Novella in Flash 2026: Winners’ bios

Congratulations to all the top six writers in our 2026 Novella-in-Flash Award, selected by Jude Higgins. You can read her comments on all these wonderful novellas in her judge’s report. The first prize and two runners-up will be published by Ad Hoc Fiction this year.

Winners

First prize: Unhoused by Victoria Melekian

Victoria Melekian grew up in Los Angeles, and now lives with her husband in Carlsbad, California. She writes poetry, short fiction and, on occasion, a novella-in-flash. Her poetry collection The Accidental Courage of Our Lives is available from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions.
For more, visit her website: victoriamelekian.com

Runner-up How to Get There from Here by Beth Sherman
Beth Sherman has had more than 200 stories published in literary journals, including Ghost Parachute, Fictive Dream, Bending Genres and Smokelong Quarterly, where she’s a Submissions Editor and the winner of Smokelong’s 2024 Workshop Prize. Her work is featured in Best Microfiction 2024 and 2026 and Best Small Fictions 2025. She’s also a multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. Sherman has a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center and an MFA from Queens College. She can be reached on social media @bsherm36.

Runner-Up. The Hilltop Hour by Joanna Campbell
Joanna Campbell’s first novella-in-flash, A Safer Way to Fall, was runner-up in the inaugural Bath Flash Fiction Award and her second, Sybilla, won the National Flash Fiction Day Award.Her flash fiction came second in the 2017 Bridport Prize, for which her short stories have been shortlisted many times. Her short stories have won first place in the Exeter Writers competition, Magic Oxygen Literary Prize, Retreat West Short Story Prize and the London Short Story Prize. She also won the Bath Short Story Local Prize twice, was shortlisted twice for The Bristol Prize and longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Prize.Her short story collection, When Planets Slip Their Tracks, was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award and longlisted for the Edge Hill University Story Prize.Her novel, Instructions for the Working Day, published in 2022 by Fairlight Books, was shortlisted for The Independent’s Book of the Month and for the Rubery International Book Award

Highly Commended Writers

If Bluebirds Fly by Bill Merklee
Bill Merklee’s work has appeared in numerous journals and in Best Microfiction, and has been nominated for Best Small Fictions. He’s been short-listed for the Fractured Lit Chapbook Prize and long-listed for the Wigleaf Top 50. He lives in New Jersey.