CrimeFlash Fiction Contest

Write with Michael Koryta!

"There are 27 headstones in the island's only graveyard, but there are 28 bodies beneath."

That’s the first sentence of your next flash fiction story thanks to award-winning and bestselling writer and 2024 Maine CrimeMaster Michael Koryta. The MWPA is thrilled (pun intended) to announce the 2024 CrimeFlash Contest. You’re invited to finish Koryta’s opening line—written exclusively for this contest—with your own flash fiction of no more than 500-words.

Every entry to the contest must begin with the line:"There are 27 headstones in the island's only graveyard, but there are 28 bodies beneath." After that, it’s up to you—for a total of no more than 500-words!

The winner will receive a free registration to the 2024 Maine Crime Wave, an invitation to read their story at the conference, and have their work printed in the conference program. Two runners-up will receive half-price registration to the Crime Wave.

2024 Awards

We are pleased to announce the winner of this year’s CrimeFlash contest, and we thank all of the writers who submitted their work. The winner is Dustin Sleight for “Rest in peace, Mrs. Crawford.” 2nd place goes to Kate Bergquist for “Headcount,” and 3rd place is a tie between “28 is a Perfect Number” by Celine Boyle and “The Rest of the Story” by Andrea Lani.

This year’s judge—an accomplished Maine crime writer—notes, “It was a pleasure to read these stories—some about unwelcome mainlanders who end up, forgotten, in an island’s unmarked grave, some about misguided murders for love or revenge that present a need to dump a body that will be forever destined to co-habitate with a recently deceased or with a great-grandma with a checkered past. Also stories of historical revenge and cover-up, of golems and ghosts, and of ladies who meet for tea and end up doing their part to get rid of an abusive husband. Some submissions were excellent starts to longer stories with deep motives, curses and interesting villains. Some were complete story nuggets onto themselves. All were great to read and that made choosing a few standouts no easy task.”

Dustin Sleight is a Westbrook resident who works professionally as an engineer, and moonlights as an unemployed artistic type. With a background in writing for the stage, lately Dustin has enjoyed exploring other genres and narrative styles.

Kate Bergquist’s short fiction appears in Marrow Magazine, Rock Salt Journal, Idle Ink, The Chamber Magazine, and Rural Fiction Magazine. She holds an MA in Writing and Literature from Rivier College. She draws inspiration along the Maine coast, where she lives with her husband and several old rescue dogs.

Celine Boyle (above, center) is a writer who lives in Maine. She has been recently published in the Boston Globe and Portland Press Herald on the topics of the National Anthem, her father's pre-death obituary requests, and the importance of grace and kindness in our interactions with each other as human beings and citizens of the United States.

Andrea Lani (above, right) is the author of Uphill Both Ways: Hiking toward Happiness on the Colorado Trail, as well as essays, articles, and short stories that have appeared in a range of publications. She's a book coach and editor and a graduate of Stonecoast, and she teaches nature writing and journaling at organizations around Maine.

We are so pleased to announce the winner and honorable mentions in this year’s CrimeFlash contest. Huge thanks to Richard Cass, winner of the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction in 2018, for serving as this year’s judge. The winner is Jeff Steinbrink, for “San Francisco, 1952,” and the honorable mentions are L.E. Archer, for “Swan Song,” and Sam Schipani, for “Two Sisters Crime Scene Cleanup.” Both Steinbrink and Archer will share their work as part of the opening night of the Maine Crime Wave. A huge thank you to all of the writers who sent in such wonderful and hair-raising work!

FIRST PLACE 

Jeff Steinbrink has been a teacher, a lifeguard, an iron worker, a mailman and a member of the National Honor Society. He knows two killer card tricks and on a windless day is a 70% free-throw shooter at the basket on his garage in South Portland. He has spent just a single night in jail.

Honorable mention 

A native of Pennsylvania, L.E. Archer relocated to Maine in 2022 and works full-time as a freelance writer and ghostwriter. Archer writes both fiction and non-fiction works, but has a particular love of literary fiction, short horror stories and poetry. Some of her previous work has been featured in Philadelphia Stories, American Dissident and the Sanitarium Magazine. When Archer isn’t writing, she loves spending time in nature, hiking and enjoying the sights and sounds of the Maine woods.

honorable mention 

Sam Schipani is a writer based in Bangor. For three years, she was a reporter for the Bangor Daily News, where she covered food, farming, and sustainable living. Sam's weekly column, "Sam Tries Things," won first place at the 2019 Maine Press Association awards; she has also been awarded first and third place awards for food writing in the same annual contest. Sam has written for Atlas Obscura, Sierra, Smithsonian, Earth Island Journal, and American Farm Publications.

Submission Guidelines

• The competition is open to all Maine residents.*

• There is no fee to enter.

• Please follow the submission instructions carefully. Incomplete or late applications cannot be considered.

• Submit up to 500-words max (including the opening line, but not your title) as a Word or PDF document

• Submissions will only be accepted online through Submittable. If you do not have a Submittable account, you will be required to register, which is free and requires only your name and email

• Your name and contact information should not appear on your submission (which may be a Word doc or PDF).

*Employees and board members of MWPA and their families are not eligible.

Submissions are open March 28 through April 28, 2024