New Short Story Challenge + Paranormal Runner-Up Stories Now Live!

🕰️ New Writing Challenge: Memory, Nostalgia, and £1,000 Up for Grabs!

We’ve just launched a brand-new short story contest — our 2025 Flashback Fiction Challenge — and it’s all about nostalgia. Each writer will be randomly assigned a decade (from the 1950s to the early 2000s) and must craft a contemporary story that includes at least one flashback set in that assigned decade.

But before we tell you more...

👻 Newly published!
We’ve just released five incredible runner-up stories from our Paranormal Flash Fiction Challenge, and they’re absolutely worth a read. These stories just missed out on the top spot, but each one shows real craft, voice, and flair.
📖 Read the runner-up stories here

Now, back to the present... and the past.

About the Flashback Fiction Challenge:

Your task is to write a contemporary short story with at least one flashback set in your assigned decade:

🌀 The 1950s: post-war optimism, jukeboxes, diners, the rise of rock and roll
🌀 The 1960s: counterculture, civil rights, miniskirts, moon landings
🌀 The 1970s: disco, second-wave feminism, Watergate, bell-bottoms
🌀 The 1980s: arcade games, Cold War tensions, big hair, synth-pop
🌀 The 1990s: grunge, dial-up internet, teen movies, political shifts
🌀 The early 2000s: flip phones, MySpace, emo bands, 9/11, the iPod

Whatever decade you get, the challenge is the same: evoke it clearly, vividly, and authentically. That means your flashback should feel truly of its time — through setting, language, mood, or small cultural details — while still serving a compelling story.

🏆 First Prize: £1,000

✍️ Find Out More About Our Flashback Fiction Challenge

Happy writing,
– The Globe Soup Team