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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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FICTION

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Cazones, 2016

—June 17, 2021

Cazones, 2016

By Blake Sanz

 My dying father and his friend, the former mayor, told me that if it was stories of the massacre I wanted, then there was this farmer living in a seaside village we should track down. So, we … [READ MORE] about Cazones, 2016

To Deaden the Nerve

—May 28, 2021

To Deaden the Nerve

By Christopher Notarnicola

https://soundcloud.com/americanshortfiction/to-deaden-the-nerve-by-christopher-notarnicola Marines sit on the ground with their feet in their hands, their bare knees against the wet morning grass … [READ MORE] about To Deaden the Nerve

The Get-Go

—April 12, 2021

The Get-Go

By Elizabeth McCracken

Sadie’s mother was tall and narrow, with a long braid down her back, black when Sadie was very little, then silvery, then silver, an instrument to measure time, an atomic clock. Her father had been … [READ MORE] about The Get-Go

The Vacant Field

—April 06, 2021

The Vacant Field

By Kate Bernheimer

 I stood at the edge of a vacant field. Police who were not dressed as police were looking in the field for things that were dangerous. These were items left by a woman who was not dressed as a … [READ MORE] about The Vacant Field

She Said It Like She Meant It

—March 02, 2021

She Said It Like She Meant It

By Jennifer Blackman

There’s a cemetery on a mountainside in Kabul that’s running out of space. I read a New York Times piece about it years ago. A group of boys run grave maintenance, for a price, and one girl, six years … [READ MORE] about She Said It Like She Meant It

Bread Week

—February 12, 2021

Bread Week

By JoAnna Novak

1. Your father calls you train wreck, as in, HEY, wake up, train wreck, bud, you’re falling asleep—beady, bootblack eyes narrowed on you from the Hemingway chair in the basement. Your mother is … [READ MORE] about Bread Week

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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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