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
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Dievas X
There’s no escaping the bath ladies. They come out at night in our small village and limp to my tiny house on Naujoji Street. They knock and I go to open the door. It’s the custom to let everyone in. I’m in northern Lithuania, near the edge of a pine forest with roaming stallions that bite. I left New Jersey to live here. I am polite. The ladies are one hundred years old. I offer them coffee, not tea. They bring a paper bag. I recognize the bag. I’d thrown it out. At midnight the two search … [Read more...] about Dievas X
Issue 77
Featuring new stories by Magogodi oaMphela Makhene, Ben Mauk, Joyce Carol Oates, Laura van den Berg, Ada Zhang, Hilary Bell, and Emily Hunt Kivel. Magogodi oaMphela Makhene, "Dr. Basters" He’s probably licking an ice-cream cone somewhere, Eugene Alexander de Kock. Out. Walking, petting his dog. Whites love their dogs. Part of the family, as they say. Chocolate chip mint, I bet. A man as fastidious getting dirty work done as de Kock was stripping, strangling, sjambokking, wetbagging, … [Read more...] about Issue 77
The Potatoes
The potatoes came out of the compost pile thick-limbed and determined, looking almost like tomatoes, given their height. You shook your head. “Once there are potatoes, there’s always potatoes.” I liked the infinity of this. I thought Beget! The potatoes are begetting more potatoes! I thought of who would live in the little house after me, their wonder at the potatoes and the potatoes wondering at them. I liked the idea of this happening: someone happening upon a stock of potatoes behind their … [Read more...] about The Potatoes
Announcing the 2023 ASF Workshop Fellows & Scholars
Today, we are delighted to announce the Fellows & Scholars for this year's American Short Fiction Workshop. 2023 WORKSHOP FELLOWS Marisa Crane is a writer, basketball player, and sweatpants enthusiast. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Joyland, No Tokens, TriQuarterly, Passages North, Florida Review, The Offing, Lit Hub, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. An attendee of the Tin House Workshop and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, they are the author of the debut novel, I Keep … [Read more...] about Announcing the 2023 ASF Workshop Fellows & Scholars
The Dog Had Ate the Hand
They’d been watching the renovations for days. The plan was simple: Cut a hole in the fence. Get inside the house. Grab the copper. Take it home. Sell it. Easy money if Lucas could just stick to the plan. But there was something about the way his skull was born without a soft spot and something about the way his brain grew into the skull, pushing up against the stubborn bone, that made him forget all the little things. He would forget the day. He would forget where he was walking … [Read more...] about The Dog Had Ate the Hand