This year, we’re excited to host the American Short Fiction Workshop, from Thursday, May 25, to Monday, May 29, in Austin, Texas, and led by New York Times bestselling novelist Kristen Arnett and acclaimed author and No Tokens Founding Editor T Kira Māhealani Madden.
Participants will attend daily fiction workshops, one-on-one meetings with distinguished faculty, and craft lectures by faculty, special guests, and ASF editors. We’ll provide space to generate new work and make lasting connections amidst the sights, sounds, and swimming holes of Austin.
We hope that scheduling around the Memorial Day weekend will make attendance easier for working writers and parents. We will host an optional welcome party on Wednesday, May 24, for early birds and locals, and the week will be filled with readings, happy hours, and excursions to our favorite restaurants and bookstores.
Applications are due February 15, 2023, by 11:59 p.m. To apply, please send us a double-spaced writing sample of up to 25 pages through our Submittable application portal. (Note that you may workshop a different story than the one you submit with your application, so please send us something you feel best represents you as a writer). There is a non-refundable $20 application fee. We will inform applicants of their acceptance by email on or before March 15, 2023.
Tuition for the workshop is $1,800, which does not include room and board. We are working with a local hotel within walking distance of our office for a discounted block of rooms, and you are also welcome to seek out accommodations on your own.
We are proud to offer a limited number of full and half scholarships, including lodging, to the Workshop. Writers from historically underserved communities are encouraged to apply.
We plan on following CDC guidelines for in-person events, but reserve the right to shift plans in order to keep our staff, instructors, and attendees safe. Participants will be required to show proof of vaccination prior to the start of the Workshop, and if necessary, Workshop events—classes, lectures, happy hours—will be held outdoors.
Kristen Arnett is the author of With Teeth: A Novel (Riverhead Books, 2021), which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction, and the New York Times bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction. She is a queer fiction and essay writer. She was awarded a Shearing Fellowship at Black Mountain Institute and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize recognizing mid-career writers of fiction. Her work has appeared at The New York Times, TIME, The Cut, Oprah Magazine, Guernica, Buzzfeed, McSweeneys, PBS Newshour, The Guardian, Salon, and elsewhere. Her next book (an untitled collection of short stories) will be published by Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House). She has a Masters in Library and Information Science from Florida State University and currently lives in Miami, Florida.
T Kira Māhealani Madden is a Chinese, Kānaka Maoli writer and amateur magician. A recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Hedgebrook, Tin House, MacDowell, and Yaddo, she serves as the Founding Editor of No Tokens, a magazine of literature and art. She is the author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, which is now being developed as a feature film, and her work has appeared in Harper’s, The Sun, and New York Magazine. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the winner of the 2021 Judith A. Markowitz LAMBDA Literary Award, her debut novel, Whidbey, is forthcoming from Mariner. She teaches at Mount Holyoke College and raises miniature donkeys.
“ASF chose an incredible cohort of writers and the brilliancy and camaraderie of the group made this an ideal, energizing and high-learning experience. ” – Tayyba Kanwal
“This workshop is one I will look back on as a standard for all future workshops. Without a doubt, this was the best [I] have ever attended. . . I want to stress that I had no “writing community” prior to this experience. ASF changed that completely. I have friends I look forward to seeing often, including staff who were open and encouraging (I’d always assumed big lit mag editors were to be feared). I feel like everyone had their moment to be the star.” – Phoebe Oathout
“People were excellent readers–so thorough and thoughtful and generous. It was maybe the best workshop I’ve been in. . . It was a joy.” – Christine Vines
The LINE Austin | The Hightower Group | Central Market | Home Slice Pizza | Rosen’s Bagels | Talisman Coffee
Cactus artwork by Kristen Steenbeeke.