WRITERS GUILD OF TEXAS NEWS
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2025 Flash Fiction Winners!
Congratulations to the 2025 winners of the 11th Annual Kathryn McClatchy Flash Fiction Contest.
We announced them at the December Holiday party along with Kathryn McClatchy (attending virtually). We will be posting each entry on the website and newsletter each month, starting with first place.
2026 Flash Fiction Winners
First Prize – The Break-In by Jolea Broome
Second Prize – Playing with Plagues by D Kay Valentine
Third Prize – Tanner by Jesse Owens Jr
Honorable Mention - As Beautiful as Imagined by George Bowden
2024 Flash Fiction Contest Honorable Mention
Honorable Mention - Katie Moriarty Beyond the Wall
Miles had shaken many hands, but none as significant as the one he reached for now.
“It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Great work, Miles,” she said, gripping his hand. “People liked your article. You’ve got them hoping for a future out of here.”
Hope? He hadn’t been trying to inspire hope- it spilled out of his article like coffee from an overturned mug- messy and irreversible.
“We can’t have people forgetting why we live within these walls. The Harrowed are a threat to all of us,” Madame Walker continued, her voice low.
Miles’s teachers had brought the Harrowed to life in grade school the way authors brought vampires and dragons to life, but he had never seen them. Neither had anyone he knew- not even Madame Walker.
The walls kept the Harrowed out. Or, maybe in? It made no difference to Miles. The safety they offered was comforting either way.
Yet- their mystery still pulled him. He’d tugged at the threads with his article but stopped before it unraveled.
But Miles knew what Madame Walker meant, “Yes, we cannot forget.” Had he forgotten the danger for a moment? Miles wasn’t sure.
“I need to know how many are left,” Madame Walker leaned in, her fierce stare letting Miles know this was no request. “Let us know if it’s safe to come out of this cage.”
The idea of the town spilling out of the walls into an empty world amused Miles. No one who had reported on the Harrowed came back to tell the tale. Now, Madame Walker was considering opening the gates?
Miles squirmed in his seat. “I can’t do that,” he said. “I’ve got a wife and kids depending on me.” Miles quickly formed an excuse- though he hadn’t given thought to his family.
“I know,” Madame Walker replied, “But, you have a bigger responsibility now.”
Life was predictable, well-oiled. Miles knew what to expect every single day. Madame Walker had just tasked the unknown, stirring fear and curiosity in Miles’s chest.
“I’m no good with numbers. Send someone else and I’ll write it up when they bring back the count.” Miles felt a bead of sweat form while he waited for Madame Walker to respond.
“The story is yours- to investigate and report,” Madame Walker said with a smile, amused at his excuses. Miles nearly groaned. When Madame Walker made an order, you could not refuse.
“Why me?” Miles muttered.
Madame Walker answered him. “You asked the question- got other people asking the question. Questions can be just as dangerous as the Harrowed themselves. You need to answer it for them.”
The question Miles had posed: Are the Harrowed still there?
Madame Walker stood. Miles stood too, mostly out of habit. “I’ll walk you to the exclusion zone, and from there you’ll continue out of the walls.” She paused, “Make sure you get a good count- account for them all.” Madame Walker appeared to wink at him, but on second thought- she perhaps had something in her eye.
As they walked, Miles’s heart raced. Were the Harrowed real? Miles’s certainty that they were grew with each step. The smallest bit of doubt remained, and propelled him forward, letting him win the internal battle to retreat.
Madame Walker glided next to him- this was her town after all. Her people to protect. She was protecting them now. Miles had never considered himself dangerous. Then again, what did he know about danger?
They stopped at the exclusion zone. The guards who stood watch had never seen a Harrowed either but acted like they were in imminent danger. It was all part of the job.
At the small door- the only exit point in the entire wall, Madame Walker nodded, “Take care of yourself, Miles.”
Miles raised his pen- the most dangerous weapon he owned- and saluted like the guards. They were as useless to him now as they had ever been.
Miles hesitated, feeling Madame Walker’s watchful eyes on his back, “Understand, Miles: you’re about to learn why nobody leaves these walls,” she said, with the sweetness of poison. Miles shrunk under the weight of her words. He ignored the alarm bells in his mind and stepped through. The door clicked shut like a casket closing.
Miles turned back- the door was gone- swallowed by the wall. No seams. No handles. No way back. Miles swallowed hard.
The sense of safety he had vanished, and fear began to gnaw at him.
Miles’s body tensed, ready for the ruins. He braced himself for the wasteland of bones, abandoned homes, and nearly certain death.
Miles’s jaw dropped at what he saw instead. It must have been an illusion.
The ground bloomed with colors- red, orange, blue, filling the air with a sweet floral smell. Beyond that- rows of homes, recently built. Each with gardens lush with food. The air was fresher than he had ever breathed. A scene from a fairy tale.
Miles blinked and rubbed his eyes. The image remained.
Sidewalks and manicured lawns, cars driving down the streets, even children laughing in the distance.
A man walked past with his dog, whistling a song, “Hey, you alright buddy? You don’t look so good.”
