Top 3 Flash Fictions

Congratulations to the winners. All comments below are from our judge, Meg Pokrass.

‘It was great to see the many different interpretations of the form represented in The Plaza Prize, and exciting to be reminded that flash fiction is a form which allows us to make it our very own. Submissions were so robust and original that it was difficult to select only three. Submissions on the short list were inventive, insightful and startling, each in their own distinctive way. With a word count so small, the matter of a story itself must be proportionately larger— and with flash fiction, we like to be shown the truth, not told it.’

3rd prize: “Strangely Familiar” by Katalin Abrudan (England)

‘”Strangely Familiar” is a complex story about how early childhood wounds can mould us for life. Here, a character recognises an old injury in a familiar place—the moment in which they were forever changed. There is an unspoken sense of victory over the past in this story, and I found it to be exquisitely moving.’

2nd prize: “Ove Eriksson” by Barbara Black (CANADA)

‘”Ove Eriksson” is simply beautiful. Sentence after well constructed sentence, the glorious writing shows us a character’s emotional isolation and how in the end, how it is the invisible and unexpected that will sustain the human spirit. A story that is mysterious and deeply memorable.

1st prize: “Waterman-Men” by Azaria Brown (USA)

‘The winner, “Waterman-Men”, is a ghostly story that I couldn’t unstick from my consciousness. This story bursts with tragic urgency, with sickening stench of racism and murder hangs in the reader’s mind like smoke. The writer built this haunting story from the inside out, startling image by image, with a flawless eye toward life’s ordinary beauty.. This was a story I could not turn away from, and will follow me around for a very long time.’

Enter our NEW Poetry (40 lines max) judged by Pascale Petit. Top prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May, 2023.