Our Inaugural Hummingbird Prize-winner
‘Here I Lay Down My Heart’ by Rob Taylor was the very first winner of the Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize, back in 2014. Final Judge JJ Lee said “The author avoids sloppy dialogue and needless back story and, in less than 600 words, crafts a compelling tale which readers will rush to reach to the end.”
Those are words to take to heart as you craft your 2026 Hummingbird submissions!
Read an excerpt of Rob’s winning story below, or pick up a rare copy of Pulp Literature Issue 5, Winter 2015 and save $5 till the end of May.
Here I Lay Down My Heart
Rob Taylor
Hayim lifted Mima toward the dhow. The captain knelt, grabbed her by her armpits and lifted her up, then lowered her into the hull. Hayim tossed in his duffle bag and for a moment, in the thin skim of ocean and sand that skirts Bagamoyo, stood apart from all that mattered in his world. Then he hoisted himself on board. Mima was already playing with the livestock and making friends with the other children. In the weeks since their arrival in Tanzania she had learned a mouthful of Swahili and was now in full song. Samaki! Kuku! Mbuzi! she pointed and guessed, and the children laughed and nodded and were impressed. Hayim climbed atop a mound of rice bags, maybe seven or eight deep, and pressed his duffle bag into the curve of the hull, punching it here and there with his fists, pounding out their shape. Between punches images of Tel Aviv flashed in his mind — their old apartment, the table and chairs, dishes and books he’d filled it with. Those few weeks when Mima had gone to preschool and life had felt normal and the word normal had plumped with meaning. Then Hayim lay down and his mind cleared.
Mima, bo’ee elay he called out, and she came. Night would arrive soon and with it sleep and in the morning — God willing — Zanzibar and the chance it offered and the company they’d keep. He fed Mima crackers and pressed the tilted bottle to her lips, then tilted it to his, as well. The sun set and the engine’s whirr rose up, became everything outside their two bodies. Hayim slept.
Find out what happens next in Issue 5, Winter 2015 …
Rob Taylor is the author of five poetry collections: Weather, (Gaspereau Press, 2024), Strangers (Biblioasis, 2021), Oh Not So Great: Poems from the Depression Project (Leaf Press, 2017), The News (Gaspereau Press, 2016) and The Other Side of Ourselves (Cormorant Books, 2011).
Rob’s books have been won, or been a finalist for, a number of awards, including the Raymond Souster Award (Weather, 2025), the Fred Cogswell Award (Weather, 2025), the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (The News, 2017) and the Alfred G. Bailey Prize (The Other Side of Ourselves, 2010). Rob is also the editor of What the Poets are Doing: Canadian Poets in Conversation (Nightwood Editions, 2018) and the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2019 (Biblioasis, 2019). In addition to his books, Rob is the author of six poetry chapbooks, most recently The Green Waves: Poems from Roblin Lake (845 Press, 2019) and Łazienki Park (The Alfred Gustav Press, 2017). ‘Here I Lay Down My Heart’ was his first published short story.
The Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize
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