Flash Summer Contest 2025
Ends on
This summer, Inscape invites you to submit flash poetry, flash fiction, flash nonfiction, or photography inspired by the theme Unclaimed Luggage. We’re drawn to short-form work that unpacks the emotional, spiritual, or physical baggage we carry—or abandon. Maybe it’s a family legacy you never asked for. Maybe it’s a memory you return to in secret. Maybe it’s an actual suitcase lost in an airport, or something symbolic that’s been stowed away in the back of your mind.
We’re looking for work that is brief but resonant—something that lingers long after the last word. The theme is open to interpretation: literal, metaphorical, playful, strange, or deeply personal. Whether your piece is about grief, identity, adventure, memory, or something entirely unexpected, we want to see how you translate Unclaimed Luggage into story, scene, sound, and meaning—in a small space with big impact.
Flash Fiction
Send us one story of 1,000 words or fewer that engages the theme Unclaimed Luggage. We’re looking for compressed narratives that still carry emotional weight—stories where every sentence earns its place. Surprise us with form, voice, structure, or premise. Whether realist or experimental, grounded or surreal, your piece should feel whole despite its brevity.
Flash Nonfiction
Submit one piece of 1,000 words or fewer—a personal essay, lyric fragment, or experimental meditation—that explores what we carry, leave behind, or inherit. We welcome hybrid forms, braided moments, sharp reflections, and distilled insight. Let the small form help reveal something large.
Flash Poetry
Submit up to 3 poems, each 30 lines or fewer. Whether narrative or experimental, visual or sonic, we’re looking for poems that find intensity in compression. Let the theme guide you to what’s unsaid, what’s packed away, what wants to be claimed.
Flash Photography
Send us one photo that speaks to the theme Unclaimed Luggage. We’re looking for images that tell stories in a glance—quiet, uncanny, emotionally charged. Your submission might capture what’s lost, what lingers, or what refuses to be discarded. Whether staged, found, abstract, or documentary, your image should evoke more than it explains. Let what’s visible suggest what isn’t.
Submission Guidelines:
- If submitting pieces in multiple genres, please submit them separately.
- Literary submissions must be written in English and may not exceed specified word limits.
- Please submit literary works as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Visual arts submissions must be scanned at 300 DPI or higher and saved as a .jpeg or .tiff image.
- Do not include your name in any of the attachments.
- Do not submit previously published work unless you are submitting to the Alumni issue. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if your piece has been accepted somewhere else.
- Current Inscape staff members may not be considered for publication. Staff members may submit their work in order to get blind workshop feedback; however, you must talk to the chief editors prior to doing so.
- We do not accept pieces that invoke the name of deity as an expletive.
- Any submission that does not follow these guidelines will not be considered.
Inscape observes US Fair Use copyright doctrine which states that
- authors must own the copyright of their submitted work and have full power to enter into a publication agreement with Inscape and to convey any rights they may grant to Inscape.
- the author’s submitted work constitutes their own original work or gives credit for ideas or material not their own, and does not in any way violate copyright.
- the author’s submitted work may not defame, invade the privacy of, violate the civil rights of, or infringe upon the rights of any individuals or third parties.
- the author has permission to submit a particular work to Inscape on behalf of all other authors in the event the submitted work has more than one author.