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Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Adam Soto

Read the winners of the 2024 Insider Prize

by ASF Editors | September 27, 2024

Read the winners of the 2024 Insider Prize

Stories live through their readers. This year’s winners of American Short Fiction’s Insider Prize were brought to life by dozens of readers—by my friends, colleagues, students, two former high school teachers, and our guest judge, Peter Orner—generous individuals who donated their time to a bounty of incredible submissions. ASF’s partnership with Huston-Tillotson University’s Department of English and Institute for Justice and Equity has made sharing and celebrating the winning stories and … [Read more...] about Read the winners of the 2024 Insider Prize

Filed Under: NEWS, Uncategorized

EOD

by Serena Lin | February 8, 2024

EOD

Sam feared old people. She feared their drooping folds, their soft edges, like a block of butter left out for too long. They haunted the office in their squelching orthopedic sneakers, moving so slowly that Sam sometimes expected them to leave behind snail trails of mucus. She drifted behind them in the hallways, keeping at least ten paces of distance. She didn’t like to get too close to their odor of mothballs and lye soap; she didn’t want to see where their hair had thinned to reveal the … [Read more...] about EOD

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, Uncategorized, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Fiction, office humor, publishing industry, short story, termination, Web Exclusive

Shouting Is at Least Talking

by Sumil Thakrar | December 29, 2023

Shouting Is at Least Talking

For six years I dated Ian, but only once we broke up did everyone close to me reveal they never liked him anyway. “We didn’t want to tell you,” my mother said. “We?” “Your father never liked him either.” She went quiet. “Ian’s tone was a little off. Do you know what I mean?” “He was good at communicating his needs,” I said. I found myself defending Ian, or at least defending my choice to spend six years with him, after a week of convincing myself I wasn’t right for him. “If you didn’t like … [Read more...] about Shouting Is at Least Talking

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: breakups, dating, Fiction, lifestyle, pyramid scheme, short story, skin, spa, Web Exclusive

Bleed and Bleed

by Hedgie Choi | December 26, 2023

Bleed and Bleed

Christopher was the nicest man I had ever met and so I was engaged to him. We got engaged during his residency and I told people we would get married when he became a doctor, but he never became a doctor he became a physician-scientist at the university researching von Willebrand disease because he thought this way he could help many people at once instead of one at a time. He often told me just how many people in the US alone suffered from von Willebrand disease, but I forgot immediately … [Read more...] about Bleed and Bleed

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, NOTEBOOK FEATURE, Uncategorized, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Fiction, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Lowes, medical research, Relationships, short fiction, short story, theft, von Willebrand disease, Web Exclusive

House

by Stacy Austin Egan | October 23, 2023

House

I don’t climb up the downspout to my window, don’t have to hope it holds. I’ve missed curfew, but I was with Lily; no one is holding their breath. I use the key under the crocodile planter—tangles of rosemary, sage, thyme, a whole world creeping out from inside its jaws—and I take off my shoes, skip the second stair that creaks. Upstairs, my brother, Max, midway through another Adderall-fueled admissions essay, doesn’t look away from his laptop. “You’re hooking up with her,” he says. We’re … [Read more...] about House

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, WEB EXCLUSIVES

Dievas X

by DS Sulaitis | July 19, 2023

Dievas X

There’s no escaping the bath ladies. They come out at night in our small village and limp to my tiny house on Naujoji Street. They knock and I go to open the door. It’s the custom to let everyone in. I’m in northern Lithuania, near the edge of a pine forest with roaming stallions that bite. I left New Jersey to live here. I am polite. The ladies are one hundred years old. I offer them coffee, not tea. They bring a paper bag. I recognize the bag. I’d thrown it out. At midnight the two search … [Read more...] about Dievas X

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, Uncategorized, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: bathtub, dievas, Fiction, Lithuania, magic, short story, witchcraft

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Issue 81

Featuring new stories by Lydi Conklin, Annie Liontas, Kyle McCarthy, Carrie R. Moore, KJ Nakazawa-Kern, and Colleen Rosenfeld.

You can preview the issue here.

NEWS

Read the winners of the 2024 Insider Prize

Read the winners of the 2024 Insider Prize

By ASF Editors

“Memories are a nuisance,” Peter wrote to one of our writers after reading his short story, “but nonetheless they seem to make us who we are, as this story confirms.” This year’s submissions told many stories burdened with memory, but just as many stared bravely into the face of hope, satirized the state of politics, speculated on the future of the world, or else built entirely new worlds to inhabit. In short, the stories written on the inside reflected the stories we wrote this year on the outside. Stories of human toil and dreams and everything in between.
 

Issue 81 is out now: guest-edited by Fernando A. Flores, with stories by Julián Delgado Lopera, Carmen Maria Machado, Ruben Reyes Jr., and more. Order yours today!

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Submit now to the Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize, judged by Eric Puchner. Win $2500, publication, and an-expenses-paid writing retreat at the Tasajillo Residency in Texas. Deadline is June 15, 2025.

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