Magazine1 is proud to host its first ever flash prose contest. This contest hopes to find the prose (both fiction and non) that brings the reader directly into the chair they're sitting in. The kind of writing that makes you feel like you're seeing the world in 3D for the first time.
For our first theme we wanted to do something all Floridians are familiar with. Heat. The kind of heat that encircles your head, cutting your body off from your thoughts. The kind of heat that rises with the bile in your throat. The heat that burns from inside of you, fighting at your edges to escape, even if it has to blow you apart to do so.
When submitting, please take the theme into consideration. The heat of your piece doesn't have to by physical. It doesn't have to be emotion. Hell, it doesn't have to be anything I've thought of before. It just has to be hot. In one way or another.
When submitting, please consider the following:
- Submission fee is $5.
- The piece can either be fiction or non-fiction.
- Submit only one flash piece per submission.
- Submissions cannot be more than 500 words.
- You can submit more than once, you just have to pay for each submission.
- You do not need to live in Sarasota to submit, this contest is for everyone!
- Other than that, there are no strict structures for the piece you submit, so long as it's something you're proud of, we want to read it.
The final judge of the contest will be Aimee Nezukumatathil. She is the New York Times best-selling author of the poetry book, NIGHT OWL (Mar. 2026), and two illustrated collections of essays, BITE BY BITE and WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS, which was chosen as Barnes and Noble's Book of the Year and named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She also wrote four previous award-winning poetry collections: OCEANIC, LUCKY FISH, AT THE DRIVE-IN VOLCANO, and MIRACLE FRUIT. With the poet Ross Gay, she co-authored the chapbook LACE & PYRITE, a collaboration on epistolary garden poems. Her writing appears twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review.
First prize for the contest will be a $150 dollar gift card to Bookstore1. The poem will also be published in the upcoming issue of Magazine1.
Runners up will receive a $50 gift card to Bookstore1 and will be published in the upcoming issue of Magazine1.
These gift cards are usable either in person at our store in Sarasota, or in our online store.
We currently cannot offer direct monetary compensation to our contributors. However, since we are operated by a Bookstore, we will give a $40 gift card to anyone we publish, which can be used in our physical store or in our online shop.
Our guidelines for submission are as follows:
- Please wait until you receive a response for your submission before submitting again. You are free to submit multiple times, but only one submission per genre is allowed i.e. one short story of 4500 words and 3 poems totaling 10 pages of poetry.
- Please include the genre to which you are submitting in your file name.
- Only submit previously unpublished work.
- Include a biography in the appropriate place on the Submittable page. 100 words or less, please. While it’s fine to tell us where you’ve been previously published, we’d love it if you told us something about yourself instead.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
- Submit all written work as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Have standard formatting: put your page number somewhere on each page. If the submission is prose, please double-space. Use Times New Roman font, or similar.
- Please limit prose submissions to ~4500 words for a single short story or up to four pieces of flash fiction each with a maximum of 1000 words.
- Please submit a maximum of 10 pages of poetry.
- Hybrid work can bend these limitations, but please do so within reason. We won’t be able to do anything with a full manuscript, even if it’s great.
- We typically respond to submissions within eight weeks. Please be patient as we are a very small team.
- This is the Tip Jar submission form. Thank you so much for your donation!
Specifics for Visual Art
- Please submit your piece as either a .png or .jpeg file.
- Please submit your piece with a DPI of 300.
- Please submit your piece with a size of 1024 x 1024 px.
- Please list the materials used in the piece.
Author's Rights
For all submissions (fiction, poetry, nonfiction, visual art, and hybrid), we ask for the right to display and archive work in multiple electronic formats, such as on our website and in PDF, as well as in print for special issues. We acquire First Rights to the work (i.e. the piece must not have been previously published in print or online), with all rights reverting back to the author upon publication. After publication, we greatly appreciate any reprints acknowledging that the piece was first published in Magazine1.
We currently cannot offer direct monetary compensation to our contributors. However, since we are operated by a Bookstore, we will give a $40 gift card to anyone we publish, which can be used in our physical store or in our online shop.
Our guidelines for submission are as follows:
- Please wait until you receive a response for your submission before submitting again. You are free to submit multiple times, but only one submission per genre is allowed i.e. one short story of 4500 words and 3 poems totaling 10 pages of poetry.
- Please include the genre to which you are submitting in your file name.
- Only submit previously unpublished work.
- Include a biography in the appropriate place on the Submittable page. 100 words or less, please. While it’s fine to tell us where you’ve been previously published, we’d love it if you told us something about yourself instead.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
- Submit all written work as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Have standard formatting: put your page number somewhere on each page. If the submission is prose, please double-space. Use Times New Roman font, or similar.
- Please limit prose submissions to ~4500 words for a single short story or up to four pieces of flash fiction each with a maximum of 1000 words.
- Please submit a maximum of 10 pages of poetry.
