In the run up to the closing date of our 27th Award, I’m posting a series of third prize and commended stories from the archives of our Awards to inspire last minute writers or final tweakers. The current Award closes one week today, Sunday 2nd June. 300 words maximum. Michelle Elvy is judging. It’s worth reading my Q & A with her here. Results out at the end of June. £1460 in prizes. Anthology publication offer for all 50 longlist writers.

Today I’m posting winners from other countries apart from the UK. In our third-prize winner archives, there are stories from writers in Ireland, the US, New Zealand, India, Spain, France and Sweden. They are really great reads. Lots of different styles of flash. With interesting locations and subject matter.

Writers based in Ireland with links to their stories:

Julianna Holland 2016 with ‘White Matter’. Published in To Carry Her Home. White Matter was also publuished in the Best Small Fictions anthology,2017.

Clodagh 0’Brien, 2017 with ‘Billy’. Published in The Lobsters Run Free

Writers based in the US with links to their stories:

Molia Dumbleton in 2018 with Why Shit Is Still Like This Around Here And Probably Always Will Be
Published in Things Left and Found by the Side of the Road
Lavanya Vasudevan in 2019 with Sunday Crossword: These Three-Sided Polygons Trap Lovers (9 Letters).Published in With One Eye on the Cows
Christine Dalcher in 2020 with ‘Dressage’ Published in Restore to Factory Settings
Kathleen Latham in 2022 with ‘Fourth Grade Science Lesson, Chickasaw City, Alabama’. Published in Dandelion Years
Kevin Burns in 2023 with ‘Lakota Widow’. Published in The Weather Where You Are
Noemi Scheiring-Olah with To All the Copies of Us, Published in the The Weather Where you Are

Emma Neale from New Zealand won third prize with ‘The Local Pool’ in 2018. Published in Things Left and Found at the Side of the Road

David Rhymes from Spain won third prize in 2017 with The Place We Live Before We Don’t . Published in The Lobsters Run Free

Xavier Combe from France won third prize in 2019 with ‘The Games People Play’. Published in With One Eye on the Cows

Emma Zetterstrom from Sweden won third prize with Manganese won third prize in 2017. Published in The Lobsters Run Free

Gayathiri Dhevi Appathurai won third prize this February (2024) with How to Make A Realistic Paper Rose and her story will be published in the year-end anthology.

Thanks to everyone who has entered the current award so far! It is getting very busy for our readers. We looking forward to seeing who wins and where they are from at the end of next month.