FFF Competition Thirty-Five Judge’s Report by Kate Axeford
1st October 2026
I was about to set off to End Of The Road music festival when a zip file of fifteen fabulous flash fiction stories arrived. I delayed my departure and read, then reread each story before setting off to Dorset, knowing I had some gems to return to. It was remarkable how many of those fifteen stories lingered in my mind through their themes, boldness and word craft. These stayed with me not only on the journey but resurfaced throughout the weekend, finding their way back into my thoughts at unexpected moments.
It was a pleasure to return to these fifteen stories. Ian Rushton of Free Flash Fiction reported he had some very difficult decisions to make in the longlist choosing and passed the baton of making some even more difficult decisions to me! Every piece was striking in its own way. This was a first-time judging experience for me, and I read and revisited each flash multiple times before making my final decision.
Narrowing the list to just six stories was no easy feat. Themes of loss ran through many of the stories, demonstrating how powerfully flash can distil profound emotion into just a few hundred words. The loss of a way of life was beautifully portrayed in Chronicles of Georgia. Loss of a son in Once More, a relationship in Unlearning You and the stark realities of changing health in The Tiny Death. Relationships were deftly dealt with in a variety of ways, from the workplace power dynamics of remote corporate life in The Magda Proposal to the portrayal of domestic abuse in Tallulah Fails to Predict Her Future. There was even a cheesy encounter at the deli counter in Supermarket Shopping. Vinegar was a particular favourite for its masterful sensory language and rich use of metaphor. I must also give a shout-out to Mixtape, whose energy, boldness of language and originality made it a memorable and distinctive read.
So, hats off to everyone who made the longlist. I shuffled and re-shuffled many times before settling on my podium places. Please know that judging is inevitably a subjective process, and to those who narrowly missed out this time, I hope you send work back out into the world, as they are stories that deserve to be read and remembered.
The Shortlisted Stories
Sentinel
I was immediately drawn to the prose and rhythm of this chilling, atmospheric flash which skilfully blends the conventions of a classic ghost story with the crushing weight of survivor’s guilt. The coastal setting is vividly realised, lending the story a strong sense of place, and dialogue adds an authentic conversational texture.
I was drawn in by how “The dark sea swallowed him right up. As if it barely cared” and “his recollection had become like a tattered reel in a projector” This story is a devastating portrayal of how one single tragic moment between two drunken friends can reverberate through a lifetime, leaving an indelible mark on the survivor who is unable to let go.
Coloured Glass
This tender and beautifully sombre piece of flash fiction captures the quiet dignity of communal grief. I felt the pacing mirrored a funeral procession itself, drawing me steadily into Vila’s emotional landscape. There are vivid sensory details like the scent of lilies drifting on the wind and the heaviness of incense clinging to the air, which help to create an atmospheric setting. I was particularly struck by the description of the father whose usually precise grey hair has fallen loose, a powerful visual representation of how grief disrupts our tightly held routines and control. We are left wondering who Luka is – a sibling, lover or friend, but by the story’s close, Vila “understood how far her mother’s kindness had reached, carried quietly in those who remembered.”
Michelangelo of Morecambe
This vibrant, deeply nostalgic and brilliantly funny piece of flash fiction immediately captured my attention. The voice of the young narrator is magnetic, and the contrast between everyday working-class Lancashire life and grand religious imagery is handled with confidence and flair. I loved the imagery of a sixties semi garage converted into a double height rococo chapel. This story shone with originality, and the painting of plastic wastepipes to look like Italian marble perfectly captured the dad (who had been on a Billy Graham Crusade) with both humour and affection.
I also really appreciated how the author was able to ground the grandiosity of this chapel with the normal concerns of childhood, such as Roger having to get home for his Alphabet Spaghetti. The ending is particularly poignant, as the family sleeps beneath the frescoes for one final night before the bulldozers arrive. It is a fitting conclusion to a story that celebrates how extraordinary worlds can be built within the most ordinary of settings.
