CrimeFlash Fiction Contest
Write with Michael Koryta!
"There are 27 headstones in the island's only graveyard, but there are 28 bodies beneath."
That’s the first sentence of your next flash fiction story thanks to award-winning and bestselling writer and 2024 Maine CrimeMaster Michael Koryta. The MWPA is thrilled (pun intended) to announce the 2024 CrimeFlash Contest. You’re invited to finish Koryta’s opening line—written exclusively for this contest—with your own flash fiction of no more than 500-words.
Every entry to the contest must begin with the line:"There are 27 headstones in the island's only graveyard, but there are 28 bodies beneath." After that, it’s up to you—for a total of no more than 500-words!
The winner will receive a free registration to the 2024 Maine Crime Wave, an invitation to read their story at the conference, and have their work printed in the conference program. Two runners-up will receive half-price registration to the Crime Wave.
The full submission guidelines and submission button are below. Good luck!
2023 Awards
We are so pleased to announce the winner and honorable mentions in this year’s CrimeFlash contest. Huge thanks to Richard Cass, winner of the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction in 2018, for serving as this year’s judge. The winner is Jeff Steinbrink, for “San Francisco, 1952,” and the honorable mentions are L.E. Archer, for “Swan Song,” and Sam Schipani, for “Two Sisters Crime Scene Cleanup.” Both Steinbrink and Archer will share their work as part of the opening night of the Maine Crime Wave. A huge thank you to all of the writers who sent in such wonderful and hair-raising work!
FIRST PLACE
Jeff Steinbrink has been a teacher, a lifeguard, an iron worker, a mailman and a member of the National Honor Society. He knows two killer card tricks and on a windless day is a 70% free-throw shooter at the basket on his garage in South Portland. He has spent just a single night in jail.
Honorable mention
A native of Pennsylvania, L.E. Archer relocated to Maine in 2022 and works full-time as a freelance writer and ghostwriter. Archer writes both fiction and non-fiction works, but has a particular love of literary fiction, short horror stories and poetry. Some of her previous work has been featured in Philadelphia Stories, American Dissident and the Sanitarium Magazine. When Archer isn’t writing, she loves spending time in nature, hiking and enjoying the sights and sounds of the Maine woods.
honorable mention
Sam Schipani is a writer based in Bangor. For three years, she was a reporter for the Bangor Daily News, where she covered food, farming, and sustainable living. Sam's weekly column, "Sam Tries Things," won first place at the 2019 Maine Press Association awards; she has also been awarded first and third place awards for food writing in the same annual contest. Sam has written for Atlas Obscura, Sierra, Smithsonian, Earth Island Journal, and American Farm Publications.
Submission Guidelines
The competition is open to all Maine residents.*
There is no fee to enter.
Please follow the submission instructions carefully. Incomplete or late applications cannot be considered.
Submit up to 500-words max (including the opening line, but not your title) as a Word or PDF document
Submissions will only be accepted online through Submittable. If you do not have a Submittable account, you will be required to register, which is free and requires only your name and email
Your name and contact information should not appear on your submission (which may be a Word doc or PDF).
*Employees and board members of MWPA and their families are not eligible.
Submissions are open March 28 through April 28, 2024