Flash Fiction or micro fiction are very short stories typically up to 1200 words but that have some character development. Here we’ve selected some of the very best stories from famous authors
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in 1845. The poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a mysterious visit by a talking raven.
The Kiss by Kate Chopin is a short story about a woman scheming to marry a wealthy man. Written in 1894 is appears in The Awakening and Selected Short Stories.
A Ghost in Love by Songling Pu is taken from a collection of Classical Chinese stories Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Qing dynasty writer Songling Pu wrote close to 500 stories over a period of forty years from the late 1600s and ending in the early 1700s, but did not appear in print until 1766
An Arrest by Ambrose Bierce was originally published in 1913 as part of his short story collection Present at the Hanging and Other Ghost Stories.
Dick Baker’s Cat by Mark Twain was published in the anthology, Lords of the Housetops: Thirteen Cat Tales in 1921
The Lay of a Golden Goose by Louisa May Alcott, describes a world inhabited by talking geese, ducks, and other birds, but it is an autobiographical poem. It reflects her desire to explore the world and the hardships that can build against people.
Ex Oblivione by H. P. Lovecraft is a prose poem written in late 1920 or early 1921 and first published in The United Amateur in March 1921, under the pseudonym Ward Phillips.
Ningyo No Haka by Lafcadio Hearn first appeared in Gleanings in Buddha-Fields, the third book of Hearn’s Japanese period, published in 1897.
The Father by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s was originally written in Norwegian and published in 1860. The story is set in rural Norway and appeared in The Bridal March and Other Stories
Written in 1893, The Mystery of the Semi-Detached by Edith Nesbit tells of a young man perplexed when his lover fails to show up for a half-clandestine meeting and passes her house on the way home.
