Molia Dumbleton has won third prize in this year’s prestigious UK Bridport Prize flash fiction competition for her story “What real men wished they’d dreamed.” Flash fiction or micro fiction is a very, very short story – in this instance, 250 words or fewer.
The winning story was selected from more than 1,700 entries by flash fiction judge Monica Ali who said, “I am in awe of anyone who can write decent flash fiction. The best of the entries this year left a lingering presence, an impression on the imagination that filled far more space in the mind than on the page.” She praised “What real men wished they’d dreamed’’ saying, “The story reveals itself sparely, guardedly, the form, character and subject matter in perfect synchronicity.”
Ms. Dumbleton’s debut collection of short fiction was named one of four finalists for the 2018 Iowa Short Fiction Award. Her stories have been awarded the Seán Ó Faoláin Story Prize; Columbia Journal Winter Fiction Award; Dromineer Literary Festival Flash Fiction Prize and others, and appeared in journals including The Kenyon Review, New England Review, Witness, Hobart, SmokeLong Quarterly, Southword Journal and The Stinging Fly, in addition to the Bath Flash Fiction Anthologies for 2017 and 2018.