The winning stories in Queer Sci Fi’s 2020 flash fiction contest were announced August 8. The theme for contestants’ 300-word speculative flash fiction stories was “innovation.”

These high-finishing stories are among the 120 collected in QSF’s new book Innovation: Queer Sci Fi’s Seventh Annual Flash Fiction Contest:

FIRST PLACE

• The Fleshsmith And The Metalsmith – Devon Widmer

SECOND PLACE

• Dragonslayer – E.M. Hamill

THIRD PLACE

• Antlers – K.A. Masters

JUDGES CHOICES

• “Are My High-Speed Underwater Sperm Darts Normal?” And Other Teen Questions by Brenna Harvey
• Cuttles and Chthonic Curry by Ginger Streusel
• A New Line of Communication by Jamie Lackey
• An Original Use of Magic by C.L. McCartney
• Connectivity by Cassidy Frazee
• The Choice by David Gerrold

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Moura Inovadora, by Emilia Agrafojo
• Burnt Crystals, by Blaine D. Arden
• The Price of Ingenuity, by Chris Bannor
• Just Perfect, by Redfern Jon Barrett
• Speak, by Brooke K. Bell
• Abandon, by Jade Black
• It Goes Without Saying, by Sydney Blackburn
• To The Point of Invention, by Shannon Brady
• The Emperor’s New Helmet, by Minerva Cerridwen
• The Great Body-Swap of 2222, by Koji A. Dae
• Divergence, by Andi Deacon
• Ebony Heart, by Kellie Doherty
• The Thing With the Bats, by Mary Francis
• Connectivity, by Cassidy Frazee
• Summer Construction, by Jasie Gale
• You Wish, by James Alan Gardner
• Regeneve, by J.S. Garner
• The Choice, by David Gerrold
• I Want a New Drug, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Basement Bargain, by Jeff Jacobson
• The Hope, by Susan James
• Transformation, by Christopher Koehler
• With Eight Little Eyes, by Mary Kuna
• Cure for Dry Sales, by S S Long
• An Original Use of Magic, by C.L. McCartney
• Kabbalistic Yentes, LLC, by Milo Owen
• A Family in Love, by Stephen B. Pearl
• A Dire Need, by L.S. Reinholt
• Cuttles and Chthonic Curry, by Ginger Streusel
• I Doesn’t Matter, Of Quartz, by Noah K. Sturdevant
• One More Night, by Nathaniel Taff
• The Law of Leaky Abstractions, by T. T. Thomas
• Appetite, by Andrew Vaillencourt
• Light, by Eric Warren
• Enchantrixx, by Shannon Yseult

[Via Locus Online.]