Flash Fiction Online is the first online magazine dedicated to professionalizing flash fiction

Flash fiction

Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category...

 in its own right.

Flash fiction

Flash fiction

Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category...

 is loosely defined as stories of one thousand or fewer words, although the defining parameters vary from one publisher to another. Flash Fiction Online accepts stories from five hundred to one thousand words in length. Many magazines accept flash fiction and are considered professional by organizations such as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

SFWA

SFWA may refer to:*Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America*Scottish Football Writers' Association...

 (see SFWA criteria), but they are not dedicated to flash fiction. Several magazines, such as Vestal Review

Vestal Review

Vestal Review is the oldest magazine dedicated to flash fiction. It has been published continuously since March 2000. Vestal Review was featured on NPR, formerly National Public Radio, in 2004 and is a recipient of a Broome Council of the Arts grant...

, Flash Me Magazine

Flash Me Magazine

Flash Me Magazine is one of the longest running online magazines devoted to publishing flash fiction stories. It is a quarterly publication by Winged Halo Productions. It is a paying market, accepting all genres of fiction under 1,000 words. It is also one of the few markets that offer editorial...

, and SmokeLong Quarterly, are dedicated to flash fiction, but are not considered professional by the SFWA, regardless of the high quality of their content. Publication in Flash Fiction Online now counts as credit toward full membership in the SFWA, a status granted in February 2009.

Flash Fiction Online pays professional rates for flash fiction. Other milestones needed before achieving professional status include consistent publishing for a year (a milestone it reached with its November, 2008 issue) and circulations of one thousand subscribers or equivalent.

In addition, it is publishing professional writers, including Bruce Holland Rogers

Bruce Holland Rogers

Bruce Holland Rogers is an American author of short fiction who also writes under the pseudonym Hanovi Braddock. His stories have won a Pushcart Prize, two Nebula Awards, the Bram Stoker Award, two World Fantasy Awards, the Micro Award, and have been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award and...

, Eric Garcia

Eric Garcia

Eric Garcia is an American writer, the author of several humorous novels including Matchstick Men which was made into a movie directed by Ridley Scott and starring Nicolas Cage, and the Anonymous Rex series, which was adapted in 2004 for the SciFi Channel...

, Dave Hoing, James Van Pelt

James Van Pelt

James Van Pelt is an American science fiction author who began publishing in the mid-90s. He is also a teacher in the language arts department at Fruita Monument High School in Fruita, Colorado. He is also the former advisor of The Catalyst, the student-run monthly magazine of Fruita Monument High...

, Carl Frederick

Carl Frederick

Carl Frederick is a science fiction author living in Ithaca, New York. He has written numerous short stories that have appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight, Asimov's Science Fiction, Flash Fiction Online, Jim Baen's Universe, Space and Time, and other publications...

, Bruce McAllister

Bruce McAllister

Bruce McAllister is an American author of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.- Novels :Humanity Prime Dream Baby Bruce McAllister (born 1946) is an American author of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.- Novels :Humanity Prime (Ace Books, l971; Wildside Press, 2008)Dream Baby Bruce McAllister (born...

, Mike Resnick

Mike Resnick

Michael Diamond Resnick , better known by his published name Mike Resnick, is an American science fiction author. He was executive editor of Jim Baen's Universe.-Biography:...

, Jay Lake

Jay Lake

Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is a science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first place winner in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction. He lives in Portland, Oregon and currently works as a product manager...

, Ray Vukcevich

Ray Vukcevich

Ray Vukcevich is a writer of fantasy and literary fiction. His loopy, sometimes surreal stories have been compared to the works of R. A. Lafferty, George Saunders, and David Sedaris. Some seventy-five stories, with titles such as "White Guys in Space," have appeared in science fiction and...

, and Kristine Rusch. The Bruce Holland Rogers story, "Reconstruction Work

Reconstruction Work

"Reconstruction Work" is a flash fiction short story by Bruce Holland Rogers. It first appeared in the December 2007 issue of Flash Fiction Online and won the inaugural Micro Award in 2008. The story is of a conversation between a funeral home employee and the granddaughter of a deceased woman...

", won the first annual Micro Award in 2008. In addition, Bruce Holland Rogers began a column on writing the short-short form starting in June 2008.

One other distinguishing feature of Flash Fiction Online is its desire to print genre fiction (e.g., science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

, fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

) as well as literary fiction.

Flash Fiction Online ranked 14th for Fictionzine on the 2007 Preditors & Editors poll; artist-in-residence R.W. Ware ranked 6th for artist. It has also been noted on CNN in relation to short-short stories, and for "showcasing the talents of writers like Bruce Holland Rogers."

External links

• Official site
• Duotrope Digest listing for Flash Fiction Online
• Ralan's Specfic and Humor Webstravaganza professional listings page
• Bruce Holland Rogers's Author Page at Flash Fiction Online, showing "Short-Short Sighted" column entries