Big news, friends. Since January, we've been working on a little project that we hope expands the reach of our web exclusive stories and that gives you, our readers, website visitors, subscribers, supporters, and pals, a new way to engage with the fiction we publish. ASF's Digital Editor Andrew Bales has been working with our web exclusive authors to record them reading their work so that we can pair the audio with the version of the story that we publish online. From here on out, you'll be ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
Now closed: the American Short Fiction Contest
The deadline to submit to our American Short Fiction Contest was JULY 1. The contest is now closed—our thanks to all who submitted! We look forward to announcing the winners, chosen by judge Elizabeth McCracken, soon. We are excited to announce that the ASF Short Story Contest opened for submissions on March 15. This year we are honored to have the fabulous author (and latest winner of the Story Prize) Elizabeth McCracken as our guest judge. General Guidelines - Submit your entry ... [READ MORE]
Online Fiction Interview: Anna Noyes
June's online exclusive, "The Tobacconist" by Anna Noyes depicts longing so convincingly that it's difficult to pass judgment on the story's conflicted, suffering protagonist, George. It seemed to us that the magic of the story was that it depicted complication and ambivalence so tenderly. We emailed Noyes to ask about writing conflicted characters, about her taste in short-short fiction, and about her debut collection of stories, which is due out next year. Nate Brown: There’s so ... [READ MORE]
Online Fiction Interview: Terese Svoboda
Peter Benchley's 1974 novel Jaws tells the story of a menacing great white shark that terrorizes the fictional Long Island town of Amity, NY. In 1975, Steven Spielberg turned it into what was, for a time, the highest grossing film at the box office. If Benchley and Speilberg's Jaws has a topical and tonal opposite, it just might be Terese Svoboda's tale of a weird, dark family road trip that we published as our May online exclusive. Also entitled "Jaws," Svoboda's story is as naturalistic as ... [READ MORE]
Things American: Baltimore Authors Respond to the Death of Freddie Gray
Baltimore’s bus benches are simple, utilitarian things: just two molded concrete end-pieces and seven wooden planks that you wouldn’t think much of were it not for the slogan embossed on the slats of the backrest: “Baltimore: The Greatest City in America.” It’s an odd sentiment, not because there isn’t a lot to love about Baltimore, but because it seems less a statement of greatness than it does a statement of defiance. As with so many other American cities, Baltimore has famously and ... [READ MORE]
American Short(er) Fiction Contest: Winners Announced!
We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2015 American Short(er) Fiction Prize, judged by Stuart Dybek. Thank you to everyone who submitted. We were overwhelmed by the breadth and quality of the stories, and, reading them, were thrilled again and again by the versatility and potential of the flash fiction form. The winning stories will be published in the magazine's fall issue. The first prize went to Jennifer Murvin, for her story "Emporium," a subtle rumination on a father's purchase ... [READ MORE]