As the new year approaches, we look back with gratitude on the magazine’s accomplishments and think about how we can grow in the years to come. Here are a few of our favorite highlights from 2017:
– We published 22 stories, including our first issue dedicated exclusively to the work of emerging writers. We proudly offer competitive payment to all writers whose stories we publish.
– Through “ASF Goes Back to School,” we donated hundreds of back issues to creative writing classrooms across the country.
– We launched The Insider Prize, an annual fiction and memoir contest for incarcerated writers in Texas. This year the contest was judged by Lydia Davis.
– We celebrated our 26th birthday at our annual gala, The Stars at Night, where we honored Dan Chaon, Joe W. Bratcher III, and Anushka Jasraj and danced outside under the bright Texas stars.
– We hosted exciting free literary programs across the country, from issue releases, Lit Crawl events, and readings in Austin to backyard soirees in Baltimore.
– Our stories were anthologized in prize-winning collections including Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and the O. Henry Prize Stories. In addition, Bret Anthony Johnston’s “Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses” (ASF 63) won the 2017 Sunday Times Short Story Award in London.
We know you share our belief in the essential power of stories. Reading is an empathetic act, and fiction is a big tent as well as a clear window through which readers have access to experiences far different from their own. As a 501(c)3 arts nonprofit, we need your support now more than ever. From now until supplies last, we’ll send everyone who donates $75 or more a free ASF tote bag. They are large, sturdy, and terrific. Just ask this dog!
To make a tax-deductible gift to American Short Fiction follow the link below, or you can send a check to American Short Fiction, P.O. Box 4152, Austin, Texas 78765.
Make a Gift to American Short Fiction
We wish you and your family all the happiness in the year to come.
With gratitude,
Rebecca Markovits & Adeena Reitberger
Coeditors, _American Short Fiction_