Illustration by local artist Caitlin Fowler, based
on “A Perfect Stranger,” winner of this year’s
Flash Fiction contest. Once again, our readers are the writers in the annual contest of narrative brevity judged by a team of story lovers: Booklegger owners Jennifer McFadden and Nancy Short, retired children’s librarian JoAnn Bauer, Eureka Poet Laureate and College of the Redwoods professor David Holper, and myself. The influence of the pandemic is visible here and there in the haul of entries, including our winner. But isolation and a storm of real-life drama hasn’t stifled entrants’ imaginations. In 99 words or fewer, they’re wrestling with heartbreak, parenthood, jealousy, magic, the pitfalls of time travel and how to tell a story.