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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Courtney Sender

Online Fiction Interview: Courtney Sender

by Nate Brown | February 16, 2015

Online Fiction Interview: Courtney Sender

In Courtney Sender's "The Solidarity of Fat Girls," three sisters raise their younger brother following abandonment by their mother. The story traces their little family's trajectory only in the broadest sense, noting the major events of their lives, including the illness and death of one sister as well as the engagement of the younger brother to a fat girl who "doesn't assume that people's brothers should love her." A spare yet lyrical mediation on loss and loyalty, the story seemed a fitting … [Read more...] about Online Fiction Interview: Courtney Sender

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK FEATURE, Web Exclusive Interview Tagged With: Courtney Sender, MFA, short fiction, Web Exclusive Interview, writing

The Solidarity of Fat Girls

by Courtney Sender | February 1, 2015

The Solidarity of Fat Girls

It is your luck to be the brother of three fat girls. They have insisted on the moniker. “We are fat girls,” Elsie has told you.  “If you don’t accept it, who will?” “Don’t say that,” you have replied, hopelessly. “You’re beautiful,” and she has kissed your forehead wetly, like an aunt—she is thirteen years your senior; she relishes that word girls—and said, “Exactly.” Elsie is the fattest of the three fat sisters. She once tried to be a plus-sized model, but size 18 was too large, so … [Read more...] about The Solidarity of Fat Girls

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Audio, Courtney Sender, death, fat girls, illness, Moon, siblings, sisters, solidarity, thin girls

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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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