We are thrilled to announce our short list for the summer Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2023, which features nine writers who will also be eligible for the ‘New Voice’ Prize.
If your story is listed, please do not identify which story belongs to you, as the judges are hard at work making their decisions.
SHORT LISTED STORIES
- An Epidemic of Pink Clouds
- Buds over blooms
- But After This Week Everything Will Calm Down
- Chiaros-cure-all
- Dad Says Nobody Wins On The Teddy Picker
- How to survive a Hurricane
- How to Teach an Adult to Swim
- Humbug Shark
- If You Look At It Aslant, Maybe It Won’t Blind You
- In the shadow of Scarfell Pike
- It is a Far, Far Better Thing
- Last Man Standing
- Little Mouse
- Luck of the Irish
- Mother of Exiles
- Mr. Majestic
- My Father, Retired Physics Professor, Explains It All
- My son plays Minecraft and talks at me for forty minutes straight while I try to write something profound
- November 11th 1918
- She Turned Out Okay
- Solve the Problems that Fergus Denies He Caused
- Suffering for my art
- The Cashier
- The Costa Blues
- The Exchange
- The You Not You
- Two Weeks After Mum Leaves
- Where the Birds Fly
- Woman Driver

Those on the short list will be awarded publication in our next anthology and a four-week workshop called Dust Off Those Drafts with The Flash Cabin. They will get four weeks of feedback exchange and story revision (includes 20 revision exercises & 20 study stories) with Anika Carpenter.
We will be announcing the winners in a few week’s time, so watch this space!
Our next competition will be opening on the 1 November 2023. So if you don’t find yourself on this list, we hope you’ll try again in our next competition and keep crafting.

Ignite: 30 days of flash fiction course
Are you looking for a flash of inspiration this autumn? Do you want to get into a better writing habit but not get hung up on word counts?
It’s the season for cosy nights, glowing fires, warm soups, fairy lights, fireworks and NaNoWriMo. National Novel Month (NaNoWriMo) happens every year in November, and we are here to expand it into flash fiction and throw away the word count.
If you’re up for the challenge, then ignite your writing habit and write a flash fiction story every day (no word counts required), with Author and Director of the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, Freya Morris, and Marie Gethins, award-winning writer and editor of the Irish flash ezine, Splonk. For less than the average coffee cost per session, we’ll get you writing again and enjoying it.
