• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

  • ISSUES
    • CURRENT ISSUE
    • BACK ISSUES
  • FICTION
  • MFA for All
  • EVENTS
    • THE STARS AT NIGHT
    • STORY SESSIONS
    • MORE EVENTS
  • STORE
  • SUBMIT
    • REGULAR SUBMISSIONS
    • THE HALIFAX RANCH PRIZE
    • AMERICAN SHORT(ER) FICTION PRIZE
    • THE INSIDER PRIZE
  • DONATE
  • ABOUT
  • NEWS
  • SUBSCRIBE

Family

Karst

by Ben Jackson | July 15, 2020

Karst

He wakes in the landscape of his childhood, the karst. The house is surrounded by stone that dissolves in water, limestone that becomes fissured and hazardous because of its own weakness. The clints are the parts left standing. Grykes are the absences between. It is in the grykes you find life: hart’s tongue fern, butterfly orchid, primrose. Sheltering in the sinkholes. This is a place of constant change. Changing stone. Changing light. As a child, he would go out at morning and all around … [Read more...] about Karst

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, ireland, mothers, Online Fiction, short fiction, Short Stories, stone, water, Web Exclusive

Bourbon and Milk: On Time

by Lacy M. Johnson | December 16, 2019

Bourbon and Milk: On Time

Bourbon and Milk 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, query Giuseppe Taurino at: giuseppe [at] americanshortfiction.org. — This past summer, for the first time in ten years, I didn’t work on a book. I'd been working on one difficult book or another since before I got pregnant with my son—he is nine now—and even the thought of beginning another difficult, … [Read more...] about Bourbon and Milk: On Time

Filed Under: BOURBON AND MILK, NOTEBOOK Tagged With: bourbon and milk, Children, climate change, climate crisis, Family, Glacier National Park, glaciers, global climate change, global warming, hiking, Lacy Johnson, parenting, Technology, the future, worry, writing

Her Cousin Lena

by Nora Lange | May 2, 2019

Her Cousin Lena

Rose kept a notebook near and recorded her phone conversation with her mother, just because. A part of her, the part that supported herself and paid for her condoms, cigarettes, and rent, assumed a recording of her conversation with her mother might one day come in handy. Her mother wasn’t afraid of psychological blackmail. She was constantly reminding Rose of the things she should be grateful for. Rose was grateful. She pressed record. Rose’s mother’s voice was muffled by wind sounds; she … [Read more...] about Her Cousin Lena

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: daughters, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, mothers, Online Fiction, short fiction, Short Stories, Web Exclusive

Web Exclusive Interview: Amy Stuber

by Erin McReynolds | May 13, 2019

Web Exclusive Interview: Amy Stuber

Amy Stuber's flash fiction story "I'm on the Side of the Wildebeest" distills a familiar modern dilemma into a crystallized moment. On a road trip, a mother contemplates a very different childhood for her kids than the one she had—one in which technology, the constant deluge of information, and the threat to the planet create anxieties that are harder to escape. But despite these anxieties (or maybe because of them) we feel the sweet gratitude for a moment that is good, one we know will become a … [Read more...] about Web Exclusive Interview: Amy Stuber

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, Web Exclusive Interview Tagged With: Amy Hempel, Anxiety, Erin McReynolds, Family, Interview, Joy Williams, Online Exclusive Interview, parenting, Web Exclusive Interview, writing

Surface Treatments

by Zach Powers | October 9, 2018

Surface Treatments

It took less than a month for the coats of paint to completely cover the electrical outlet in the kitchen. So much for coffee. So much for toast. The nearest outlet was in the dining room. The longest extension cord was only six feet. We suggested that our parents buy a longer one, maybe one that wasn’t orange and meant for outdoors, maybe one that wasn’t caked with saffron dirt, but we were only children. Like most children, even the wisest things we said went ignored. This was when Dad … [Read more...] about Surface Treatments

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Online Fiction, short fiction, Short Stories, Web Exclusive

Father as Astronaut

by Gretchen Stiteler | August 7, 2018

Father as Astronaut

 My first assignment was an infestation: albino deer flocking in townspeople's yards, grazing away what little greenery was left. I concocted a spray, biodegradable and harmless to plants but noxious to animals. The herd scattered like skeleton teeth in the foothills and starved. More recently, I was assigned to a village that had seen the face of God, every villager among them, which was why they were losing teeth and hair, why their bones had turned to meringue. His Divine Light had cut … [Read more...] about Father as Astronaut

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: death, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Online Fiction, short fiction, Web Exclusive

Next Page »

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.
 

Sign up now for Send Us to Perfect Places with Kristen Arnett! Classes are $150 and registration closes May 4, 2025.

×

✨ The Stars at Night 2025: Celebrating Joy Williams, Emily Hunt Kivel, Carrie R. Moore, and Leila Green Little. Get your tickets today!✨

×