read the winning and Honorable mention stories
from the 2025 Flash Fiction contest
Three winning stories will be awarded $100 each!
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 Fourth 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From May 15th to August 15th, 2025 we will accept entries of previously unpublished fiction under one thousand words in length (including title).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 2024.
Formatting your story entry is easy. We want submissions in size 12 Times New Roman font, double spaced with one-inch margins all around. Save your document in .doc or .docx format and upload it where prompted by our Submittable account. You can name files whatever is convenient for you, but the submission title should include the title of your story. Do not include any identifying information within files or file names. Our judge will read all submissions blindly.
Judge for 2025, Colleen Alles.
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.
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