Miles laughed, his voice cracking, “The Harrowed… they’re gone?” It sounded ridiculous as soon as he’d said it.
The man twisted his face, “The what?”
Miles stood with the whole world laid in front of him. His heart raced as he took it all in.
Fear had imprisoned him, and everyone he knew for so long. The Harrowed were just a myth- but he couldn’t share that with anyone. They’d have to discover it for themselves. Madame Walker would tell the town he died- and Miles thought, perhaps he had. He was certainly not the same person, and never would be again.
He stepped forward into the grass, feeling it spring under his foot, then took another step towards the town.
Miles was free, liberated from fear, ready to discover the world ahead.
Flash Fiction Contest Third Place Winning Entry
Third Place - D. Kay Valentine, Dragon vs. Toddler
Fact, toddlers toddled. Also, a fact, snakes slithered. And if one resided in the northern mountains of Arkansas, it was entirely likely that toddlers and large leggy winged snakes could end up face to snout in the Ozark Forest.
The toddler, a three-year-old girl wearing only a diaper, had toddled away from her trailer nestled into the side of Magazine Mountain. She’d been sitting in front of the trailer with her faithful hound Scratch enjoying mudpies and juice while her momma hung the laundry out to dry.
Momma had never enjoyed laundry day, especially since the dryer stopped working three months prior. Momma did, however, enjoy a sip or two of ‘shine, which after the dryer broke had become a major part of laundry day. On that day she had enjoyed a full glass of moonshine while she did the wash. She had enjoyed a second while she hung the wash on the line, and a third while she stared at the wash waiting for it to dry in the summer heat.
Scratch knew something was wrong with Momma when she had leaned over to rest her forehead on the cool wet sandy ground and never raised back up. It had been over four hours. Momma was not likely to raise back up, ever.
The toddler, Prussia had been crying, apple juice and mud pies long gone.
Scratch had gently taken the girl’s hand in his mouth and led her slowly into the forest. He took her to the lake to get a cool drink of water. That had always made him feel better when he was hungry and there was no food.
At the lake he found an enormous reptile sunning on the banks. He’d seen the beast before. He growled and put himself between it and Prussia.
The beast raised its head and quirked an eyebrow.
“What have we here, dog?” it asked in a deep voice neither male nor female.
Scratch growled again, ready to protect the child at any cost.
“Don’t’ worry. I won’t eat her. She is too small and most likely too fatty,” said the beast chuckling harmoniously.
Prussia moved around the dog towards the large reptile. Scratch immediately snapped onto the toddler’s diaper and tried pulling her backwards.
Prussia giggled and wiggled out of the Huggies, running towards the monster. She fell forward, arms around the long green scaley tail which twitched in a serpentine motion while she laughed.
“Hmmm, she isn’t afraid of me,” it noted with a pleased expression. It spread its wings and raised up on its hind legs, looming almost two stories over the girl, still sprawled atop its tail.
She beamed up at it, pink cheeks and gapped grin, and giggled.
“Uncky Gree!” she exclaimed.
“Am I your Uncle Green?” chuckled the beast, the voice shaking the woods around them.
Scratch was still trying to corral the girl, but she was too delighted to be herded by the mutt.
“Dog!” commanded the beast, “I am of the great Dragon Clan Gowrow, and I give you my word I will not harm the child. Stop acting foolishly.”
As the dragon spoke, the ground quaked and the air sizzled, noting the binding words.
Scratch whimpered and backed away at the commotion.
“You may stay and help protect the child,” it said.
Scratch couldn’t help wagging his tail at the assignment.
The dragon turned its attention back to the girl.
“Tell me, what is your name, child?”
“‘m Pru-sha, an ‘m tee,” she said holding up three fingers proudly.
“I see. Well, this won’t do at all,” said the dragon. “You are too young to be in the forest alone. You will need to stay with your Uncky Gree. Tell me, what is your dog’s name?”
“Dawg?” asked Prussia.
The dragon pointed a clawed forefinger at the dog.
“Scratch!” said Prussia proudly. “Scratch is scratch!”
“I see education was not in the forefront of your family’s mind. Let’s see what we can do. Dog, Scratch, can you bring her something to wear that is not made of plastic? Don’t worry, you have my word. The great dragon ‘Uncky Gree’ has decreed the girl’s safety.”
Scratch reluctantly backed away from the beast. Prussia was still perched on top of its tail like she was riding a pony when Scratch left the forest by the lake.
He returned later with a cotton sundress that had been in the laundry basket. It was mostly dry from sitting in the sun. Momma had still been lying below the laundry line, eyes open, motionless.
When Scratch returned, the dragon was snout to nose with the toddler singing to her in a language that he didn’t recognize, although his English vocabulary was limited.
Prussia was fast asleep. He sat the sundress down at the dragon’s hind legs and backed away low, in deference.
“Dog Scratch do not fear me. You are now the young-one’s knight. You will protect her and guide her through the forest. I will educate her and teach her the ways of my kind. She will be my person and someday we will ride together.”