Category: Fiction

3rd Wednesday’s Annual George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest

Published on by Editorial Staff

The 2025 George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest will open for entries on May 15 and close on August 15, 2025.

The editors of Third Wednesday are pleased to honor the memory of George Dila, friend of Third Wednesday and the editor who originally brought fiction to 3W. We are proud to have called him friend and colleague. To this end, we proudly announce the Annual George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest.

The entry fee of $6 per story is payable via credit card or by Pay Pal through Submittable at the time of your submission. You may enter multiple stories but include only one story per entry.

From May 15th to August 15th, 2025 we will accept entries of previously unpublished fiction under one thousand words in length (including title). Three winning stories will receive cash prizes of $100 each and a print copy of the contest issue due to be published in September of 2025.

This Year’s Judge

Colleen Alles is a writer, former librarian & teacher, and Michigan girl for life. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Michigan State University (2005) and her MLIS from Wayne State University (2015). Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Red Cedar Review, Tar River Poetry, The Write Michigan Anthology, The Michigan Poet, and other places. Her fiction has been longlisted for The Fugere Book Prize for Finely Crafted Novellas in 2023 (Regal House Publishing). Colleen is co-editor for fiction with Barren Magazine and is currently pursuing her MFA at Spalding University. Her house is chaotic with young children and a hound, so don’t be shocked to encounter poems about chaotic houses, small children, or hounds.

Virtual Poetry Reading / Ron Koertge

Published on by Editorial Staff

The Crazy Wisdom Poetry Circle of Ann Arbor and 3rd Wednesday Magazine Present:
Wednesday, February 26, 2025, 7-9 pm (Eastern) Via Zoom.

Ron Koertge has had poems twice in Best American Poetry and grants from the NEA and California Arts Council. His novels for young adults won two P.E.N. awards. An animated film made from his flash fiction, Negative Space, was shortlisted for the 2018 Academy awards. Billy Collins calls his presentations “deliciously smart and entertaining.”

Email cwpoetrycircle@gmail.com for Zoom link.

The link will be sent via email a day or two before the event. The reading will be followed by an open mic. Participants are welcome to read a poem of their own or a favorite. If you have attended an event in the past two years, you are already registered.
Your hosts: Ed Morin, David Jibson and Lissa Perrin.
All times are Eastern Time Zone

Oasis / Rowan MacDonald

Published on by Editorial Staff

Rowan MacDonald’s short fiction has been awarded the Kenan Ince Memorial Prize (2023) and nominated for Best of the Net (2025). His words have appeared in publications around the world, including most recently New Writing Scotland, Bright Flash Literary Review, Sans. PRESS, Rock Salt Journal and Coffin Bell Journal. He lives in Tasmania with his dog, Rosie, who sits beside him for each word he writes.

Les Pieds Rouges / Madari Pendas

Published on by Editorial Staff

Madari Pendas is a Cuban-American writer and cartoonist. She received her MFA from Florida International University, where she was a Lawrence Sanders Fellow, and won the 2021 Academy of American Poets Prise, judged by Major Jackson. Her work has appeared in Craft, Smokelong Quarterly, The Masters Review, Oyster River Pages, PANK, and more. She is the author of Crossing the Hyphen (2021) and She Loves me, She Loves me Not (2025).

Half-Pint Fruit Punch / Michael Clark

Published on by Editorial Staff1 Comment

Michael A. Clark’s novella “Are One” has recently been published by Water Dragon Publishing, and his short story, “The Final Shot” appears at https://whitecatpublications.com/2024/04/09/the-final-shot/. “I, Cro-Mag” is in the current issue of Electric Spec.

Clark lives in Charlotte, NC, and currently works in industrial automation while spending as much time as he can outdoors. He likes baseball and writes short stories and music because that’s what he does.

Through the Window / Toby Hecht

Published on by Editorial Staff

THechtPhotoToby Tucker Hecht is a writer and scientist who lives and works in Bethesda, Maryland. At least forty of her stories have been published either in print or in online literary journals. A native New Yorker with a rather traditional life, she writes fiction to explore more exciting lives than her own. She is now working on a collection of short stories, and a series of linked short stories.

https://tobythecht.substack.com/