SIXTH ANNUAL FLASH PROSE CONTEST
Sponsored by Writer Advice, www.writeradvice.com
WriterAdvice, www.writeradvice.com, is searching for flash fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction that grabs, surprises, and mesmerizes readers in fewer than 750 words. If you have a story or memoir with a strong theme, sharp images, and a solid structure, please submit it to Writer Advice’s Sixth Annual Flash Prose Contest.
DEADLINE: April 15, 2011
JUDGES: Former prizewinners, Stephen Bakalyar, Mary Rudy, Denise Turner, and Francine Garson are this year’s judges. Read their pieces and biographies by clicking on the Archived Contest Entries button at www.writeradvice.com.
PRIZES: First Place earns $150; Second Place earns $75; Third Place earns $50; Fourth Place earns $25; Honorable Mentions will also be published.
All entries should be typed, double-spaced and submitted in hard copy, not e-mail. Entries must be postmarked by April 15, 2010. Send them to B. Lynn Goodwin, WriterAdvice, and P.O. BOX 2665, DANVILLE, CA 94526.We accept previously published stories if you own the rights. You may enter UP TO THREE stories. Enclose a $10 check for EACH entry made payable to B. Lynn Goodwin. This will help defray the costs of the contest. If you send multiple submissions, please use one check for all three entries (3=$30). If no prizes are awarded, payment will be refunded.
Include a separate cover sheet with your name, address, phone number, current e-mail address, and each story title. Put your title on the top of each page of the manuscript. Finalists will be asked to submit a brief biography as well as an e-mail copy of the story. Names of all winners will be announced in the summer issue of WriterAdvice.
Want a detailed response? I’m happy to give detailed comments if you send an SASE, but I must charge an extra $10 per entry because of the time that goes into it. Please send all fees in one check and send one envelope (appropriately sized) for all responses. E-mail questions, but not submissions to editor B. Lynn Goodwin at Lgood67334@comcast.net.
An interview with Tara L. Masih
by B. Lynn GoodwinTara L. Masih’s collection of 17 short stories, Where the Dog Star Never Glows, is a global tour viewed through a close-up lens. She captures vibrant characters at critical moments and shows you exactly how events change their lives. Her luscious settings will make you daydream about traveling. Each story offers something unique.
When Therese’s heart broke open at the end of “The Guide, the Tourist, and the Animal Doctor” so did mine. It was a pleasure to be a fly on the wall as Jill and Louis’s relationship shifted and went deeper in “Champagne Water.” Bridgitte’s life and the neediness it has wrought stirred my heart in “Say Bridgitte Please.”
Both “Catalpa” and “Suspended” tell complete stories in under two pages, making the reader look back to see just how the author accomplished so much so quickly. The tension in “Asylum” is both compelling and haunting. Something in the subject matter and the telling of almost every story haunts me.
Author Tara L. Masih is a wise and talented writer. The lyrical descriptions, the global settings, the concise language, and the superb storytelling all make this a rich collection.
Here is her story of discovering the form and sharing her stories with the world.
LG: When did you discover you were a writer?
TLM: It was discovering the joy of reading books, being immersed in them, escaping into them, that sparked my own imagination and made me want to write my own stories. I still have some imagined fairy tales written in pencil, on blue-lined paper, with crayon illustrations in the margins that I created when I was about 8 or 9. Although I didn’t think of myself as a writer yet, I knew I loved books and wanted to center my life around them.
When my grandmother, a book lover herself, told me that jobs existed where you read books and got paid, as a proofreader, I had my aha moment. Writing gradually developed as another goal, but I didn’t read short stories growing up, just novels.
LG: Why do you find short fiction appealing?
TLM: I didn’t start writing stories until high school where the workshop environment encouraged that form. Before that, I stored
away many unfinished novels, mostly handwritten or on onionskin paper in old typewriter font. Also with illustrations. Today, my favorite form is the short story.
LG: The stories in Where the Dog Star Never Glows were