SUBMISSIONS CLOSED FOR SUMMER 2025
The Golden Ox awards small but mighty prose. We want to read your best flash fiction or micro essays under 1,000 words.
Please submit a flash fiction story or micro creative nonfiction essay of fewer than 1,000 words.
Please specify in your cover letter whether your piece is fiction or nonfiction. Also note that our submissions will close once we reach 50 total submissions, so be sure to get your submission in early!
Awards will go to three winners (1st, 2nd, & 3rd place). Winners will be notified in August 2025.
Summer 2023
Winners
First Place: Chris Lombardo, “Forever War”
Second Place: Mitzi Dorton, “Potato Poultice”
Third Place: John Francis Istel, “Delivered”
Summer 2022
Winners
First Place: Heidi Nieling, “The Hand of God”
Second Place: Brett Biebel, “Deli Sliced Right”
Third Place: Melissa Rotert, “Lindy Bird Fly”
Summer 2021
The Golden Ox awards small but mighty prose: a flash fiction story or micro creative nonfiction essay of fewer than 1,000 words on the theme of biota regret.
Winners
First Place: Dr. Bunny McFadden, “The river is too wet.”
Second Place: Anissa Lynne Johnson, “JEKYLL AND FORMALDEHYDE”
Third Place: María Deguzmán, “Luz Bone”