Highly Commended
Whalebone Garden
This stunning story about grief is beautifully crafted and deeply moving. A dead whale is washed up on a beach, and the narrator visits daily to pay homage. Images such as whalebones becoming a jigsaw puzzle with a “…spine like a string of pearls, ribs a vaulted church roof” evoke a powerful tension between beauty and decay, transforming the natural world into something wondrous and unsettling.
This was one of the pieces that haunted me long after my first reading. Anyone who has experienced the enormity of losing a loved one cannot help being moved by the line “how the stopping of one heart makes a void pulling stars into a black hole.” The author’s decision to follow this immediately with the sheer size of a whale’s heart perfectly captures the vastness and overwhelming weight of grief.
We do not know how this loss happened. Instead, the author trusts the reader, offering only the simple, heartbreaking sentence, “I think of your body on that terrible day.”
Ultimately though, this story is about survival and has a poetic and resilient ending. The narrator plants sweet peas in their whalebone garden, and the final image of the stars returning, specifically the ones that resisted “the pull of the void”, suggests that healing is possible. It is a beautiful and hard-won vision of resilience, and a fitting end to a story that explores grief with both tenderness and grace.
Dreams of Camelot
This deeply evocative and cinematic piece drew me in immediately with the youthful exuberance of this couple “cruising hot Buffalo nights… guzzling happy hour one-dollar drinks.” Their relationship is first anchored in the Albright-Knox art gallery, where she is “stilled by Jackson Pollock’s tangled webs” while introducing him to the Pre-Raphaelites and The Lady of Shallot.
The juxtaposition of class is skilfully portrayed through the drive to his parents’ country club past the farmland where “poverty dead-eyed them through the glass.” The conversation about an ice shelf giving way and “swallowing a girl whole” serves as an effective foreshadowing of the female protagonist’s concern of being nearly swallowed into the relationship, his family and into the vast distance between their backgrounds and countries. We are invited into the starkness of this landscape through the striking image of him howling like a coyote, yet “when the wild answered she shivered.’’
I loved the striking final image. As her letters dwindle and she dreams of Camelot, the relationship drifts towards its inevitable demise. Yet the memory of how he taught her to cook eggs the way they did at Freddie’s Diner endures, capturing the legacy of a love that faded but has not been forgotten.
Winner
The Time We Met In Greggs And JC Tweeted it Was the Last Supper
This is a genius, hilariously sharp and deeply original piece of flash fiction. It sets up a brilliant modern parody mapping the Last Supper through a group of male teenagers meeting in Greggs bakery. As someone who works in mental health, I was particularly impressed by the sensitive portrayal of a young man’s deteriorating mental health within a friendship group. The story balances humour and compassion with remarkable skill.
Recreating the Last Supper with a sausage roll standing in for the body is both comedic and narrative gold. There were several laugh-out-loud lines for me, including: “It was when he tried to wash our feet with Zero Sugar Sprite that we knew there were other factors at play.”
Equally brilliant is the narrator’s observation that JC kisses his head, “like he already knew this was a matter for Prevent.”
The modern reimagining of classical biblical figures into modern teenager equivalents works beautifully throughout. JC is the delusional main-character influencer. Tommy (Thomas) mutters ‘Bruh’ in scepticism.’ Jude is singled out for betrayal, and the narrator acts as a grounded observer amid the chaos. Modern youth culture and internet slang are also captured flawlessly. Descriptions such as “his touch screen smile” and hashtags #Small town #Loser anchor the narrative firmly within a digital landscape.
As funny as it is, the piece never loses its emotional depth. The final image is brilliant. The buying of Pink Jammie Doughnuts with the filling oozing down the chin so the narrator swears he can taste a “bleeding heart” is both darkly comic and unexpectedly poignant. It resonates after the story ends, providing a powerful conclusion to an exceptional piece of flash fiction. Congratulations!
Kate Axeford