We are thrilled to announce our especially large long-list for the special ’34: The Critical Raw Materials shaping our future’ themed Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2026.
Congratulations to all of the authors who reached the list and for all those who entered this round. As always, we saw a wonderful range of genres, topics and stories from all over the world, and it was hugely competitive.
If your story is listed, please do not identify which story belongs to you, as the judges are hard at work making their decisions on which stories will be included in the anthology and go on to win prizes.
LONG LISTED STORIES
- ‘Earth Mother’
- 73 silly little worries which once hung over my head
- A Beginner’s Guide to Bird-watching
- A Convergence
- A night out with the squeaky people
- A Not-Guide to Caring for a Garden
- Among the Horses
- And the blood-orange halves on the cutting board will spontaneously go supernova in the third possible future
- Antinomy dreams
- Audacity
- Between the tick and the tock
- Black Earth
- Borrowed light
- Breast Friends
- Cassiterite
- Charmed
- Cobalt
- Conversation Piece
- Copper kingdom
- Cornflower postcard from auntie Emily
- Cottage pie
- Cumulus
- Destiny Interrupted
- Dysprosium
- Exorcisms Don’t Work on Children
- Faces
- Firewinged to the moon
- Footfalls
- Footnote
- Gallium 31
- Hidden stones
- House dressing
- Huey Indium
- Indentured mind
- Indium
- Ions and insomnia
- It looks good
- Just Protein
- Kintsugi
- Kokorioko and Kindness in Kono
- Lithium
- Luck of the devil
- Man or Bear?
- Melancholy thistle, cobalt blue
- Mine of information
- Mrs Batras measurements
- New Number
- Nightlight for the Galaxy
- Nobody
- Not just another disappearing girl story
- Of course I am
- Our lady of the lake
- Parallel Lives: A Continental Divide
- Perfect lips
- Public utilities
- Regolith
- Restoration regeneration
- Snow in Tokyo
- Starcatcher
- Stephanie’s Side Hustle
- Story time
- Temple to the sun god
- Terms and Conditions
- Tethers
- The farmer
- The Flesh the Iron Dragon Consumes
- The generalissimos arm
- The girl made of gold
- The gold standard
- The last touch
- The Matter of Standing
- The north line
- The pit
- The sapling
- The Spice Box
- The Taconite Letters
- The thing that is missing
- The Ticket
- The Visit
- Things I Could Have Done After Spending Too Much Money on a White Jacket from Harvey Nichols
- This house believes artificial intelligence will play pooh sticks
- Those twenty minutes
- Tigers elephants
- Trouble with gladioli
- Tuesday’s Child
- Tulpenmanie
- Tuppence
- Turbulence
- Under the Jacarandas
- Unexpected visitors
- Unlearning You
- Vegetable boy
- Veritas
- Welsbach’s Mantle
- Worth the wait
- You’re Going to Scare the Kids
In the next few weeks, we will be announcing our shortlist who will be awarded publication in our special themed anthology.
So watch this space!
