Congratulations to Anastasia Douglass. Her submission, “The Loneliest Child,” collected the most votes via Facebook and Twitter. Doulgass will receive a $25 gift card to Amazon.

Douglass’s submission is below:

I adopted orange in fifth grade. I surveyed my class to discover the favored color of my peers. Red and green blew everyone out of the park, while brown and orange sat on the sidelines. After having a solid talk with brown, I turned to orange and questioned its motives. It wasn’t long until I learned it had none. A product of middle-child syndrome, orange had nothing to offer. Neither did I. We belonged together. And though I was too young to be a parent, I couldn’t live in an RYGBIV world. It would’ve meant sacrificing everything I stood for.

Runner-ups were Rees Sweeten with his entry, “A Postcard to Anybody,” and Jessica Sorensen with her entry, “Retirement.”

We ran this contest in honor of the International Day of Words on Nov. 23. The Signpost held a flash fiction contest paralleling the annual contest sponsored by the Museo de la Palabra in Spain.

Just as participants in the Museo de la Palabra’s contest must submit flash fiction stories of 100 words or less, Signpost readers were asked to submit their own flash fiction stories comprised of 100 or less words.

What is flash fiction?

Flash fiction writing is a skill centering on an author’s ability to adeptly develop a plot, characters, conflict and resolution within a limited space. Typically, any story shorter than 1,500 words is considered flash fiction, and writers of flash fiction create stories as concise and succinct as possible.

In the 1980s, editors Robert Shapard and James Thomas published stories shorter than 2,000 words in the “Sudden Fiction” series, and the popularity of flash fiction has increased since then.

Numerous websites, blogs and organizations hosting competition and featuring a range of contestants’ work. “The New Yorker”, “Esquire” and “National Public Radio” have conducted contests for flash fiction.