First off, thank you to Sophie Jonas-Hill for her mystical artwork. Sophie is a writer and illustrator, and Retreat West Books will be publishing her forthcoming Unprotected in November. You can follow her on Twitter.

We received 104 entries so the winner will receive £208 and a free entry to the annual Retreat West Flash Fiction Prize. The runner-up will get a free entry too, plus both stories will be published in the Flash Fiction section of our website.

The final ten will be published next Monday with public voting opening at the same time.

All readings and votes are anonymous so writers if you are on this longlist, please do not tell anyone which story is yours.

Thank you to all who submitted and congrats if you made the longlist!

Longlist:

• A Family Portrait
• A Hallowe’en Surprise
• Ash and cinder
• Bare Trees
• Black Swan
• Chimera
• Computer-in-Chief
• Disquiet
• In His Mind, Autumn
• In Search of Alice
• Invisible
• Life Abound
• Lonely Mother
• Notes
• Payback
• Reflections on Alice
• The BaoBhan Sith
• The Fate of Small Creatures
• The Lake
• The Lepus Hadn’t Come
• The Meeting
• The Test
• Turning Mermaid
• Uncharted
• Visiting Home
• When the Party’s Over
• Without You

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