Flash 405, August 2024: “Otherworldly” Winners

Exposition Review

We are pleased to finally share the winners of “Otherworldly,” our August 2024 Flash 405 contest. With this announcement, our Flash 405 2024 season officially come to a close, but we are ending an incredibly strong note! Overall the submission quality for this contest was very high, and there were no easy decisions for our guest judge Dr. Cecilia Caballero! In the end, though, decisions were made, and our winners and honorable mentions truly encapsulate the call for stories that contain “something a bit strange about otherworldly ways we survive the every day.” We hope you enjoy these five stories as much as we do.

Congratulations to our winners! Their work can be read below.

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Expo Recommends: “Spring”

Exposition Review

ExpoRecommends_What-should-I-read-next

What should I read next? It’s a question we all ask ourselves time and again. Even with the countless stories, poems, essays, scripts, art, comics, and films to discover, to fall in love with or to detest, it can be a challenge to choose. Enter Expo Recommends, a curated selection of readings brought to you by the editors of Exposition Review.

Meanwhile, Expo is in the midst of our 2025 annual issue submission season. For Vol. X, our editors chose the theme “Spring,” seeking stories that well from the imagination, language that leaps off the page, writing that’s liberated from the constraints of genre and crackles with the energy of a spring storm.

Heading into the second half of our submission season (our deadline is December 15), we want to give you—our readers, writers, submitters, and community—an extra dose of inspiration. So whether you read Expo Recommends for the recommendations or a behind-the-scenes look into the preferences of our editorial team, we hope you’ll enjoy our “Spring”-inspired Expo Recommends. And when you buy your copies of the books from our Bookshop, Exposition Review gets a cut!

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Flash 405, June 2024: “Persona” Winners

Exposition Review

When Expo Associate Editor Madeline Grimm posed the theme “Persona” for our June 2024 Flash 405 contest, we were excited to see what stories it would inspire. This versatile theme encompasses explorations of  “shifting identities and self-fashioning,” but Madeline also asked writers to confront our own personas—how we as writers create “a range of literary alter egos that tell [our] stories.”

The entries we received did not disappoint, pushing the theme beyond our expectations, and after much deliberation, we are excited to share the results with the world.

Congratulations to our winners! Their work can be read below.

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Call for Submissions for Vol. X: “Spring”

Exposition Review

A Venus flytrap. Overlaid text reads: "Exposition Review Vol. X 'Spring' Call for Submissions."

Exposition Review is happy to announce the theme for our tenth annual issue: “Spring.”

Submissions will be open September 15–December 15*, 2024. We accept work in all forms: fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, poetry, scripts for stage & screen, experimental narratives, visual art, film, and comics.

*Submissions have been extended through December 31, 2024, for Nonfiction, Experimental, Visual Art, Comics, and Film.

Read more about the theme and how to submit:

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Exposition Review, Vol. IX: “POP!” Launch

Exposition Review

Exposition Review is thrilled to share our latest issue, Vol. IX: “POP!”!

“POP!” is the intersection of tradition and trend. Whether satirizing an overused metaphor in poetry or confronting violence in Gaza, these pieces are made relevant both by their immediacy and because they are rooted in the human experience. It is full of moments that will surprise you, inspire you to think outside of your bubble, or maybe even reference some of your favorite songs.

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Call for Entries: Flash 405, August 2024: “Otherworldly”

Exposition Review

Get ready for another round of Flash 405! Starting August 4, we’ll be accepting submissions on the theme “Otherworldly.” Whether you write prose, poetry, or experimental flash, we welcome your short-form masterpieces.

The theme for August was selected by our guest judge, the talented Dr. Cecilia Caballero, who introduced us to her own out-of-this-world work at a panel we co-hosted at Skylight Books earlier this year. We are thrilled to have her select the winners of our final contest of 2024.

Submissions will close September 5, so don’t miss your chance to enter! Before you submit, however, learn more about Cecilia and her “Otherworldly” theme below:

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Flash 405, April 2024: “Home” Winners

Exposition Review

In April, author Liza Olson stepped into the role of guest judge for Flash 405 and crafted her contest around the theme “Home,” looking for stories that invited us into the contours and concepts of what a home can be. After receiving a number of incredible micro-narratives and careful consideration of each entry, we are now ready to announce the winners!

Our 1st and 2nd place winners received a cash prize, and their work, along with our honorable mentions, can be read below.

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Call for Entries: Flash 405, June 2024: “Persona”

Exposition Review

Mark your calendars – on June 4, our next round of Flash 405 will open for submissions! Our Flash 405 writing contest is a celebration of short-form narratives, accepting work in multiple genres, from prose to poetry to hybrid and experimental forms. This round, we are looking for flash work inspired by the theme “Persona.” The theme was chosen by Expo Associate Editor Madeline Grimm, who will be serving as judge for our June contest!

Learn more about Madeline and this month’s contest theme:

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Flash 405, February 2024: “Host” Winners

Exposition Review

We are excited to announce our first Flash 405 winners of 2024! “Host” closed for submissions in early March. Judged by our “POP!” co-Fiction editor Sam Burt, this round called for entries to explore what it means to be a good host—or a bad one—in all it’s various interpretations. We received many incredible entries that weren’t afraid to question the unspoken rules of hospitality and relationships, and narrowing them down to a final three was no easy feat for Sam!

That said, we are happy to reveal our winners and “Host” their stories in Exposition Review:

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