Flash Fiction Contest

Write a short story in 1,000 words or less for our One Book, One Community Flash Fiction Contest. Winning stories will be published online.

For this year's contest, we're looking for stories focusing on the themes of our One Book, One Community pick, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett: belonging, racism, family or identity.

Stories will be evaluated on style, creativity, structure, grammar and word choice. Winners will be selected for each age group – youth, teens and adults. Winning entries will be published online.

Submissions will be accepted below from January 1 - 31, 2022.

Here's what you need to know:

• Physical, print copies will not be accepted.
• Entries must be a Word Document file with the story title as the file name. PDF and other file types will not be accepted.
• New submissions only, please. Submissions entered in previous Schaumburg Library Flash Fiction contents will not be accepted.
• Limit 2 entries per person.

While you're here, check out the winners of the 2021 Flash Fiction contest and read the winning entries!

Adults

1st Place: You Can't Go Home Again by Susan Wakefield
2nd Place: Snowfall in Late Summer by R. Dana Barlow
3rd Place: A Lost and Found Discovery by Tweety Hsiao

Teens

1st Place: Old Spring by Fallon Manzella-McReady
2nd Place: Unknown Ends by Priyanshu Jha

Youth

1st Place: The Dimensional Summoner by Shaurya Doherey
2nd Place (tie): The Clumsy Witch by Anika Shukla and My Pet Putty by Rishaan