2013 Flash Fiction Open Results

In 2013, Unstuck magazine held a Flash Fiction Open Contest, judged by Amelia Gray. The winning results are featured in issue 4 (2014) of the magazine: Emily Kiernan’s “Palinopsia” and Dennis James Sweeney’s “When He Comes Home from the War.”

Gray writes this about Kiernan’s piece: “There are a few tricks here that might grow dull employed with a bigger word count … but which sparkle nicely in a piece of this length. This is bold and surprising short work, it is arresting, and proves to me that our subject can be well known, even a little quaintly known as a piece of culture … and fine work prevails to create a thing which is wholly new. Here also lies the first footnote I’ve liked outside of Infinite Jest, which frankly deserves its own sub-prize.”

And about Sweeney’s piece, she writes, “This is a lovely, efficient piece and perfectly presents outright danger in the post-trauma mundane. This is a story that I could spend hours going through with students were I not legally barred from interacting with young people.”