Flash Contest 3rd Prize: Melissa Goode

Melissa’s flash ‘Lambs’ won the 3rd prize in our 2018 Flash Fiction Contest, chosen by guest judge Lara Williams, for being ‘dislocating yet familiar… deeply atmospheric’. We talk to Melissa some more here.

Can you tell us what inspired your winning piece, ‘Lambs’?

Staying alive and all of the sheer effort that this takes. In this case, it is demonstrated with trying to keep a lamb alive. Of course, the inevitable happens, as it will. The parallels with her and Adam arose at the same time.

How do you think your piece relates to the concept of synaesthesia?

With all of my writing, I want to create a physical reaction in the reader, so that when they read the story they can see it and can feel it in their fingertips, in their gut, in their mouth.

What other projects are you working on right now?

I am writing more flash and short stories and will put these together into some sort of collection eventually. There is also a novel in progress.

If you could only use five words to characterise your writing, what would they be?

Here is her whole heart.

What’s your favorite part of writing flash?

The point when it takes over so that I am chasing it down and it is telling my emotional truth and there is nothing I can do to stop it.

Melissa’s work has appeared in Wigleaf, SmokeLong Quarterly, WhiskeyPaper, Split Lip Magazine, Forge Literary Magazine, and matchbook, among others. Her story ‘It falls’ (Jellyfish Review) was recently chosen by Aimee Bender for Best Small Fictions 2018 (Braddock Avenue Books). She lives in Australia. You can find her here: www.melissagoode.com and at @melgoodewriter.