We’re so pleased to announce that our judge for this year’s Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize will be Eric Puchner, author of the 2025 New York Times bestselling novel Dream State as well as the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and two story collections. Puchner lives in Baltimore, where he is the director of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. The deadline to submit has been extended to June 15, 2025. In addition to publication and a $2,500 prize, we are … [Read more...] about The Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize: Now Closed
The Halifax Prize Winners
We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year's Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize, judged by Daniel Mason. 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! _____ First-Place Prize: "The Skilled Anatomist" by Colleen Rosenfeld Judge Daniel Mason writes, "'The Skilled Anatomist' takes a strange and beautiful conceit and runs with it, treading the uncanny space between … [Read more...] about The Halifax Prize Winners
Deadline Extended: The 2025 American Short(er) Fiction Prize
We are thrilled to announce that the brilliant Tony Tulathimutte—author of the 2024 National Book Award longlisted novel Rejection—will judge the 2025 American Short(er) Fiction Prize. The prize recognizes extraordinary short fiction under 1,500 words. The first-place winner will receive a $1,000 prize and publication. Previous winners of the Short(er) Fiction Prize have gone on to be anthologized in places such as The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. All entries will be considered for … [Read more...] about Deadline Extended: The 2025 American Short(er) Fiction Prize
The Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize 2024
We’re so pleased to announce that our judge for this year’s Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize will be Daniel Mason, author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, and most recently North Woods, a New York Times bestselling novel, a New York Times and Washington Post Top 10 Book of 2023, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. This year, we're again partnering with the Tasajillo Residency, an idyllic writing residency that … [Read more...] about The Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize 2024
The 2024 Halifax Ranch Prize Winners
We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year's Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize, judged by Kelly Link. 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! _____ First-Place Prize: "A Place Where Sadness Cannot Go" by Laura Grothaus Judge Kelly Link writes, "While every single story I read from the long list had something to recommend it—I can’t say how thrilling it is … [Read more...] about The 2024 Halifax Ranch Prize Winners
The Letters
My mother has been sending me letters lately. Not letters intended for me but rather letters she has been writing to various people in her life—important influences, she calls them. Relatives, friends, former classmates, coworkers. She has been writing two or three letters a week and sending them to me via email to look over and send back to her with comments. You’re a professor, she tells me, you know the right way to put these things. She says she wants me to be brutally honest with her, … [Read more...] about The Letters