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Flash Friday Competition
The Odds Are In Winner Announced: AKALA AKA
The Odds Are In began as a flash fiction challenge about prediction, risk and uncertainty. It now becomes a live literary conversation about how writers respond to a world increasingly shaped by probabilities, systems and prediction.
From over 200 anonymous submissions, five stories were shortlisted. We’re pleased to announce that AKALA AKA by Anselme Eme is the winner of The Odds Are In.
Winner announced
AKALA AKA stood out for the confidence of its imagined world and the precision with which it turns prediction into a social system – one that reaches from loans and marriage to illness, governance and belief.
Set in the town of Kijani, where daily probabilities shape ordinary life, the story gathers real pressure through Amina’s private crisis and the town’s public dependence on numbers, before opening into a larger question: what remains when certainty fails and people are forced to act without permission from the system.
Why this campaign matters now
The brief was shaped by a recognisable present: a world in which probabilities, forecasts, signals and systems increasingly shape how people make decisions. That pressure is political, economic, technological and intimate at once.
The winning story did not simply mention prediction. It made it structural. That is why it belongs at the centre of the campaign.
Read the winning story
Campaign trail
Start with the winning story, revisit the full shortlist, and then join us on 28 May for Future Archives London, where the conversation continues live.
Revisit the shortlist
The full shortlist remains live here: The Odds Are In – Shortlist
The shortlisted stories approached the brief from very different directions: grief, economics, belief, systems, interpretation and time. That range matters. It shows that prediction is not a niche theme. It has become part of the ordinary language of contemporary life.
From page to room
The winning story sits inside a wider frame. The shortlist remains live, the public vote carried the challenge beyond the page, and the conversation now continues into Future Archives London on 28 May.
In that sense, The Odds Are In is no longer only a competition. It is part of Litro’s wider editorial project: bringing fiction, live discussion, reading communities and writer development into the same space.
Join us live on 28 May
Future Archives London continues the campaign in person, with shortlisted writers featured as part of a live evening of readings and discussion.
Take the next step
If this challenge has made you think differently about short fiction, Litro’s Short Work Revision & Submission Sprint is designed to help writers strengthen a draft and move it closer to publication.
Explore the Submission Sprint
Eric Akoto is the founder of Litro Magazine (est. 2005), Litro USA, and The Sphere Initiative. Working at the intersection of publishing, culture, standards, and technology, he builds editorial platforms and practical tools that help creators protect, publish, and sustain their work. He also serves on British Standards Institution committees shaping standards relevant to digital, creative, and emerging technology contexts.
