Flash Flood Contest

Tired of waiting months to hear back about a submission? Our Flash Flood contest is open from the 1st to the 15th of September, October, November, February, March, and April for submissions of flash fiction, nonfiction, or prose poetry that is under 1000 words. At the end of each two-week submission window, we’ll read your submissions and decide on a winner by the first of the following month! The winning story will be published on our website shortly after acceptance.

Flash Flood is the place for stories, essays, and poems that use economy of form to express the possibility in the unstated. We’re interested in stories that feel like they use the form’s compression to elevate the narrative. For poetry, the lyric is important: a prose poem should not have dead music just because it has bucked its lines. What is the relationship between shortforms and parable or figuration? What is said and how is what is left unsaid greater? Flash Flood is also a place to highlight pieces which embrace the hybridity of these forms—where does a prose poem end and a flash essay begin?

Flash Flood Submission Guidelines

• Flash Flood submissions can be sent to us through our online submission manager for a fee of $2.
• Submissions should include one piece of flash fiction, flash nonfiction, or prose poetry. Submissions containing more than one piece will not be read.
• Submission length should be under 1000 words.

Additional guidelines and expectations for submission with ALR

• Submission must be previously unpublished. Including online publication and “revised” or altered versions of stories, poems, or essays.
• Anyone who is or was associated with the University of North Texas in the last three years is ineligible to submit.
• Submissions of work created in part or in whole with generative A.I. or LLMs are not accepted.
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but please withdraw your work immediately if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
• Only send finished pieces; we do not consider edits once a piece is submitted.
• We are unable to leave feedback on submissions.