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American Short Fiction

Publishing exquisite fiction since 1991.

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Web exclusive fiction

Choose Your Own

by Jeanne Jones | October 3, 2016

Choose Your Own

  Section A You are sitting in the bedroom of a house that is inches away from the freeway. Cars whiz past at an alarming rate, and it seems to you that a minor slip of the steering wheel will send a car crashing into the bedroom, killing the occupants of the house. You are there on a date with the man who lives there, a man named Oswald. He complains that the highway was built too close to his house, taking away his front yard—you see the tiny blades of grass that are left of it, so few … [Read more...] about Choose Your Own

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: choose your own, choose your own adventure, dating, death, fear, Love, Sex, Web exclusive fiction

Heliotrope

by Kelly Luce | July 1, 2011

Heliotrope

The placenta began to speak a month into my affair with Nick. The baby had gone right down after his lunch—Tofu Pup, rice cake, cup of orange juice. The OJ was our secret. My sister didn’t like Beau to have juice because of the sugar, but I felt sorry for the kid. I believe in sugar. The placenta said, “Cold.” At least that’s what it sounded like. Which made sense—it was in the freezer. I opened the door and there it sat in its smudgy Ziploc, the blue-and-green-seal lips open at one … [Read more...] about Heliotrope

Filed Under: WEB EXCLUSIVES Tagged With: Flash Fiction, Heliotrope, Kelly Luce, Web exclusive fiction

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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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