The Plaza Flash Fiction Prize

1st prize: £1000 / *$1250. 2nd prize: £300 / *$360. 3rd prize: *£100 / $120

1000 words maximum

The Plaza Prizes are even bigger and better in 2025. We have the best judges in the world and the cash prizes aren’t too shabby either. You could win £1000 / $1250 and publication, for your flash fiction.

Our 2025 judge is flash fiction specialist, and previous winner of The Plaza Microfiction Prize, Barbara Black.

Barbara was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She has published two collection of cracking short stories: Music From a Strange Planet and Little Fortified Tales (2024).

Her writing has been published nationally and internationally. She was a Fiction Finalist in the 2020 National Magazine Awards; Winner of the 2017 Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition; Double Longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize; Winner of both the Federation of BC Writers Literary Contest (Flash Fiction) 2021 and 2022, their Literary Writes Contest (Prose Poem) 2018; and Shortlisted for the 2021 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition.

‘Black tells tales that seem drawn directly from the world of dreams and hallucination while fully fleshed out with observed or imagined detail. Think Kafka on crack. Think a luminous, shimmering visual paired with otherworldly and oddly menacing music. Think the emergence of a voice that will be important in Canadian fiction for a long time. Think what you like. Just don’t miss this exciting and impressive debut.’ Vancouver Sun.

Barbara stills lives in British Columbia. She is a classically trained singer. She rides a Triumph Street Triple motorcycle. She gardens. She is ‘an occasional collagist’.

So please send our judge, Barbara Black, your flash fiction. To be long-listed (that’s the final 20) is an achievement. To be shortlisted in the Top 10, or place second or third, or win will be a validation of your skills, and get you published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 3, in 2025.

The Prizes

First Prize: £1000 / *$1250

Second Prize: £300 / *$375

Third Place: £100 / *$125

Top 10

The 10 shortlisted entries will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 3, which will be launched at our third awards ceremony, in 2025.

Terms and Conditions

Rules

Rules

OPEN NOW. Deadline: 31st March 2025
Writers can enter any number of times. £10.00 / *$12.50. Subsequent/discount entry: £8.00 / *$10.00)
Stories can be in any style or form, but must be in English, and written for adults.
Entries must be submitted online. No email submissions.
Enter the correct version of your work. If you make a mistake, entry fees will not be refunded. (You will have to enter again.)

Eligibility

Read the rules carefully before entering the competition. Entry implies acceptance of all the rules and failure to comply will result in disqualification.

All entries are judged anonymously. Please do not include your name, address, phone number, email, website, twitter handle etc on the document or in the file name or it will be disqualified.

Entries will be disqualified if they are over the 1000 word limit, and there will be no refund.

Entries must be entirely your own work.

Entries must NOT have been published traditionally because we will publish the 10 shortlisted in our anthology. Self-published work or work published in online journals ARE eligible for entry.

Entries must NOT have won in any other competition. If your entry was long-listed or shortlisted in other competitions it IS still eligible.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed but if an entry wins a prize elsewhere, is published or scheduled for future publication, prior to the date of prize giving, you must inform us to withdraw immediately. Entry fees will not be refunded.

Length

Maximum 1000 words.

Fees

£10.00 / *$12.50 per entry. (Subsequent/discount entry: £8.00 / *$10.00)

Entries must be submitted online via Submittable. No email or snail-mail submissions.

Format

Entries must be typed, can be SINGLE- or DOUBLE-spaced, with the title at the top of every page. (Any formatting issues will not lead to disqualification. Please just make sure your work is as easy to read as possible.)
Save as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or PDF file with the title as the file name. Do not include your name in the file name as this will lead to disqualification.
Max 2MB file. Include the line count for the poem, top right, first page.
Do not add cover pages.
No illustrated work.

Judging

The judges’ decision is final. No individual correspondence can be entered into. Judges are unable to comment on individual entries. The Plaza Prizes reserves the right to change the judge without notice.

Copyright

Copyright remains with the author, but The Plaza Prizes reserves the right to publish work in an anthology and use extracts from any of the 10 shortlisted entries for publicity purposes.

Results & Awards

The Plaza Short Story Prize winners will be announced on the website and social media in June 2025. The 10 short-listed entries will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 3, which will be launched at our awards ceremony in October 2025.

Bursary Scheme

We have offered 250 bursaries in 2022-2024. We are offering 100 FREE ENTRY BURSARIES in 2025 across all our competitions to poets/writers on low incomes, and from underrepresented groups. You can apply for a bursary if low income, class, race, age, gender, sexuality, caring responsibilities, location, disability, or mental and physical health affects your writing. We want to encourage equality to discover quality new writing from diverse voices.
To apply, please contact: simon@theplazaprizes.com