We are pleased to announce the contest winner and finalists from our Camera-Flash Fiction Contest. This spring, we invited you to write quick fiction based on one of eight vintage photographs we handed out at the AWP conference. After many hard decisions, here, in order, are our winners: ASF CAMERA-FLASH FICTION CONTEST FIRST-PLACE WINNER: After Taking on the Milk Challenge the Earth Bear Learns Something About the Nature of Human Experience by Caleb Curtiss Life gives us moments, … [Read more...] about Camera-Flash Contest Winners
Online Fiction: Interview with Anthony Abboreno
We're excited to publish Anthony Abboreno's story, "Filler," the first fiction post on our website in over a year. Abboreno's story is about the complicated relationship between children and their parents' expectations. There are lobsters with personalities, an ex-wife who loves New Year's Eve, and a man who tries to do his best, but falls short. "Filler" covers a lot of territory in few words. We hope you like it as much as we do. MM: I love how the daughter’s taste in food becomes something … [Read more...] about Online Fiction: Interview with Anthony Abboreno
Filler
My daughter is still young enough to draw pictures of fairies on all of her school notebooks, but at other times her oldness is startling. For example, when she was the flower girl at her mother’s second wedding, she explained to me that she needed her underwear to match her dress, in case her dress flipped up. Her mom and I are on good terms: I was also invited to the wedding, and I attended, and at one point I was even asked to stand up and speak, but I don’t remember what I said. When I woke … [Read more...] about Filler
Pushcart News
Congratulations to Elizabeth Ellen, whose story, "Teen Culture," published in ASF's Summer 2012 issue won a Puschart Prize! … [Read more...] about Pushcart News
Like an Original Response
Hedy loved Polly, the parrot at Trader Bob’s airport bar. Hedy went directly there every day after work at the Terminal A newsstand. Hedy loved the way Polly echoed desire, like a mirror. So when she went there once again to sit across from Polly—to hear Polly say back to her “you are the bee’s knees, the cat’s meow”—but instead found the cage empty, she felt as Narcissus might, were he to gaze into the pool and see nothing but water. Hedy had envied Polly’s position, how everyone loved Polly as … [Read more...] about Like an Original Response
The Swimmers
In the beginning, I think everyone was afraid. You can imagine how startling it was the day the fingertips of that enormous hand came up out of the sands of Punta del Este and reached for the sun. Reached for it in a grasp, as if it were trying to crush the sun in its fist. People were, understandably, frightened. Sunbathers on the scene said they thought it was an earthquake, until the fingers appeared, shooting out of the ground. It tried to snatch the sun, they said. One man, a Uruguayan on … [Read more...] about The Swimmers