Fifty Shades of Blue Contest Winners: Congratulations Lynn Aprill and Dorothy Burrows

Our Fifty Shades of Blue contest is officially over!

Please join me in congratulating Lynn Aprill, winner in the flash fiction category, and Dorothy Burrows, winner in the poetry category.

Thank you to every single participant for your incredible creativity! Thank you to our finalists- please click here to see the writers, and read all of the finalist poems and stories. 

Congratulations Lynn and Dorothy!

Both winners will also receive $100 prize. 

Please share this page on your social media. Thank you everyone!

Marie Henneberg, by Gustav Klimt (Austria) 1902

The Message

At first glance, she is all repose, lounging in the mottled chair, one hand resting on the ruffles of her evening dress, the shadows of night having crept into the corners, the corsage of cornflowers, a bleuet, pinned above her heart.

The flowers had arrived with a missive which she slipped open, a smile still playing at the corners of her mouth. Then she slowly folded into the chair, first shock, then despair visiting her face. Now resignation has come to sit shiva on the death of her dream, suppressed rage blazing her cheeks. 

The note lies neglected, just out of reach on the cold floor, it’s brief message already burned into her brain: 

                          Elizabeth, he threatened to take the children if I didn’t return to him.
                          I can’t lose them. I’m sorry.

Lynn Aprill
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​Award-winning poet and educator Lynn Aprill has published work recently in Bramble, Willows Wept Review, Quartet, and others. Channeling Matriarchs, her first chapbook with Finishing Line Press, was released in August 2021. She resides with her husband and various dogs on 40 acres in Northeast Wisconsin. Her work can be found at https://lynnaprill.weebly.com/

Composition with Blue, by Piet Mondrian (Netherlands) 1937

Dorothy Burrows

Dorothy Burrows enjoys writing flash fiction, poetry and short plays. Over the last twelve months, her poems have appeared in various online and print journals including The Ekphrastic Review. Blue used to be her favourite colour.