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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Elizabeth McCracken

The Get-Go

by Elizabeth McCracken | April 12, 2021

The Get-Go

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 tall, too, both he and the mother the tallest members of short families. In photographs and at reunions, they loomed. Everyone was happy when they had a short child: they’d decided to fit in after all. Sadie was small and plump and blonde, and when she was nine, her father died, and it was just the … [Read more...] about The Get-Go

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Elizabeth McCracken, Fiction, The Get-Go, The Souvenir Museum, Web Exclusive

What Doesn’t Kill You: An Interview with Sabrina Orah Mark

by Jana Horn | July 2, 2019

What Doesn’t Kill You: An Interview with Sabrina Orah Mark

Poet Sabrina Orah Mark is the author of Wild Milk, a collection of surreal short stories that marks her debut in fiction. Wild Milk has been called a "necessary book for our perilous age" by Kirkus and a collection of "tales to wake you up at last" by author Edward Carey. Though short, these stories are deep as the ocean blue. You can drown or swim in them (and enjoy yourself either way). I recently spoke with Orah Mark, who opened up about where some of her wilder ideas come from, how she … [Read more...] about What Doesn’t Kill You: An Interview with Sabrina Orah Mark

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: Adrienne Kennedy, Amber Dermont, Anne Boyer, Bruno Schulz, Christine Schutt, Danny Khlalastchi, Donald Barthelme, Edward Carey, Elizabeth McCracken, fairytales, Fiction, Franz Kafka, Gertrude Stein, Hasidic violin, Jana Horn, Joseph Campbell, Kate Zambreno, Kirkus, Kristen Iskandrian, Leonora Carrington, Lucie Brock-Broido, Lydia Davis, Mary Ruefle, Mordechai Rosenstein, Oni Buchanan, Patti Smith, poetry, prose, PT Anderson, Reginald McKnight, Roger Miller, Sabrina Orah Mark, Samuel Beckett, The Power of Myth, Vladimir Nabokov, Wild Milk, Yusef Komunyakaa

The Stars at Night 2018: A Celebration of Writing and Community

by The Editors | August 15, 2018

The Stars at Night 2018: A Celebration of Writing and Community

[Please note: this event has passed. Keep your eyes on our website for information about the Stars at Night 2020!] Join us on Thursday, October 11th, for The Stars at Night 2018, a bright Texas evening of songwriting, honky-tonk, and literary splendor. Come for the live country music and readings, and stay for the open bar, delicious food, silent auction, and the historic charm of Mercury Hall, complete with beautiful gardens and rambling live oaks on a bright starry lawn. The evening will … [Read more...] about The Stars at Night 2018: A Celebration of Writing and Community

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, NOTEBOOK FEATURE Tagged With: Austin, awards, country music, Elizabeth McCracken, Fernando A. Flores, Gala, honkytonk, Laura van den Berg, S. Kirk Walsh, Stars at Night

Bourbon and Milk: When the Mayhem Becomes Too Much

by Giuseppe Taurino | December 24, 2015

Bourbon and Milk: When the Mayhem Becomes Too Much

Bourbon and Milk is an ongoing series that dives into the perplexing spaces parenting sometimes pushes us, and explores the unexpected ways writers may grow in them. If you’re interested in joining the conversation or contributing a Bourbon and Milk post, query Giuseppe Taurino at: giuseppe [at] americanshortfiction.org. — Welcome to the third annual holiday edition of Bourbon and Milk. Once again, with a nod towards the thankfulness many of us associate with the holidays—a thankfulness … [Read more...] about Bourbon and Milk: When the Mayhem Becomes Too Much

Filed Under: BOURBON AND MILK, NOTEBOOK Tagged With: Alex Espinoza, Anne Carson, bourbon and milk, Darth Vader, Elizabeth McCracken, God, Jamaica Kincaid, Jeannette Walls, Jennifer De Leon, John Weir, Joshua Furst, Junot Díaz, Matthew Salesses, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Mia Alvar, Moses, Natashia Deón, Sonya Larson, Stacey Swann, Susan Straight, Vanessa Hua, William S. Burroughs, William S. Burroughs Jr.

ASF & Lit Crawl Present: Whose Line Is it Anyway?

by Adeena Reitberger | October 16, 2015

ASF & Lit Crawl Present: Whose Line Is it Anyway?

American Short Fiction is excited to join Lit Crawl Austin to present our second installment of "Whose Line Is it Anyway?"— a hilarious and highbrow night of literature, guessing games, and other foolish fun. Join us at Wonderland Austin with brilliant and charming Texas Book Festival authors Elizabeth McCracken, Lauren Groff, Alexandra Kleeman, Benjamin Markovits, and Skip Horack, drink a draft cocktail, and watch these writers blindly guess which of them is the writer of the sentences we … [Read more...] about ASF & Lit Crawl Present: Whose Line Is it Anyway?

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: Alexandra Kleeman, ASF Lit Crawl, Ben Markovits, Elizabeth McCracken, Lauren Groff, Skip Horack

Primary Sidebar

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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