We are delighted to announce that Bret Anthony Johnston has chosen the winners of our 2026 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!
“Some of the Things That Might Happen Tomorrow” by Miranda Manzano
In selecting this story, Johnston said, “‘Some of the Things That Might Happen Tomorrow’ is shot through with such urgent vitality that it leaves you awed and breathless. It’s a complete marvel, an absolutely beautiful story full of mysterious intimacy, one that gathers rare and astonishing emotional momentum with each word, each syllable.”
Miranda Manzano is from Northern California, lives in Washington State and writes fiction. She is a graduate of Eastern Washington University’s MFA program in creative writing.
“Lucky” by Paul Allison
Of the runner-up, Johnston said, “’Lucky’ is a quiet tour-de-force, a short-short that epitomizes the depth and breadth of the form. The intuitive structure, telling details, and how the author so deftly—gorgeously, powerfully—tracks a single moment through the long wash of time—it’s all so very, very good.”
Paul Allison teaches literature and writing at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana. His fiction has been nominated for both a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He has work most recently accepted in publications including The Flexible Persona, Relief Journal, and The Write Launch. His time is divided unevenly among his students, his family, and his various projects, both literary and non-literary.
Bret Anthony Johnston is the internationally bestselling author of the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This, the award-winning Corpus Christi: Stories, and the forthcoming Encounters with Unexpected Animals: Stories. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and the Sunday Times Short Story Award, he is the director of the Michener Center for Writers.