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Deadline: November 6th, 2023 Payment: $75 first prize, $50 for each “prompt” prize. $5 for every “honorable mention” (10-12). Themes: Stocking Stuffer, Weird Christmas Special, Weird Cards (see below on all three of these for more details!) As climate change continues to plunge the world into an unending firestorm of hell, sweat, and humidity, why not ignore reality a bit more by helping me announce the always blissfully ignorant wish-fulfillment that is the SIXTH ANNUAL WEIRD CHRISTMAS FLASH FICTION CONTEST! As you might have guessed by the title, this is the sixth year of running this highly unprofitable but highly disturbing exercise in literary fatuousness. (Last year’s results show here.) The point, as always, is for you to come up with something that is deeply, concerningly, life-alteringly odd while at the same time making me feel cozy and festive, like the nuzzle of a favorite teddy bear that is suddenly leaking an ooze from its eyes that smells suspiciously like bile. This is a contest for flash fiction of no more than 350 words that’s both about Christmas (or any other winter holiday) and simultaneously weird. Exactly what that means is, of course, up to you because you’re the one with literary pretentions and a damaged psyche. All you have to do is make something about the Christmas season seem new and unsettling with a bit of that grinning like you’re not sure if it’s funny or creepy, and you make your fellow co-conspirators in this hell of existence a bit more bearable. There are three “Prompt Categories.” You have three ways to enter this year, and four ways to win a top prize. There will be one overall winner and then three winners in each of three separate categories: “Stocking Stuffer” – In this category, just write whatever the hell you want....