2023 Flash Prose Guidelines

Writers’ Morning Out will begin accepting submissions for the thirteenth annual Flash Prose contest on August 1.

Contest rules encourage writers to read and follow guidelines when submitting. Publishers and agents assume writers who cannot follow guidelines will be hard to work with. Who wants to work with someone who’s difficult?

So, follow the guidelines! While numerous, the following guidelines are commonly used, in whole or part, by agents and publishers. Use the guidelines as a checklist before clicking the submit button.

Submissions to the Flash Prose Contest that do not follow the guidelines below will be rejected.

Submission guidelines: Submission Period: August 1 through August 31, 2023. Genre is any type of fiction or creative non-fiction. Manuscripts must be no longer than 300 words, including the title, as calculated by Microsoft Word. Words can have any number of syllables. Manuscripts must have one-inch margins, be double-spaced, and use 12pt Times New Roman Manuscripts must be emailed to info@writersmorningout.org as .doc, .docx, or .rtf attachments. No PDFs. Manuscripts must not have author’s name or contact information. Author’s name, manuscript title, word count, and email address must be in body of email. Email subject line must be in the format: Flash Prose Submission: [Title of work]

The winner of the Flash Prose contest will be asked to read their work at Writers’ Morning Out in September via Zoom.

The winning submission will be published on this website.  By submitting an entry, you are  granting Writers’ Morning Out reprint rights on the web and other media. 

If you do not wish your winning entry to be posted, let us know at the time of submission. This information will not be passed to the judges.