- Hybrid work can bend these limitations, but please do so within reason. We won’t be able to do anything with a full manuscript, even if it’s great.
- We typically respond to submissions within four weeks. Please be patient as we are a very small team.
- Submissions are free, but we do operate a tip jar and would love any support you are able to provide.
Specifics for Visual Art
- Please submit your piece as either a .png or .jpeg file.
- Please submit your piece with a DPI of 300.
- Please submit your piece with a size of 1024 x 1024 px.
- Please list the materials used in the piece.
Author's Rights
For all submissions (fiction, poetry, nonfiction, visual art, and hybrid), we ask for the right to display and archive work in multiple electronic formats, such as on our website and in PDF, as well as in print for special issues. We acquire First Rights to the work (i.e. the piece must not have been previously published in print or online), with all rights reverting back to the author upon publication. After publication, we greatly appreciate any reprints acknowledging that the piece was first published in Magazine1.
We currently cannot offer direct monetary compensation to our contributors. However, since we are operated by a Bookstore, we will give a $40 gift card to anyone we publish, which can be used in our physical store or in our online shop.
If you live on the Gulf Coast of Florida (Sarasota/St. Pete/Tampa and related environs) please submit here!
Our guidelines for submission are as follows:
- Please wait until you receive a response for your submission before submitting again. You are free to submit multiple times, but only one submission per genre is allowed i.e. one short story of 4500 words and 3 poems totaling 10 pages of poetry.
- Please include the genre to which you are submitting in your file name.
- Only submit previously unpublished work.
- Include a biography in the appropriate place on the Submittable page. 100 words or less, please. While it’s fine to tell us where you’ve been previously published, we’d love it if you told us something about yourself instead.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
- Submit all written work as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Have standard formatting: put your page number somewhere on each page. If the submission is prose, please double-space. Use Times New Roman font, or similar.
- Please limit prose submissions to ~4500 words for a single short story or up to four pieces of flash fiction each with a maximum of 1000 words.
- Please submit a maximum of 10 pages of poetry.
- Hybrid work can bend these limitations, but please do so within reason. We won’t be able to do anything with a full manuscript, even if it’s great.
- We typically respond to submissions within four weeks. Please be patient as we are a very small team.
- This is the Tip Jar submission form, thank you for your donation!
Specifics for Visual Art
- Please submit your piece as either a .png or .jpeg file.
- Please submit your piece with a DPI of 300.
- Please submit your piece with a size of 1024 x 1024 px.
- Please list the materials used in the piece.
Author's Rights
For all submissions (fiction, poetry, nonfiction, visual art, and hybrid), we ask for the right to display and archive work in multiple electronic formats, such as on our website and in PDF, as well as in print for special issues. We acquire First Rights to the work (i.e. the piece must not have been previously published in print or online), with all rights reverting back to the author upon publication. After publication, we greatly appreciate any reprints acknowledging that the piece was first published in Magazine1.
We currently cannot offer direct monetary compensation to our contributors. However, since we are operated by a Bookstore, we will give a $40 gift card to anyone we publish, which can be used in our physical store or in our online shop.
If you live on the Gulf Coast of Florida (Sarasota/St. Pete/Tampa and related environs) please submit here!
Our guidelines for submission are as follows:
- Please wait until you receive a response for your submission before submitting again. You are free to submit multiple times, but only one submission per genre is allowed i.e. one short story of 4500 words and 3 poems totaling 10 pages of poetry.
- Please include the genre to which you are submitting in your file name.
- Only submit previously unpublished work.
- Include a biography in the appropriate place on the Submittable page. 100 words or less, please. While it’s fine to tell us where you’ve been previously published, we’d love it if you told us something about yourself instead.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
- Submit all written work as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Have standard formatting: put your page number somewhere on each page. If the submission is prose, please double-space. Use Times New Roman font, or similar.
- Please limit prose submissions to ~4500 words for a single short story or up to four pieces of flash fiction each with a maximum of 1000 words.
- Please submit a maximum of 10 pages of poetry.
- Hybrid work can bend these limitations, but please do so within reason. We won’t be able to do anything with a full manuscript, even if it’s great.
- We typically respond to submissions within four weeks. Please be patient as we are a very small team.
- Submissions are free, but we do operate a tip jar and would love any support you are able to provide.
Specifics for Visual Art
- Please submit your piece as either a .png or .jpeg file.
- Please submit your piece with a DPI of 300.
- Please submit your piece with a size of 1024 x 1024 px.
- Please list the materials used in the piece.
Author's Rights
For all submissions (fiction, poetry, nonfiction, visual art, and hybrid), we ask for the right to display and archive work in multiple electronic formats, such as on our website and in PDF, as well as in print for special issues. We acquire First Rights to the work (i.e. the piece must not have been previously published in print or online), with all rights reverting back to the author upon publication. After publication, we greatly appreciate any reprints acknowledging that the piece was first published in Magazine1.