arthur flowers flash fiction prize

2021 Results

We are ecstatic to announce that Arthur Flowers, the namesake and inaugural judge of the Arthur Flowers Flash Fiction Prize, has selected “Chant” by Jomar Canales Conde as the winner of our 2021 contest. Arthur also selected “Origin Story” by Star Su and “Rustic Haircuts for Returning Ghosts” by Nicole Tsuno as the two runners-up. Jomar will receive $500. Star and Nicole will receive $50 each. The winner and runners-up will also receive publication in Salt Hill’s 48th issue, due out in fall 2022.

It was an honor to create and run the first annual Arthur Flowers Flash Fiction Prize for emerging writers of color this year. Over 150 writers submitted their work, all of them a revelation and a joy to read. Our contest editors compiled a shortlist of 14 finalists and passed them on to Arthur for the final round of judging. The contest editors and Arthur all read the stories blind.

Of the winning story,  Jomar Canales Conde’s “Chant,” Arthur says:

I like the sentence, I like the lyrical song and the narrative density achieved, I like how smoothly the lens was calibrated between mythic distancing and personal closeups in an innovative narrative strategy that was successful to point of being essentialist. Once done felt like the story couldn’t have been told any other way.

On runner-up Star Su’s “Origin Story”:

A good flash fable is a joy to read, specially one swimming in subtlety. I found this story on story in story very satisfying. I thought the tonals were especially effective. For all its lyrical intensity it is restrained and selective, every word doing duty, duty, and double duty while adorned with a cultural authenticity and family dynamics equally fablic. 

On runner-up Nicole Tsuno’s “Rustic Haircuts for Returning Ghosts”: ​​

I thought this a significant achievement, interrogating the shadowplay of the human condition through deft handling of a removed voice that achieved dark intensity while avoiding lazy sensationalism. The author nuanced through that narrative minefield with a sure and steady writing hand.

We would also like to honor the following 11 finalists:

  • “Frozen Girl in the Butcher’s Meatlocker” by Amelia Eilertsen

  • “Joy” by Mustapha Enesi

  • “Goldmouth” by Cameron Green

  • “Public Access” by Yong-Yu Huang

  • “Road Trip” by Di Jayawickrema

  • “Jericho” by Kaylee Jeong

  • “Order Decapoda” by Elane Kim

  • “There Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked Saint” by Jared Lemus

  • “Elementary” by Tyler Odeneal

  • “Lechón” by Stephanie Simpson

  • “Cutting Ties” by Lucy Zhang

Jomar Canales Conde (born 1998) is a writer, poet, and photographer from Carolina, Puerto Rico. He holds a bachelor's degree in Spanish Studies from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras.

Star Su is a writer and engineer living in Brooklyn. Her fiction appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, Black Warrior Review, & elsewhere. They read flash for Split Lip Magazine. Find them online at starcsu.com.

Nicole Tsuno is a chronically ill writer living near Seattle, Washington. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fractured Lit, HAD, No Contact, The Offing, Passages North, perhappened, and elsewhere. Find her on Twitter @nicoletsuno.

2021 judge

Arthur Flowers, native of Memphis, author of novels, creative nonfiction, and graphic works, is a bluesbased performance artist / delta griot. His latest work is The Hoodoo Book of Flowers. He has been Exec. Dir. of The Harlem Writers Guild and various nonprofits. He is webmaster of Rootsblog, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University, and a practitioner of literary hoodoo.