issue 54

Flash fiction is shorter, leaner, more nimble than its heavier cousin, the standard short story, so if anything could make it and break through to the reader, it would be flash. The 10 flashes we present to you today are the nimblest and most penetrating of the bunch, selected from over 500 perfectly-formed and distinguished competitors. Among the selection is the winner of the 2018 VERA award, which will celebrate its fifth year in 2019.

Welcome to issue 54. Read it and savor it. The authors worked hard so you would not just enjoy their work, but learn from it and enhance your world.

—Mark Budman

Stories

Doghearted, by Patrick Kindig

When the Cat Died, by Melissa Benton Barker

If a Heart Beats in the Nursing Home and No One's There to See It, Did It Ever Really Beat at All?, by Michele Finn Johnson

(LWÓW) (LEMBERG) (LVIV, by Genia Blum

The Woman in the Acequia, by Pam Lewis

The Disembodied Life, by Andrew Goehring

The Easiest Way to Succeed in Business, by Kevin Tasker

The House With Hands, by Jonathan Cardew

Like Shit on a Cracker by Claire Guyton

She Is a Battleground, by Nancy Au (The VERA 2018 award winner)