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Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Nate Brown

Introducing Stephanie Macias, ASF’s New Managing Editor

by Nate Brown | October 5, 2023

Introducing Stephanie Macias, ASF’s New Managing Editor

For five years, Stephanie Macias has been reading and considering submissions to American Short Fiction, and she's been instrumental in running our in-person events in Austin. A virtual Swiss Army Knife of artistic pursuits (she's a writer, photographer, visual artist, musician, and editor), Stephanie is now set to bring her broad experience and enthusiasm for stories to a new role at American Short Fiction: that of managing editor. As the outgoing managing editor, I'm both grateful for and … [Read more...] about Introducing Stephanie Macias, ASF’s New Managing Editor

Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: ASF Staff, changing of the guard, managing editor, Nate Brown, stephanie macias

ASF’s Favorite Reads of 2021

by ASF Editors | December 30, 2021

ASF’s Favorite Reads of 2021

Love them or hate them, year-end wrap-ups and best-of lists can help us make sense of our moment in history, and what moment in history has demanded that we search for clarity, meaning, and comfort like 2021? So, instead of offering a list of ASF staffers' favorite books published this year, we asked our editors about the books they read this year that sustained, inspired, moved, or changed them, regardless of when the book was published. What follows, then, is a hodgepodge of literary gems, … [Read more...] about ASF’s Favorite Reads of 2021

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: 2021, 2022, Alexander Lumans, Amanda Faraone, Anna Kavan, Anne Carson, Anne Helen Peterson, ASF Staff, Brandon Taylor, Claire Vaye Watkins, Dantiel Moniz, Emily Chammah, Fowzia Karimi, Hala Alyan, Jen Brown, Kazuo Ishiguro, Louise Erdrich, Maggie Nelson, Maurice Chammah, Melissa Broder, Michelle Raji, Nate Brown, Patricia Ruiz-Rivera, Peter Kispert, Rachel Yoder, Rebecca Markovits, Sanjena Sathian, Shirley Hazzard, Shirley Jackson, Sol X. Wooten, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Stephanie Frazee, Susan Quesal, Thao Votang, Thomas Savage, Uriel Perez, Willie Fitzgerald, Year-end list

Register Now: 2021 Short Story Summer Camp

by ASF Editors | April 15, 2021

Register Now: 2021 Short Story Summer Camp

Join us this summer for a first-ever, limited-entry manuscript consultation and virtual craft series from the editors of American Short Fiction. Each registrant will receive detailed feedback on their submitted story and attend a series of three live virtual seminars focused on honing and refining their work with an editor's eye. Regular registration ($425) will close on June 15th. Note: Applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. This is not a juried application … [Read more...] about Register Now: 2021 Short Story Summer Camp

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: 2021, Adam Soto, Adeena Reitberger, advice, ASF Summer Camp, classes, Fiction, lectures, Nate Brown, publishing, Short Stories, story summer camp, Summer, Summer 2021

ASF Celebrates Black Writers

by ASF Editors | February 25, 2020

ASF Celebrates Black Writers

As Black History Month 2020 nears an end, we asked members of our staff compile a list of their favorite short fiction by Black writers. For this list, our scope was broad. After all, while Black History Month has its roots in American history, it's not an exclusively American endeavor. Canada celebrates along with us during February, but in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands, Black History Month is aligned with the start of the school year in October. So, rather than give our … [Read more...] about ASF Celebrates Black Writers

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: Aaron Teel, Adam Soto, Adeena Reitberger, Alexander Lumans, Amanda Farone, Anabel Graff, Ashley Whitaker, Black History Month, Bryan Washington, Charles W. Chestnutt, Chester Himes, Danielle Evans, Edward P. Jones, Giuseppe Taurino, Helen Oyeyemi, Jamaica Kincaid, Jamel Brinkley, James Alan McPherson, James Baldwin, John Edgar Wideman, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Marta Evans, Maurice Chammah, Melinda Moustakis, Michelle Raji, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Nate Brown, Patricia Ruiz-Rivera, Percival Everett, Peter Kispert, Philip Baker, Rebecca Markovits, Reginald McKnight, short fiction, Siân Griffiths, Stacey Swann, Stephanie Macias Gibson, Tia Clark, Toni Morrison, Uriel Perez, Venita Blackburn, Victor LaValle, Zadie Smith, ZZ Packer

Dinosaurs, the Alphabet, and Ten Things to Consider Prior to Submitting a Story for Publication

by Nate Brown | August 1, 2018

Dinosaurs, the Alphabet, and Ten Things to Consider Prior to Submitting a Story for Publication

I. To Begin, a Note about Pleasure A few years ago, the late James Salter was honored at the annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Festival with a prize in Fitzgerald’s name. During his keynote address at the award ceremony, Salter said something that was stupefying in its simplicity: reading, he said, was among the very greatest pleasures in his life. Perhaps that’s not a surprising sentiment for a writer so notably interested in pleasure, especially the pleasures of food, drink, travel, language, and … [Read more...] about Dinosaurs, the Alphabet, and Ten Things to Consider Prior to Submitting a Story for Publication

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: acceptance, adjectives, ajectives, Alice Munro, Angela Flournoy, apes, Barracoon, Barrelhouse magazine, Boston, Conversations and Connections conference, Cormac McCarthy, cultural appropriation, Denis Johnson, dialect, dinosaurs, editing, ellipses, empathy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Festival, Fuckhead, James Baldiwn, James Baldwin, James Salter, Jenny Zhang, John Gardner, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Kossola, Lionel Shriver, Mary Gaitskill, Muse and the Marketplace, Narcissus, Nate Brown, Paul Auster, pleasure, publishing, racism, reading, rejection, Rickey Laurentiis, semiotics, Sex, Short Stories, Solmaz Sharif, story submission, Sublevel magazine, Ted Thompson, Tim Barris, Toni Morrison, violence, writing, Zora Neale Hurston

Pride Is Every Month: A Short Reading List from Our Editors

by ASF Editors | June 30, 2016

Pride Is Every Month: A Short Reading List from Our Editors

In 2016, there's something almost anachronistic about creating a list of your favorite LGBTQ books. What kinds of books might qualify for such a list? Must the author identify as gay, bi, lesbian, trans, asexual, or agender to be included? In putting together such a list, don't you run the risk of unintentionally ghettoizing "LGBTQ books" and further marginalizing authors? These are questions our editors and staff asked ourselves as we set out to celebrate Pride Month by building a list of book … [Read more...] about Pride Is Every Month: A Short Reading List from Our Editors

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: Adeena Reitberger, Agender, Alexander Lumans, Alison Bechdel, Alysia Abbot, Anna North, Bisexual, Carson McCullers, Chinelo Okparanta, Colm Tóibín, E.M. Forster, Erin McReynolds, Gay, Hanya Yanagihara, Jill McDonough, Justin Torres, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Maggie Nelson, Maurice Chammah, Nate Brown, Ocean Vuong, Pride, Rebecca Markovits, Rose Tremain, Sexuality, Stacey Swann, Transgender

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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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