2021 Force Majeure Flash Contest Winners!

After a big eyeball-lift and a sluice of delicious writing, we’re panned out our most shiniest flakes of gold! It is our massive honor this year to announce the winners of the 2021 Force Majeure Flash Contest:

1st Prize: Serrina Zou, “Bái Chī”

2nd Prize: Sherrell McLafferty, “Can Elizabeth Bishop Relate?”

2nd Prize: Justine Teu, “The Water Cycle”

We are also pleased to note these flashes of distinction, our Honorable Mentions in this year’s contest:
• “Congratulations, You’re Approved! We Are Pleased to Welcome You to Your New Habitation!” by S. Erin Batiste
• “An Incomplete Inventory of What Once Belonged to My Mother” by Jax Connelly
• “Praisesong for Fornication” by Erica Frederick

All of these flashes will appear in Storm Cellar Vol. X No. 1, due in winter 2021-22. Our deepest thanks to everyone who entered the contest — we are exhausted in the best way by the volume of excellent flash we read this year. Thank you so much!

Storm Cellar 9.1 arrives today!

The midsts of winter are passing and a new seasonwise year is upon us, dear Reader. Celebrate with us and the latest issue of Storm Cellar, Vol. IX No. 1, nicknamed “Fission”!

Contents

2020 FORCE MAJEURE FLASH CONTEST
1st Prize – Negesti Kaudo – The One Where My Femme Swallows You Whole
2nd Prize – Stephanie Niu – A Guide to What Lives Between Land and Sea
2nd Prize – Taylor Drake – Rumination
Honorable Mention – Noah Farberman – Grown Ass Person
Honorable Mention – Suphil Lee Park – Heartland
Honorable Mention – Rebecca Morton – I Remember Meeting You, My Son Says While Trying on Big Kid Shoes; I Pull and Pull at the Tongues, I Remember Meeting You, Too

FICTION
Abbigail N. Rosewood – Allendy Is Free
Maurice Moore – Transcript- Suga – Oral and Visual – Volumes 2 of 10
Elizabeth Kirschner – Lullaby with an Exit Sign
Xuan Nguyen – Luminous, Misting

CREATIVE NONFICTION
J.O. Haselhoef – One Week, Six Stories, Fifteen Emotions
Diana Emmons – Stop Rewind Play
Chelsey Clammer – Home Is Where the Hoard Is

FLASH
Chandra Steele – Lives of the Saints
Randy William Santiago – just You.
Tessa Yang – Ernest Tanaka Seeks God in a Variety of Places
Christopher Santantasio – Role Play

POETRY
Casey Knott – The World Wants What the World Wants
kevin latimer – love poem
Charles J. March III – Perked Up
John Barton – They Always Get Their Man
Christos Kalli – Pulitzer Prize-Winning Book Kills a Cockroach
Elspeth Jensen – Midnight Snack
Jake Bailey – Deboning Perch

IMAGES
Kelly McQuain – The World Is Never Silent
Grant Yun – Cow
Angie Mason – Nest
Alana King – under the overpass
Rachel Singel – Pennantia corymbosa (Kaikomako)
K. Johnson Bowles – Sounds from the Back of My Head

PLUS covers by David Mack, and our list of Rejected Years

Elaine Terranova: Peace

A flash today, a family-oriented flash, if you’d like to read it that way, a flash about our stories, it’s Elaine Terranova’s “Peace“:

This flash first appeared in SC 7.2, available in our shop as an ebookRead on!

Pınar Yaşar: The Future

Today’s share stung our hearts and knocked down our fences, Dear Reader, so know there is much beyond the borders worth knowing and knowing well. Here’s an Honorable Mention in our 2019 flash contest, Pınar Yaşar’s “The Future.”

This flash appears in Storm Cellar #8.2, nicknamed “Sisal,” available in delicious print and ebook editions in our store. Read on!

Raymond Deej: I’ve Been Sulking over Dennis and His Gold

How is your vacuum robot working, Reader? Raymond Deej is here to help, with his delightful flash “I’ve Been Sulking over Dennis and His Gold.”

This flash appears in Storm Cellar #8.2, nicknamed “Sisal,” available in delicious print and ebook editions in our store. Read on!