A gathering of recent speculative flash & micro fiction, each presenting a tiny-yet-powerful universe. How tiny? One-thousand words max for flash; four-hundred words max for micro. The word count isn’t as important as the emotion, the adventure, the sense of wonder. Including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the spaces in between.
If you love these stories as much as I do, please share them so others can discover these brilliant authors!
By Naomi Day in Khōréō * 850 words * Audio Available
“Then you see it: tiny towers made out of her liver peeking from within her rib cage, a maze garden carved into her small intestine. A perfect miniature of the city your people have been trapped in for generations.”
Naomi Day must have an awesome imagination. This story is wildly creative, evoking a strong sense of longing through the protagonist’s need to find connection and home. I was mesmerized from the first sentence.
“A Love of Bicycles in the Violent Now”
By Brandon Case in Small Wonders * 996 words
“Maybe I’ll pass for a man long enough they’ll love me and it won’t matter when my scales regrow.”
I knew this story was going to break my heart. The protagonist’s acute need and want, juxtaposed with a certain brand of toxic humanity, left me aching. Beautifully complex layers of emotion in an unexpected setting.
“Three Miles Off the Highway Past Exit 509”
By Jo Gatford in Flash Frog * 997 words
“Al sells inflatable aliens in the parking lot outside the taco place with the sun-bleached sign; an army of little grey men with suspicious eyes and blow-up valves on their butts.”
How can you not keep reading with a hook like that? And I keep rereading it because I find a glorious new detail each time. Jo Gatford’s mastery of language shines with surprising, vivid descriptions and a main character I couldn’t help but love. This story placed second in The Blue Frog Contest at Flash Frog.
By Jessica Luke García in Nightmare Magazine * 866 words * Audio Available
“When they kill us, they string us up for you to find like Christmas morning. It’s how we know you love us. They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t hurt.”
Clever, gorgeous language accentuates the horror of life (& death) as a female in our overtly-misogynistic society. Jessica Luke García does not flinch away from the double-standards, the impossible situations, and the complex friendships faced by movie girls—and all the rest of us, too.
“Oatmeal”
By Patrick J. Zhou in Hex Literary * 460 words
“You have no choice in this country, she said, they do not see elders, they see the old.”
Patrick Zhou’s grandmother character captured my attention immediately, and I loved her more with every sentence. A tiny gut-punch of a diaspora tale with a satisfying final note.
“An Incomplete Body Has No Answers”
By Angela Liu in Lightspeed * 968 words * Audio Available
“Why did you leave?” you ask his vertebrae.
Angeli Liu embraces ambiguity and the second-person POV to great effect in this tale of retrieving the body of a lover from Mars. You might want to spend a little time with this story, examining the various possibilities and piecing together the complex relationship between these characters.
By Samantha Murray in PodCastle * 750 words * Text & Audio Available
“But you’ve never let anyone haunt you. And you’re not about to start now.”
Samantha Murray reveals the rich dynamics of the world at a perfect pace. This is a sweet tale of love that left me smiling. One of three stories in PodCastle’s February Flash Fiction Extravaganza.
“Sparsely Populated With Stars”
By Jennifer Mace in Flash Fiction Online * 962 words
“Even so far out across the galaxy, this vision sets my fingers spasming in the long winter of cryosleep. I twitch and stir, mouth open, some desperate warning struggling to blossom in my chest, but the tubes pulse, and I fall back, drugged and frozen against the icy creep of time.”
Jennifer Mace’s story of lovers separated across time and space has a haunting beauty, lushly written and filled with tension. I love the author’s attention to poetic detail.
By J.D. Mitchell in Radon Journal * ~1000 words
“Luca looked at the Vital Organ Donation Kiosk across the street. “A microhome is, what—thirty, thirty-two square meters?”
J.D. Mitchell portrays a surrealist dystopia ruled by a relentless advertising Feed and a merciless SocialCredit Score. How can two people get ahead when this perverse lifestyle is all they know? This story has all the snark you’d expect from people trapped on our current societal trajectory.
By Melissa Llanes Brownlee in The Ilanot Review * 244 words
“The devil will enter your body if you sleep with your feet to the door.”
This is one of those micros that cuts much deeper than the word count ought to allow. Startling imagery shines a light on the cruelty often directed at young girls. I’m not sure this story is truly speculative, but it’s too good to miss. Illanot ran two of Melissa’s micros, so be sure to read them both. *Edited to add this fantastic video of Melissa reading her stories!
Myna Chang 