My son is not here. I thought that he’d forgive me. The eulogy falters as the cold, shadow breath of my regrets fill the lonely church.

Deborah Walker can often be found in the British Museum nicking ideas from ancient cultures.

His parents had told him never to talk to strangers, so he and the man walked together in silence. The woods were very dark.

Steve Calvert is a writer from the UK. His website can be found at http://www.steve-calvert.co.uk

Osama was found between the jaws of the last dinosaur, martyred in seeking to discredit Evolution. They stared, then built TimeMachine No 2.

Meika Loofs Samorzewski (@meika) no longer writes for humans and lives in Tasmania.

She does not care for terrorists or anti-terrorists. She searches the rubble in Basra for fingers, toes, pieces of her missing son.

Tanaz Bhathena is a Toronto-based freelance writer. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.

After nearly two months of submissions and over a month of wonderful short (short short) stories, Nanoism is having its first-ever contest.

Despite all of the excellent entries and buzz surrounding Robert Swartwood’s “Hint Fiction” Contest, I am certain much more nanofiction has been and needs to be written. But there is one small difference between the nanofiction we publish and other types of micro and hint fiction: we don’t use words here, we use characters—140 of them, to be exact.

What: Nanofiction up to 140 characters, including spaces. Every contest submission will be considered for publication in Nanoism. Reprints are fine, as always, just say so in the submission.

How: Submit up to five (5!) pieces in the body of an email with your bio (see submission guidelines). The email subject should be “Nanoism Contest Submission.” Send your entry to editor [at] nanoism [dot] net.  The contest runs for three weeks from May 14 until Friday June 5 at 11:59pm.

Prizes (paid via paypal):

  • 1st: $20 and publication
  • 2nd: $10 and publication
  • 3rd: $5 and publication

I’m looking to be blown away by the number and quality of the entries. Share this on twitter, your blog, anywhere. Get the word out—I know nanofiction brings smiles to a lot of faces. If you’re on Twitter, follow @Nanoism for some excellent bits of fiction that you can read in a matter of seconds.

Chaotic bookshelves are multiplied by mirrors. Impossible as it seems, he picks the right novel in Babel. Now all he has to do is reach it.

Ludimila Hashimoto’s translations into Portuguese include Alan Moore’s Voice of the Fire and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.

Illegal? Don’t care. Stolen? Not the worst of it. I bury the white roots in black earth. The emerald leaves perk. It knows where it belongs.

Ash M.B. has a B.A. in English, is a professional Polynesian dancer, kung fu fighter, and writer.

I sorted and tossed unwanted pieces of my past. I thought I was just making room, opening space, but I was resetting time, growing younger.

Novelist, poet, curmudgeon Steven E. McDonald usually throws the long bombs, but sometimes comes up short.

Ashes fell years ago. War to end war. Hope is a phoenix breaking the gray shell that entombed our fierce past, unfolding 2nd Renaissance.

R. Schuyler Devin: a writer who prefers to walk halls of his own imagining rather than the dark alleys of his past.

One of her callers was an old lover, clad in the uniform of some lost cause: still searching for his blue-eyed girl, and still color-blind.

Rafe McGregor is a British crime novelist and the author of The Architect of Murder. Visit his blog.