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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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MFA for All

by ASF Editors | January 16, 2024

MFA for All

MFA for All was born from our desire to create a space where MFA-quality instruction is widely accessible to writers no matter their age, background, location, or financial situation. MFA for All is not a degree-granting program—it is a community-rich online educational experience led by top-notch faculty, free of the significant hurdles of time, expense, and geography that MFAs demand. These master classes will offer structured insight into your craft and writing practice, giving access to a … [Read more...] about MFA for All

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Carmen Maria Machado, Lauren Groff, Luis Alberto Urrea, MFA for All

The Letters

by Andrew Porter | January 21, 2024

The Letters

My mother has been sending me letters lately. Not letters intended for me but rather letters she has been writing to various people in her life—important influences, she calls them. Relatives, friends, former classmates, coworkers. She has been writing two or three letters a week and sending them to me via email to look over and send back to her with comments. You’re a professor, she tells me, you know the right way to put these things.  She says she wants me to be brutally honest with her, … [Read more...] about The Letters

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: andrew porter, Fiction, san antonio, short story, the letters

EOD

by Serena Lin | February 8, 2024

EOD

Sam feared old people. She feared their drooping folds, their soft edges, like a block of butter left out for too long. They haunted the office in their squelching orthopedic sneakers, moving so slowly that Sam sometimes expected them to leave behind snail trails of mucus. She drifted behind them in the hallways, keeping at least ten paces of distance. She didn’t like to get too close to their odor of mothballs and lye soap; she didn’t want to see where their hair had thinned to reveal the … [Read more...] about EOD

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, Uncategorized, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Fiction, office humor, publishing industry, short story, termination, Web Exclusive

Issue 78

by ASF Editors | December 26, 2023

Featuring new stories by Jeffery Renard Allen, Jamel Brinkley, Mala Gaonkar, Anita Lo, Yasmin Adele Majeed, Emily Mitchell,  and Max Ross. Jeffery Renard Allen, "Orbits" You know, only a fool does something for free, the Champ said. I’ve been thinking about how to repay you. A word stalled on his tongue. It sounded like farty. She had seen it in him before, the blur while thinking. Wait, he said. With evident excitement, he retrieved his top hat from the coat rack, pulled his … [Read more...] about Issue 78

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Bleed and Bleed

by Hedgie Choi | December 26, 2023

Bleed and Bleed

Christopher was the nicest man I had ever met and so I was engaged to him. We got engaged during his residency and I told people we would get married when he became a doctor, but he never became a doctor he became a physician-scientist at the university researching von Willebrand disease because he thought this way he could help many people at once instead of one at a time. He often told me just how many people in the US alone suffered from von Willebrand disease, but I forgot immediately … [Read more...] about Bleed and Bleed

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, NOTEBOOK FEATURE, Uncategorized, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Fiction, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Lowes, medical research, Relationships, short fiction, short story, theft, von Willebrand disease, Web Exclusive

Read the winners of the 2023 Insider Prize

by ASF Editors | October 4, 2023

Read the winners of the 2023 Insider Prize

Last spring, I approached Nickolas Butler, internationally bestselling author of the novels Shotgun Lovesongs, The Hearts of Men, and Godspeed, to be the judge for this year’s Insider Prize, American Short Fiction’s annual literary award for incarcerated writers in Texas. He’d worked with incarcerated writers in the past, championing their work. His own writing explores the marginalized and forgotten corners of American life. He jumped at the opportunity and provides illuminating commentary on … [Read more...] about Read the winners of the 2023 Insider Prize

Filed Under: NEWS, Uncategorized

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Issue 81

Guest-edited by Fernando A. Flores, featuring new stories by Yvette DeChavez, Julián Delgado Lopera, Carribean Fragoza, Alejandro Heredia, Carmen Maria Machado, Ruben Reyes Jr., and Gerardo Sámano Córdova.

You can preview the issue here.

NEWS

Read the winners of the 2024 Insider Prize

Read the winners of the 2024 Insider Prize

By ASF Editors

“Memories are a nuisance,” Peter wrote to one of our writers after reading his short story, “but nonetheless they seem to make us who we are, as this story confirms.” This year’s submissions told many stories burdened with memory, but just as many stared bravely into the face of hope, satirized the state of politics, speculated on the future of the world, or else built entirely new worlds to inhabit. In short, the stories written on the inside reflected the stories we wrote this year on the outside. Stories of human toil and dreams and everything in between.
 

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