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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Stories

Ara’s Man

by Min Han | July 4, 2019

Ara’s Man

Ara killed my dog so I had to screw her man. His mouth was still swollen from the tooth he lost and he tasted terrible, but I did it anyway. I had to. Afterward, tearfully, he told me a story about a boy from his part of the land who stole an arrowhead from a neighboring clan. They caught the boy and fed him white clay from the river until he exploded. Blood and bones and ropes of glossy pink organs everywhere. This was during the hard times when there was barely a weed to suck on, and no … [Read more...] about Ara’s Man

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Fiction, Flash Fiction, Online Fiction, Short Stories, Stories, Web Exclusive, Web Exclusives

Tomorrow or Forever: An Interview with Jack Kaulfus

by Nicole Beckley | July 24, 2018

Tomorrow or Forever: An Interview with Jack Kaulfus

In Jack Kaulfus’s debut story collection, Tomorrow or Forever, the Austin-based author examines life, the afterlife, and the identities we may take on in those spaces and beyond. These nine stories move through a variety of settings, from the cramped inside of a plane to a mystical small town sculpture garden, painting backdrops that are alternately recognizable and otherworldly. In these eclectic stories, tension lies between what’s known and unknown—about the worlds we exist in and about our … [Read more...] about Tomorrow or Forever: An Interview with Jack Kaulfus

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK, NOTEBOOK FEATURE Tagged With: debuts, identity, Interview, Jack Kaulfus, Nicole Beckley, sci-fi, Stories, story collections, trans identity, writers, writing

Menu

by Peter Grimes | January 12, 2018

Menu

We’ve already tried everything. We tell the waitress to bring rolls, wine. Meanwhile we’ll decide what we want to order. This is our favorite restaurant. It’s the only restaurant in town as far as we’re concerned. The atmosphere is exquisite—carpet with hunting scenes, dark wood. The mayor and his cronies sit nearby, tearing apart their steaks by candlelight and spilling juice on their ties. I wave. And there’s the guy Lynn always goes on about, the stiff cowboy type who can’t move his neck. The … [Read more...] about Menu

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: American Short Fiction, dining, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Online Fiction, restaurants, short fiction, Stories, Web Exclusive, Web Exclusives

Announcing the Winners of the Insider Prize

by Emily Chammah | October 9, 2017

Announcing the Winners of the Insider Prize

Submissions to The Insider Prize—a writing contest for incarcerated writers in Texas, which we held for the first time this year—came to us in envelopes of many sizes. Most had been previously opened, with a red TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS stamp on the inside of the lip of the envelope that had been taped shut after an inspection. Some were composed on a typewriter. Others were handwritten. Like many literary journals, American Short Fiction accepts only electronic submissions. And while … [Read more...] about Announcing the Winners of the Insider Prize

Filed Under: NEWS, NOTEBOOK, NOTEBOOK FEATURE Tagged With: Deb Olin Unferth, Emily Chammah, Fiction, incarcerated writers, Insider Prize, Maurice Chammah, Memoir, Stories

2017 American Short Fiction Prize Winners

by ASF Editors | October 9, 2017

2017 American Short Fiction Prize Winners

We are delighted to announce that Lauren Groff has selected the winners of the 2017 American Short Fiction Prize. The first-place prize goes to Michaela Hansen for her story "The Devil in the Barn." Michaela Hansen is a Northwest native who likes to call Tacoma, Washington home, even though she doesn't always live there. She's a recent graduate of the Texas State University MFA program and her work has been published in McNeese Review, and is forthcoming from Fourth Genre. When she's not … [Read more...] about 2017 American Short Fiction Prize Winners

Filed Under: NEWS, NOTEBOOK Tagged With: American Short Fiction Prize, Michaela Hansen, short fiction, Stories, Wendy Rawlings, Winners

Embracing the World, from High to Low: An Interview with Benjamin Hale

by Anabel Graff | May 24, 2016

Embracing the World, from High to Low: An Interview with Benjamin Hale

In his first story collection, Benjamin Hale introduces us to characters who inhabit the margins of society:  an expat outlaw revolutionary trying to find her way home, a dominatrix confronting a new possible role as mother, a performance artists eating himself towards death. What at first may read as absurd becomes meaningful and then moving through Hale’s skillful and playful storytelling. We reached out to Hale to talk about his writing process and his new collection, which was published … [Read more...] about Embracing the World, from High to Low: An Interview with Benjamin Hale

Filed Under: NOTEBOOK Tagged With: Alex Dezen, Barbara J. King, Beethoven, Benjamin Hale, Borges, Bulgakov, Caliban, Carl Sagan, Catton, Chimpanzees, Chris Burden, Damien Hirst, Dash Snow, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Duchamp, Frankenstein, Jesus, Kafka, Karen Finley, Marquez, McCarthy, Nicholson Baker, O'Connor, short fiction, short story, Stories, The Fat Artist, Tolkien, Tolstoy, Tracey Emin, William Grimes, Wim Delvoye, Yves Klein

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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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