We are delighted to announce that Dantiel W. Moniz has chosen the winners of our 2024 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!
“Jack Sprat’s Wife” by John McManus
In selecting this story, Moniz called it “a gorgeously crafted and contained world, a peek inside the deep bowels of family, shame, and grief, which, although brief, also allowed me to see the characters past the page. From the first word, I tumbled into this story and was captivated until it let me go.”
John McManus is the author of the short story collections Fox Tooth Heart, Born on a Train, and Stop Breakin Down and the novel Bitter Milk. He’s the recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Fellowship of Southern Writers’ New Writing Award, a Fulbright Scholar award in South Africa, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Literature Award, and a Creative Capital Literature grant. His MFA in fiction and screenwriting comes from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas.
“Fingers Crossed” by Natalie Warther
Moniz said Warther’s vivid piece was “an innovative morsel of a story that, through its eerie trappings, still hit home about inheritance and the fear that we may never truly know ourselves or those we call family.”
Natalie Warther is an associate creative director at Chiat Day with an MFA from Bennington College. Her most recent fiction is forthcoming in Wigleaf, and her story “Bye Bye Baby” was a 2024 Pushcart Prize Nominee. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their very good dog. Learn more at Nataliewarther.com.
Dantiel W. Moniz is the recipient of a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction, and Fellowships from Yaddo, The Lighthouse Works, and MacDowell, among others. Her debut collection, Milk Blood Heat was a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award, the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, as well as longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and The Story Prize. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review, Harper’s Bazaar, American Short Fiction, Tin House, and elsewhere. Moniz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she teaches fiction.