Thank you to everyone who entered our second BIFFY50 Microfiction competition on the theme ‘Hope’. We received over 120 microfiction and the standard was truly incredible. As a result, we’re publishing a longlist and shortlist.
Judged by the wonderful Ashling Dennehy and Amy Barnes, it gives us tremendous pleasure to announce the winning & Highly Commended writers. The shortlist and longlist can be found further down the page.
Winner
- Frisson – Tom O’Brien
Highly Commended
- Hunger – Jay Kelly
- Apple Tree – Rachel O’Cleary
- The things I should have avoided reading as a teenager – Ruth Bradshaw
- Staring at scuffed tiles – Martha Lane
Shortlist
/ Speaks – Jay Kelly
1997, Under the Apple Tree – Rachel O Cleary
Anderson Shelter – Edward Barnfield
Botanist at Work – Eilise Norris
Frisson – Tom O’Brien
Hunger – Jay Kelly
Spoils of war – Alison Woodhouse
Staring at scuffed tiles – Martha Lane
The Things I Should have Avoided Reading as a Teenager – Ruth Bradshaw
While we wait for the sun – Marissa Hoffmann
***
Longlist
/ Speaks – Jay Kelly
1997, Under the Apple Tree – Rachel O Cleary
Afterwards – Jude Higgins
Anderson Shelter – Edward Barnfield
Answer to her question – Frances Gapper
Beware of the God – Lena MacDonald
Botanist at Work – Eilise Norris
Children’s Social Care – Emily Walker
Christopher – Colin Alcock
Frère Jacques – Emma Neale
Frisson – Tom O’Brien
Hoist – Rosaleen Lynch
Hope is the thing with feathers – Elizabeth Smith
Hoping It’ll Pass – Nick Black
Hunger – Jay Kelly
In the offing – Audrey Niven
Maiden Voyage – Emma Whitehall
Queer Pyramus and Thisbe (kissing through a macbook pro) -Lindz McLeod
Romeo and Juliet – Bayveen O’Connell
Salt and Sorrow – Sarah Jessen
Spoils of war – Alison Woodhouse
Staring at scuffed tiles – Martha Lane
Ten tiny spades – Nicola Godlieb
The Day the Earth Edited Charles Darwin – Sharon Boyle
The Funeral – Kara Knickerbocker
The Old Tricksters – Andrew Boulton
The Things I Should have Avoided Reading as a Teenager – Ruth Bradshaw
The Weight of Air – Sage Tyrtle
Visiting Hours of a Portent – Elizabeth Moss
While we wait for the sun – Marissa Hoffmann
Wishing – Hannah Whiteoak
***
Thank you again to all our writers and our two judges!
We’re a small team of volunteers who spend hundreds of hours working to build TSS and the short fiction and non-fiction community. We read, edit, and publish work we love (and pay for it). If you enjoy the site, please consider helping us through the long nights, thank you.