Spring is here, and so are the promises of the season: the famous flowers are in bloom, the strawberries are ripe for picking, the earth's axis has started to tilt toward the sun, and—with its lackadaisical charm and balmy swagger—spring fever has set its sight on all of us. Oh, did we mention the kittens? But perhaps the best thing about the season is the arrival of May—Short Story Month—which is, as you might expect, American Short Fiction's favorite month of all. To celebrate we invited ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
Web Exclusive Interview: Kate Reed Petty
In February's Web Exclusive flash fiction, "Fish Jokes," a woman is challenged with articulating exactly what her former boss did to her that was inappropriate. In order to convey Annie's struggle to recollect what happened, name it, and support her own reaction to it, author Kate Reed Petty created an ingenious modern trope that everyone can understand: the hunt for an elusive email buried in an endless inbox. Erin McReynolds: There is a genius to the many levels of want in "Fish Jokes": ... [READ MORE]
The 2018 American Short(er) Fiction Prize Winners
We are thrilled to announce the winners for this year's American Short(er) Fiction Prize, judged by Amber Sparks. Thank you to everyone who submitted. The winning stories will be published in the magazine’s fall issue. _____ First-Place Prize: "The Old Woman at the Edge of the Cliff" by Ariel Berry. Judge Amber Sparks writes, "This incredible, careful story read like an excavated fairy tale—brand new to us, but also somehow old as humans, and strange and sad as the wilder parts of the ... [READ MORE]
Editorial Outtakes: The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist
Editorial Outtakes is a series in which we publish excerpts from recent books that you won’t find anywhere else because, prior publication, these sections were cut. This installment of Editorial Outtakes features two outtakes from The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist, a novel by journalist and fiction writer Michael Downs. An account of the life and times of Hartford's Horace Wells, the dentist who discovered that nitrous oxide had the power to alleviate pain during ... [READ MORE]
Web Exclusive Interview: Peter Grimes
Yes, we're suckers for any writing that incorporates food, but it was the apt depiction of a marriage beginning to stagnate—and the surprising amount of tension it generates—that made us choose "Menu" as our January Web Exclusive flash fiction. We spoke with author Peter Grimes about writing and pursuing the tenure track . . . and, of course, about food. Obviously. Erin McReynolds: The strains of marriage is such a familiar trope, but with "Menu," you found a way in that was subtle and ... [READ MORE]
The Art of Staring: An Interview with Jamel Brinkley
In his much-anticipated debut collection A Lucky Man, Jamel Brinkley lays bare the full and complex interiority of black men and boys kicking against all manner of inexorable truths, while living an inch from ruin in Brooklyn and the Bronx. With stunning clarity and generosity of detail, each of the nine stories leaves its own lasting impression, while the book as a whole coalesces into a devastating tapestry of confused masculinity, familial responsibility, and the intractable power of ... [READ MORE]