CRAFT 2026 Flash Prose Prize — Guest Judge Amy Hempel

CRAFT 2026 Flash Prose Prize

$3,600 Awarded

Guest Judge: Amy Hempel

July 13 – September 13, 2026

The best flash…manage to reveal the hidden, accentuate the subtle, and highlight the seemingly insignificant… The best offer insight and understanding of the human experience as they deepen and broaden reader awareness in a short space of text. 

—Pamelyn Casto, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction

The CRAFT 2026 Flash Prose Prize will be open for submissions of both flash fiction and flash creative nonfiction from July 13 to September 13, 2026. We want to read your masterpieces of compression, those stories and essays that speak to the soul of the human experience in under 1,000 words. This year’s guest judge is none other than the master of minimalism herself, Amy Hempel! Hempel will select her favorite three entries from a shortlist of twenty-five. These winners will each receive $1,000, a bundle of Rose Metal Press Field Guides, and publication in CRAFT. Three editors’ choice selections will receive $200 each along with publication.

All entries into the contest will receive a discount code from Rose Metal Press!

Please carefully review our guidelines below—then send us your best flash prose!

GUIDELINES:

• Submissions are open to all writers. CRAFT is a market for literary prose.
• Please submit flash prose only! We’ll review both fiction and creative nonfiction for this prize.
• The $20 reading fee per entry allows up to two 1,000-word flash prose pieces—if submitting two works, please send them in a single document.
• We allow multiple and simultaneous submissions. Each submission must be accompanied by a separate reading fee. Writers, please notify us and withdraw your submission if your piece is accepted for publication elsewhere.
• Writers from historically marginalized groups will be able to submit for free until we reach fifty free submissions.
• Submit previously unpublished work only—we do not review reprints or partial reprints (including any form of self-publishing: blogs, personal websites, social media, et cetera). Reprints will be automatically disqualified.
• International submissions are welcome. Work must be written primarily in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• No translations, please.
• We review literary prose but are open to a variety of genres and styles. Our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12.
• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and any content warnings (if applicable).
• We do not require anonymous submissions, but the guest judge will review the twenty-five shortlisted pieces anonymously.
• All entries will be considered for general publication in CRAFT.
• Please review our values before submitting.
• AI-generated or -assisted submissions will be automatically disqualified. This includes using LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or similar) to translate your work.
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work.
• We are always happy to help if you have questions. Email us: contact@craftliterary.com.

AWARDS:

The writers of the three winning pieces will receive:

• $1,000 each;
• a bundle of the Rose Metal Press Field Guides;
• and publication in CRAFT, with an introduction by the guest judge as well as an author’s note (short craft essay) to accompany the piece.

The writers of the three editors’ choice selections will receive:

• $200 each;
• and publication in CRAFT, with an introduction by our editorial team as well as an author’s note (short craft essay) to accompany the piece.

FINE PRINT:

• Friends, family, and close associates of the guest judge are not eligible for consideration for the award.
• Our collaboration with editorial professionals in the judging and awarding of our contests does not imply an endorsement or recognition from their agencies, houses, presses, universities, et cetera.
• Check out our 2025 winners for examples of the type of work we seek.
• The winning pieces will be published in February 2027.

GUEST JUDGE:

AMY HEMPEL is the author of five collections of short stories, most recently Sing to It. Stories have been published in Harper’s, The Quarterly, The Yale Review, and many other publications, and have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and Best Nonrequired Reading. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Rea Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, and the Howard D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has taught creative writing at Harvard, The Michener Center, New York University, the University of Florida, and Stony Brook Southampton. She has worked in dog rescue for many years.

CONTEST PARTNER:

Founded in 2006, ROSE METAL PRESS is a not-for-profit publisher specializing in the publication of literary work in hybrid genres, including flash fiction and nonfiction; prose poetry; novels-in-verse or book-length linked narrative poems; novellas-in-flash; lyric essays; text and image works; and other literary works that move beyond the traditional genres of poetry, fiction, and essay to find new forms of expression.

 OPTIONAL EDITORIAL FEEDBACK:

You may choose to receive editorial feedback on your flash prose. We will provide marginal notes on one of your two pieces, as well as a two-page global letter discussing the strengths of the writing and the recommended focus for revision. While editorial feedback is inherently subjective, our suggestions are always actionable and encouraging. We aim to have feedback completed within twelve weeks from the close of the contest. Work that we critique is not eligible for submission to future CRAFT contests, but can be revised and resubmitted in our general categories for further consideration.