First Annual Fiction Inferno Very Short Fiction Competition!

home 
about FI 
resources 
random debris 
send fiction 
contact 
max 

We have a winner!

Out of a final count of 128 entries, all of them delightful, we have selected twenty-three that we feel rose above the rest and exemplified the Very Short Fiction qualities we most admire:

• Efficient and effective use of language
• Clear structure
• Inexorable movement from a beginning to an end
• A point (meaning one that we actually understood, of course)

Also important to note is that the winning entries all share another important trait. We liked 'em a whole lot. Which is not say we didn't like the rest of 'em too. Actually, we wish we could publish the whole 128 (and actually thought hard about doing that), but have decided that we will stick to the original plan, just this once. All entries were judged without names. There was a good deal of subjectivity, though, and a different judge may well have come up with a different list. All that is beside the point. Congratulations to all those chosen for publication and better luck in future to the rest!

First place, Second place, and runners up entries will be published in the Summer Issue, expected release around the first of August.

So, without further ado:

Very Short Fiction Competition

Just in case somebody missed it, here's the
Max E. Keele Collection of Very Short Stories.

THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO ENTERED! THE VERY SHORT FICTION COMPETITION FOR 2002 WAS A BLAST. MAYBE WE'LL DO THIS (or something like it) AGAIN SOMETIME....