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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Kyle McCarthy

The First Wife of Bluebeard

Kyle McCarthy
The First Wife of Bluebeard

CHARLEY – 2007 How it worked: we were bait. We wore platform heels. We had our hair down. We were high from performing, and some of us wanted wine and some of us coke and some a bucket of ice water for our calves. What we didn’t want was dinner  on steaming platters beneath heat lamps behind the curtain marked Staff, though we did want éclairs, profiteroles, opera cake, anything from the dessert trays put out for the patrons with coffee and  brandy. Sugar we loved. Ballerinas are … [Read more...] about The First Wife of Bluebeard

The Seagull

Kyle McCarthy
The Seagull

At the Gala to End Sexual Assault, which was to benefit a non-profit founded by an actress who starred in a TV show that sensationalized sexual assault, and which was held in a museum of dead animals who had been shot and killed by men who were by now themselves quite dead, I found myself feeling a little—how to say it—agitated. It wasn’t as if I had a problem with a thirty-thousand-dollar-a-table fundraiser that showcased women as objects while claiming that women were in fact not objects. … [Read more...] about The Seagull

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CURRENT ISSUE

American Short Fiction Issue 82

Featuring

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

MFA for All Spring 2026: New classes from Jonathan Lethem and Katie Kitamura. Register now!

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