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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Editors’ Note

“How should I live my life?” the Pulitzer-winning poet Marie Howe asks in one of her better-known poems. In the final lines of this spring issue, Howe is invoked by Manuel Gonzales, via another poem, in a kind of literary call to arms: an uprising against writer’s block, but more broadly a proclamation that language—artistic expression—can change and renew a life in a way that ultimately defines it as human and worth something. [ . . . ]

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Issue 82
Issue 82
  • Carrie R. Moore
  • KJ Nakazawa-Kern
  • Colleen Rosenfeld
  • Kyle McCarthy
  • Lydi Conklin
  • Annie Liontas
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News

The 2025 Halifax Prize Winners We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year's Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize, judged by Eric Puchner. We consider it our privilege to have spent time with so many terrific submissions—thank you for giving us the opportunity to read your work. Congratulations to the winners!
Read the Winners of the 2025 Insider Prize Whose voices are these, I wonder each fall as submissions for the Insider Prize begin accumulating in my office. Four years on as director of Texas’s annual literary award for incarcerated writers, some of the names written across the bloated white and manila envelopes have grown familiar—essayists, short story writers, and the places they are relegated to calling “home”.  
Announcing the Winners of the 2025 American Short(er) Fiction Prize We are delighted to announce that Tony Tulathimutte has chosen the winners of our 2025 American Short(er) Fiction Contest. Thank you to our judge and to everyone who submitted—it is always inspiring to read your work. Congratulations to the winners!

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MFA for All Spring 2026: “Bodies in Space, Bodies in Place” with Katie Kitamura is still open. Register now!

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