2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon First Place Bedlam by Jo Withers I sit rigid, body taut as wooden chair. Physicians unleash freezing water against flesh, hoping to exorcise hysteria. They blame the moon, say its phases corrupt menstrual cycles.…
Gene Cernan Boards the Apollo 17 Lunar Module
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon Second Place Gene Cernan Boards the Apollo 17 Lunar Module by Sutton Strother In his Boy Scout days, he had wandered off trail into thick woods and convinced himself that once he returned to…
Moon Burial
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon Third Place Moon Burial by Johanna Robinson Is it lonely up there, high as heaven? Did you once, alive, imagine looking down on us all, pinching the Earth between finger and thumb, as though…
Moon Rabbit Over Honshu
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon Highly Commended Moon Rabbit Over Honshu by Caroline Greene “There, now you can see it,” said Kazu’s grandmother guiding his pointing finger around the shadow-shape of a rabbit on the bright, white moon. The…
Three Minutes Before St Mary’s Chimed The Quarter Hour
2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition: Moon Highly Commended Three Minutes Before St Mary’s Chimed The Quarter Hour by Marissa Hoffmann Father blamed the moon’s blink—three days past apogee—for the westerly raging-bull-wind that butted their Dundee train. Bella had been following…
Summer 2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition Shortlist
We are delighted to announce our shortlist for the Summer 2019 FlashBack Fiction Microfiction Competition! Here they are, in alphabetical order: Bedlam Gene Cernan Boards the Apollo 17 Lunar Module Lunatics Moon Burial Moon Rabbit Over Honshu Nightfall, Hiroshima, August…
BackStory: Three Questions with Jude Higgins
BackStory: Three Questions with Jude Higgins Author of Wolf Moon What inspired you to write ‘Wolf Moon’? I’ve been sharing prompt words daily with John Wheway for a while and the word ‘wolf’ plus a few other words in this…
Wolf Moon
Wolf Moon by Jude Higgins Peter is back from the Wyre at full moon with wolf blood on his hands. He says the wolves are denning and he caught more cubs today, their feet sticky in the pitch he laid…
BackStory: Five Questions with Jan Kaneen
BackStory: Five Questions with Jan Kaneen Author of The Arnolfini Funeral What inspired you to write ‘The Arnolfini Funeral’? I watched a documentary series on BBC 4 called A Stitch in Time, where fashion historian Amber Butchart explores historical figures…
The Arnolfini Funeral
The Arnolfini Funeral by Jan Kaneen Midsummer heat carries his musk up the screw of the staircase, so I know he is coming. I curtsy low averting my eyes, but I need no eyes to see him: that left wrist…