Featured Pushcart Nominees

These stories were selected by Laura Besley and the Flash Fiction Magazine editors. Laura wrote the story breakdowns.

You can follow Laura on X or Bluesky.

“Fogbow” by Dana Brewer Harris

Dana Brewer Harris opens ‘Fogbow’ with a 72-word sentence. The second is 31 words, the third is 52, and the fourth—the final sentence of the opening paragraph—is a mere six. There are many instances when using overly long or overly short sentences doesn’t work. The wordy ones can be tricky to control, and the short ones can feel choppy and abrupt. But if you are able to wield your sentences exactly how you want them and use the right amount of variation, it can lead to an exquisitely balanced story, such as this one.

There are several noteworthy elements to discuss in these opening sentences, and all the sentences that follow.

Firstly, the pacing is immensely precise; there’s never a moment when you’re lost or struggling to find your way. Secondly, Brewer Harris makes excellent use of signposting throughout, such as: ‘[l]ate in the evening’ and ‘[w]e eat before dawn’ (for time) as well as for place: ‘into the room’ and ‘towards the door.’ As readers, it’s always clear when and where the action is taking place. Thirdly, there are some gorgeous and unique phrases in this story, for example: ‘his hips are still flooded with pleasure’ and ‘praying the hail storm moves through before the sun wakes and warms the ground.’ Lastly, many of the sentences read like poetry, with alliteration (when two words start with the same sound), such as: ‘his hat,’ or assonance (when the middle sounds of the words are the same), such as: ‘bent over the bed.’ Take a moment to read this story out loud—you won’t be disappointed.

“What You Cannot Hold” by Michele Moseley

The most striking thing about ‘What You Cannot Hold’ by Michele Moseley is the voice. “Voice” is possibly the hardest element of writing to define, but one way of looking at it is that a particular story could only have been written by a particular writer using a particular character. Here are a few examples of how the voice of this piece shines through.

‘I didn’t know we were poor until 1979.’ This is the opening line. It’s short, it’s direct, it’s almost as if the character is talking to the readers. ‘When we left our house in the sticks, we just kept on driving until we didn’t recognize a damn thing.’ Out of the plentiful other phrases to choose from, the second line uses ‘in the sticks’ to depict a certain setting. Then there are word choices of: ‘kept on driving’ and ‘a damn thing.’ Omitting ‘on’ in ‘kept on driving’ wouldn’t alter the meaning, but it would significantly alter the voice. And consider a different word in place of ‘damn.’ How would choosing ‘bloody’ or ‘darn’ or another word here change things? A lot. Also, peppered throughout the piece, Moseley makes use of single-word sentences, for example: ‘As the youngest, my reckoning of things was crooked. Porous.’ Throughout the story, the voice is strong and consistent.

Another strength of this story is how the ending loops back, or mirrors, the opening: ‘Mama said what’s done is done and don’t talk about it’ (opening) vs. ‘When I see Mama now, she talks about that old house. She tells the stories over and over until they are more about the telling than anything else.’ This is a wonderful way to finish a story, and the closing line emphasizes the meaning of the title, which is yet another strength.