The online literary magazine, Brittle Paper, has announced winners for its Flash Fiction Competition on August 31, 2026. The competition which was held to celebrate their Literary Festival, held on August 29, 2026, writers were asked to submit a 22-word Flash Fiction on what they perceived as the role of the writer in the today’s world.

“The competition asked everyone to imagine a world in the year 2158. 200 years after Achebe published Things Fall Apart, what does the role of the writer look like? What does that world look like for the writer? How has the writer’s audience changed? Are there still writers, and if there are, what are their inspirations and motivations? What is the 22nd-century writer?”

The Webmag received over 250 submissions. The editors were marvelled at the remarkable traits of the writers to imagine a world in 22 words and to designed it with wit, tenderness, and imagination. “Choosing a top 10 was difficult, and settling on the top three was harder still, but after much deliberation, here are our winners!”

Announcing the winners on their Facebook page, Brittle Paper chooses Mary Ipeh Osise, as winner of the Brittle Paper Flash Fiction Competition. And McLord Selasi Azalekor and Abimbola Akin, as second and third place. The winner receives $100, and the second and third place receive $50 each.

Mary captured a strange, yet forceful truth in her Flash Fiction, ”Know This,” which compares a writer with a seamstress. The second place wrote an archive story, titled The Story, and the third place looks at writing as messiah from insanity, with the title The Relics.

The other ten place winners are: Phiwe Mhlope, Sandy Baffour Adu, Henry Ikpo, Blessing Obiahu, Ogieva Uyiosa Victory, NmaHassan Muhammad, and Jean Wathugu.

Click here to read the published stories.

https://brittlepaper.com/2026/08/brittle-paper-flash-fiction-competition-winners/