We are delighted to announce that Bret Anthony Johnston has chosen the winners of our 2026 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! First-Place Prize "Some of the Things That Might Happen Tomorrow" by Miranda Manzano In selecting this story, Johnston said, "'Some of the Things That Might Happen Tomorrow' is shot through with such urgent vitality that it leaves ... [READ MORE]
NEWS
The Halifax Ranch Prize 2025 Winners
We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year's Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize, judged by Eric Puchner. 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 Woman" by Jana Horn Judge Eric Puchner writes, "This emotionally insightful story about a woman who goes on a camping trip with her boyfriend and his daughter, who's been mysteriously ... [READ MORE]
The Insider Prize Winners 2025
Whose voices are these, I wonder each fall as submissions for the Insider Prize begin accumulating in my office. Four years on as director of Texas’s annual literary award for incarcerated writers, some of the names written across the bloated white and manila envelopes have grown familiar—essayists, short story writers, and the places they are relegated to calling “home”. The farm-to-market roads leading in and out of the towns of Rosharon, Kenedy, and Hondo, the units and prisons named after ... [READ MORE]
American Short(er) Fiction Prize 2025 Winners
We are delighted to announce that Tony Tulathimutte has chosen the winners of our 2025 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! First-Place Prize "Young Soldier's Diary, May 1431, A Knot of Towers That Was a Church Before the War" by Kyle Alderdice In selecting this story, Tulathimutte said "Historical fiction isn't even usually my thing, but this brief elegiac ... [READ MORE]
Story Sessions: Percival Everett in Conversation with Roger Reeves
Join ASF for the first installment of Story Sessions, a literary series that brings exceptional authors together for a freewheeling discussion about the power of stories and the ways we share them, on September 27, 2024, at Huston-Tillotson University from 6 – 8:00 p.m. We’re thrilled to welcome the nationally award-winning novelist Percival Everett to the stage alongside the distinguished poet and National Book Award finalist Roger Reeves. This event is free and open to the public and ASL ... [READ MORE]
Announcing the winners of the 2024 American Short(er) Fiction Prize
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! First-Place Prize "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 ... [READ MORE]