eacwp flash fiction contest – the winners

the winner of the 7th eacwp (european association of creative writing programmes) flash fiction has been chosen:

tug o war
by olivia watson

It was a childish game – ma on one side, me on the other – holding fast at the end of the tether. Grievances stacked like weights behind us: piling up, straining hard. Knuckles white around the cord.

I heaved with all my strength and found I held not a rope but a coil, loosely wound. Inside it not just you and I but all of us. Mother’s mother’s mother’s mother, all wrapped up in one another. The fabric of our skin unstitched. Aching to unfurl, unspool–all the way back to the beginning of it all.

When I pulled, no one braced. We unravelled.

***

points were awarded according to the eurovision songcontest system, next in line are:

2nd place:"o outro lado das histórias" (engl: "the other side of stories") in portuguese by rafaela araújo
3rd place and winner of the online-voting: "המלחמה נגמרה" (engl: "the end of the war") in hebrew by liat sade-saadon
4th place: "doodtij" (engl: "slack water") in dutch (bel) by stien keunen
5th place: "koexistenz" (engl: "coexistence") in german by peter zemla

congratulations to the winners and finalists!

more than 1,000 texts were submitted this year for the competition which took place for the 7th time. the jury that chose the finalists (in addition to the public online voting) consisted of representatives of the participating 13 eacwp institutions. for sfd, poet peter waugh (gbr/aut) was once again member of the jury.

more info:

https://sfd.at/en/newsflash/european-flash-fiction-contest-vote-online

texts by all finalists (in their original language and english translation):

>>https://eacwp.org/flash-fiction-contest-european-winner-2024/

winners per language:

>>https://eacwp.org/2024-winners-per-language/