We're proud to present the winning story from last year's Flash Fiction Challenge! Read "The 4:10 to Tarick" by Alex Atkins (Canada) at nycmidnight.co/3HqTWyO, and get ready for this year's challenge on May 30th. Original Illustration by Yevgenia Nayberg. Enjoy!

The Flash Fiction Challenge kicks off tonight, and there's still time to register! The 17th annual competition will challenge writers worldwide to create 1,000-word stories in 48 hours. Learn more & register at nycmidnight.com/ffc. Good luck, writers!

The 1st Round of the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! View the list of participating writers, genre/location/object assignments, and a countdown until the deadline at nycmidnight.co/3FBvMRN. Best of luck to the 3,000+ writers participating over the next 48 hours!

The 2nd Round results for the Short Story Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/4mM2oJp! Congratulations to the top 5 in each group for advancing to the 3rd Round, which kicks off this Friday, June 6th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!

The 3rd Round of the Short Story Challenge 2025 is underway! View the list of participating writers, genre/subject/character assignments, and a countdown until the deadline at nycmidnight.co/3SHdzp0. Best of luck to the 210 writers participating over the next 48 hours!

The Rhyming Story Challenge kicks off on September 5th, and registration is open! The 4th annual competition will challenge writers worldwide to create short rhyming stories in as little as 48 hours. Learn more and register at nycmidnight.com/rhyme. Good luck, writers!

Congratulations to Kris Faatz on her new book, LINE MAGIC, which is out today! We were delighted to learn that the novel started as a 1,000-word story in our Flash Fiction Challenge. Learn more about the book at krisfaatz.com/line-magic. Congratulations again to Kris!

The 2nd Round results for the Screenwriting Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/43J8QcM! Congratulations to the top 3 in each group for advancing to the Final Round, which kicks off this Friday, June 13th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!

The Final Round of the Screenwriting Challenge 2025 is underway! The final assignment of the competition is Open (genre), No-frills (subject), and a taskmaster (character). Best of luck to the 36 finalists with their screenplays over the next 24 hours!

We're happy to announce our inaugural Scary Story Challenge, which kicks off on October 31st and will challenge writers worldwide to create scary short stories in 48 hours. Learn more, register, & read some examples of scary stories at nycmidnight.com/scary. Good luck, writers!

The 2nd Round results for the 100-word Microfiction Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/408skoR! Congratulations to the top 8 in each group for advancing to the Final Round, which kicks off this Friday, July 11th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!

The Final Round of the 100-word Microfiction Challenge 2025 is underway! The final assignment of the competition is Open (genre), prioritizing (action), and stun (word). Best of luck to the 168 finalists with their 100-word stories over the next 24 hours!

The 3rd Round results for the Short Story Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/4foOauR! Congratulations to the top 5 in each group for advancing to the Final Round, which kicks off this Friday, July 25th. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!

We’re happy to announce that we will be publishing the top 3 stories from last year’s 500-word Fiction Challenge! First up is the 3rd place story, “Tomorrow, Today,” by Melissa Jornd (Streamwood, IL, USA) at bit.ly/4mb16qa. Original illustration by Yevgenia Nayberg. Enjoy!

The Final Round of the Short Story Challenge 2025 is underway! The final assignment of the competition is Open (genre), Swim against the tide (subject), and a gentleman of leisure (character). Best of luck to the 40 finalists with their 1,250-word stories over the next 24 hours!

The 1st Round results for the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 are up at nycmidnight.co/4l4Ezu2! Congratulations to the top 7 in each group for advancing to the 2nd Round, which kicks off this Friday, August 1st. Best of luck to them, and thanks to all who participated!

The 2nd Round of the Flash Fiction Challenge 2025 is underway! View the list of participating writers, genre/location/object assignments, and a countdown until the deadline at nycmidnight.co/455TSN6. Best of luck to the 616 writers participating over the next 48 hours!

The 250-word Microfiction Challenge kicks off on December 5, and registration is open! The 7th annual competition will challenge writers worldwide to create very short stories based on genre, action, & word assignments in 48 hours. Learn more & register at nycmidnight.com/250

We have a winner of the Screenwriting Challenge 2025! Congratulations to Tom Glasson (Sydney, Australia) for winning the competition with his final round screenplay, "An Abundance of Five." View the full list of winners at nycmidnight.co/4op0FdG. Thanks to all for participating!

Check out "When The Blue Smoke Drowns" by Rachel Harbaugh (USA) at nycmidnight.co/4m6qeyR, which took home 2nd place in last year's 500-word Fiction Challenge. Synopsis: An Appalachian woman ponders life after Hurricane Helene. Illustration by Yevgenia Nayberg. Enjoy!