Exposition Review is pleased to share the theme for our June 2023 Flash 405 contest judged by our own Fiction Co-Editor Shze-Hui Tjoa: “Crescendo.”
Flash 405 is Exposition Review’s multi-genre short-form writing competition, awarding cash prizes and online publication to the winners. Submissions will be open June 4–July 5, 2023.
Read on to learn more about Shze-Hui and her prompt:
– June 2023 Round –
The Judge: Shze-Hui Tjoa
Shze-Hui Tjoa (@shzehui on Instagram/@shzehuitjoa on Twitter) is a Singaporean writer in London. She serves as a fiction editor at Exposition Review and a creative nonfiction editor at Sundog Lit. Her work can be found in Colorado Review, Southeast Review, and So to Speak, and has been twice-listed as notable in The Best American Essays. Her book-in-progress, The Story Game, is a genre-bending memoir about living with c-PTSD and reclaiming personal identity. Find her at www.tjoashzehui.com.
The Theme: Crescendo
From Shze-Hui:
“What I love about flash as a genre is how it can compress so much emotion into just a few lines of text.
So, write me something that isn’t afraid of its own intensity, of being too much. I want language that swells with momentum and power. That might start off quiet, but that gathers strength as it goes—pushing past structural or emotional limits to speak up with its whole chest, and say what needs to be said.
Write me something that’s loud and bold and alive.”
Ready to start writing? Full contest guidelines are available via Submittable. We also encourage you to check out past contest winners by visiting our Flash 405 page on our site. Please reach out to expositionreview@gmail.com with any questions.
Good luck!
– Submissions open June 4–July 5, 2023 –
Photo credit: Matt Paul Catalano