short short stories, each no longer than 360 words, were longlisted for the four rounds of the Reflex flash fiction competition held in 2020.

Within these pages, the traditional narrative shares space with the experimental. Humour sits alongside tragedy. Each of these page-long stories packs a punch greater than its word count suggests.

Beguiled by a Wild Thing is the perfect introduction to readers new to flash fiction and essential reading for those already familiar with the form.

Includes prize-winning flash fiction from Faye Brinsmead, Tania Hershman, Avra Margariti, Amy Barnes, Kali Richmond, Elisabeth Ingram Wallace, D Brody Lipton, Gillian O’Shaughnessy, Diane D Gillette, Morgan Quinn, Victoria Richards, Mark Colbourne, and Louise Watts.

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