The Panorama Flash Fiction Contest was set up in 2021 to invoke a sense of community. In a time where we must stay far apart, writing can bring us together while conveying a wide panorama of human experiences.
Join us on Wednesday 27th April at 7pm to find out the winners of this year’s contest.
Winner: ‘A Letter to my Plastic Daughter’ by Ruth Atkins
“Plastic,” the doctor repeated sternly. “In the placenta.” His voice was a low bass rumble, barely audible over the machines. The midwife ceased sliding her jelly over me. I lay tense, my fingers clenched beneath my buttocks, my moon-belly rising, convex and white above the bed. It was unseasonably warm, and inside me, your kicks fluttered in time with the breeze of the white desk fan. He explained it as cycle, wide-eyed in sympathy. But to me it sounded beautiful. Those bisphenol bottles, the beads that scrubbed my skin raw, were making you all along! Flushed through the oceans, flowing…
Keep readingRunner Up: ‘The Sound’ by Rachel Handley
We didn’t realise, at first, that the plants were singing. We mistook the sound for a scream. Each day the noise increased. A news channel quickly made a gimmick filled segment on local plant sounds – The Sounds of Towns – and people would send in recordings. It took longer for the city folk to hear the plants. At first, they thought it was a hoax. The recordings made by us rural folk intrigued the people of the city, they wanted to experience the sound for themselves. A video of a young boy shouting I can hear it mama I…
Keep readingRunner Up: ‘I HONESTLY DON’T KNOW IF THE CORRECT TERM IS SEEDS OR STONES’ by Deirbhile Brennan
Does anyone know what happens to those seeds in the corner? Yeah, the avocado seeds. They’ve honestly just been sitting there for the last five months since I moved into this apartment. They stare out at the kitchen: dry, cracking eyeballs, patient and biding their time. I know you’re supposed to put them in water and wait for them to sprout, grow them tall out of glass jars so they look fashionable and decorative. Maybe someday when we’re both really old those seeds will grow avocadoes of their own, for people like us to buy in Lidl and dry out…
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