Our August Flash 405 contest invited us to consider flash stories on the theme of normal—but the response we received to this prompt was anything but! After an amazing year of Flash 405 contests, this last round was record-breaking, with a truly inspired number of “normal” narratives.
Congratulations to the winners who rose above the rest; we’ve had the pleasure of reading them many, many times (and will many times again!) and are stoked to finally share them with the world.
Judge’s Comments:
“Normal might as well be a synonym for deception, for the more one considers it, the more one realizes that the word is as insidious as the “standards” it perpetuates. Is anything “normal,” or is normal just what is normalized?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, particularly when it comes to our country and the world, what with the rise (return? amplification?) of right-wing movements, obsession with artificial intelligence, continued disregard of climate change, and just about everything else that causes a reasonable, empathetic person to spiral into depression. Given the conversations I’ve had with friends and the return of “hypernormalization,” a term first used to describe everyday life in Soviet Russia, it seems I’m not the only one.
I chose this theme for a number of reasons: 1) it’s evergreen (who amongst us, especially writers, has ever felt “normal”?), 2) it’s topical (see above), and 3) it’s ripe for absurdity and satire, which I had an intense craving for at the time. But I was pleasantly surprised by what came in. Instead of absurdism and critique, there was earnestness and yearning. Submissions seemed hellbent on, if not retrieving lost time, returning to a past no longer found in the present.
In some ways, the invitation to write about “normal” became a desire to recontextualize normality, and I think, if there’s anything to “take away” from this, it’s that writing has the ability to do that: to recontextualize, to correct, to make new what has been so long accepted as the standard. If that isn’t reason enough to create and return to literature during dark times, whether the shadow reaches to the edges of your mind or the globe, well, I don’t know what to tell you except best of luck getting through.
To all the writers who submitted, and to those who didn’t: thank you for your work, thank you for your love, thank you for writing.”
– Kiana Shaley
Congratulations again to our 1st and 2nd place winners, who received a cash prize, and our honorable mentions. You can read their work here:
1st Place:
People Places Things by Tara Dugan (Experimental)
2nd Place:
The Last Cinematographer in Space by JR Fenn (Fiction)
Honorable Mention:
Stories for a Daughter by Mizuki (Fiction)
El Desahogo—The Undrowning by Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley (Nonfiction)
Thank you to our contest judge, Kiana Shaley, and all of our judges this year: Ashley Moon, Francesca Spiegel, and Melissa Llanes Brownlee. We also thank the many talented writers who submitted their work to us, and all those who followed along with our 2025 Flash 405 season. This year was far from normal, but the care and creativity of this community continues to be a source of light and inspiration.
While this was the last contest of the year, we will be compiling all of our 2025 contest winners into one Flash issue, which will be coming soon. You can follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news from Expo, including submission opportunities, publications, events, community news, and more.
Here’s one submission opp you don’t need to wait for, though: we are accepting submissions for our next full issue, Vol. XI: “PARA/SOCIAL”! From now through December 15, we’re looking at work of multiple lengths, genres, and mediums. You can learn more about the theme and our submission guidelines in the linked blog post; submissions are accepted via Submittable.
Flash 405 will return in February 2026!
Photo by Sinitta Leunen