3rd SUSPECT Flash Fiction Contest

Deadline:  November 30th, 2026
Awards: USD300, 200, and 100
No entry fee

"He stood alone among the bees. The bees, for their part, were awake, buzzing along the hedgerows, sipping flowers for breakfast. Flowers he’d planted. He knew what bees liked. He had his notebook with him and was in the habit of jotting down ideas as they came to him. He jotted down the word library."—excerpt from The Bee Kingdom, by Joy Amina Garnett (Gaudy Boy, January 2027)

In conjunction with Gaudy Boy’s January 2027 publication of Joy Amina Garnett’s The Bee Kingdom, SUSPECT is calling for submissions inspired by the title of this unique family memoir. We are looking for flash fiction of 100-150 words that contain the word “bee” or its grammatical variants (e.g. bees) used and interpreted in any imaginative way.

The contest is open to everyone, and it is free to enter. Awards of USD300, 200, and 100 will go to the top three winners. The winning works will be published in SUSPECT.

We’re honored to have Joy judge this contest.

Joy Amina Garnett is a writer and visual artist from New York. Her short stories have appeared in Rusted Radishes, Evergreen Review, Ping-Pong, Nashville Review, ellipse, and elsewhere. Her honors include a fellowship from Yaddo and an Anonymous Was A Woman award. She lives in Los Angeles, where she walks for miles when she isn't writing.

Judging will be based solely on literary merit. We reserve the right not to make any or all awards, should the quality of entries not merit them.

Please submit a maximum of three pieces of flash fiction. Make sure that each piece is between 100-150 words. Only unpublished works will be considered. Posting on weblog, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media does not constitute publication. No simultaneous submissions, please. 

We require all submissions to include a clear statement of not having used GenAI in any stage of their creation; and in the very few instances where GenAI is allowed (please refer to our full GenAI policy), to transparently declare its usage. We will not consider any submissions without such a statement.

Please email your submission to Jee at jkoh@singaporeunbound.org. The flash fiction must be pasted into the body of the email, together with a short cover letter giving your name, mailing address, and a brief biographical note.

The deadline for submissions is November 30th, 2026. Results will be announced and the winning pieces published in January 2026. We ask for exclusive first rights only. After publication, all rights return to the author.