We’re so pleased to announce that our judge for this year’s Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize will be Eric Puchner, author of the 2025 New York Times bestselling novel Dream State as well as the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and two story collections. Puchner lives in Baltimore, where he is the director of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.
In addition to publication and a $2,500 prize, we are excited to partner again with the Tasajillo Residency, an idyllic artist residency that neighbors the Halifax Ranch just outside of Austin in Kyle, Texas, and offer the winning writer an all-expenses-paid writing retreat at the Tasajillo’s beautiful cabin.
General Guidelines
— Submit your entry online between April 15, 2025, and June 1, 2025.
— The winner will receive a $2,500 prize and publication in an upcoming issue of American Short Fiction. In addition, the winner will receive a week-long all-expenses-paid writing retreat (optional—dates TBD) at the Tasajillo Residency, which neighbors the Halifax Ranch just outside of Austin in Kyle, Texas. The residency must be scheduled within a year after the winner is announced. All submitters will receive a copy of the prize issue.
— Please submit your $20 entry fee and your story through Submittable. We no longer accept submissions by post. International submissions in English are eligible. The entry fee covers one 6,500 word fiction submission.
— All entries must be single, self-contained works of fiction, between 2,000-6,500 words. Please DO NOT include any identifying information on the manuscript itself.
— You may submit multiple entries. We accept only previously unpublished work. We do allow simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you notify us promptly of publication elsewhere.
Conflicts of Interest
Staff and volunteers currently affiliated with American Short Fiction are ineligible for consideration or publication. Additionally, students, former students, and colleagues of the judge are not eligible to enter. We ask that previous winners wait three years after their winning entry is published before entering again.
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About Eric Puchner
Eric Puchner is the author of four books, including the new novel Dream State, an Oprah’s Book Club pick and a New York Times bestseller, and the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His short stories and personal essays have appeared in GQ, Granta, McSweeney’s, Tin House, and The Best American Short Stories 2012 and 2017. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Baltimore with his wife, the novelist Katharine Noel, and their two children.
American Short Fiction is grateful to The Burdine Johnson Foundation for their grant in support of this prize.