Top 4 Flash Fiction Entries
(titles listed in order)
Thanks to our judge this year, David Gaffney. All comments listed below are his.
‘All in all a very high quality set of entries and I thank The Plaza Prizes for asking me to be the judge.’
1ST
MARVINS
SHERRY CASSELLS (CAN)
‘The winner, Marvins, starts out as a kind of hyper-ironic dismantling of creative writing story structure and character development but ends up delivering a fascinating prose-poetry style meander with many compelling images and ideas, reminding me of the work of M John Harrison and experimental writers like that. Some great lines such as “She pictured Marvins finding her in the chair on the porch with a purple-edged hole in her chest from where her hearts had finally leapt.”’
2ND
THE DEAD FOX AROUND HER NECK
TODD MURPHY (ENG)
‘My second choice is The Dead Fox Around Her Neck – I loved the way the dead fox brought her into contact with different people and seemed to influence her decisions throughout the story, so we really never know what she is going to do where she going to go or what she is going to think next. A great ending which points the reader towards an alluring unknown set of actions in the future which are undecipherable in a good way – “I closed my eyes for a while. I carried on walking, blind. It felt good to be uncertain of where I was going.”‘
3RD
3AM
SHERRY CASSELLS (CAN)
‘Coming in a strong third is 3AM. It’s about dreams – and although it’s often really dull hearing someone recount their dreams because nothing is at stake in these stories, nothing can be predicted and nothing means anything really – but in this story it’s how dreams relate to the two characters and how they in turn relate to the real world and the dream world. Some amazing lines in this one like this “I remember the urge to get drunk with the red-faced old men who would half-see the half-sing across sticky tables, their eyes resting on invisible things like cats do, like my father did, until his eyes went from watery to acute…”’
HIGHLY COMMENDED
DARK COUSIN
ROGER VICKERY (AUS)
‘And my fourth choice is Dark Cousin. I’m a little perturbed by the title but nevertheless its theme of old fashioned analogue photography and the way chemicals make images appear out of nowhere on light sensitive paper is a rich metaphor which the writer employs well and there are great lines in it “I wish I could as easily, dark cousin, poured developer across the negatives beneath your surface.”’
Congrats to these writers, who will be awarded their prizes at our second awards ceremony in Malta, in mid-October, 2024. They will also be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2.
The Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Why not experiment with a different form? Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.