A literary snapshot of contemporary American life. Fiction Magazine | NEA Award Winner | Whiting Award Winner | ASME Award for Fiction Finalist

American Short Fiction is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary organization based in Austin, Texas that promotes the art form of the short story in a nationally-distributed triquarterly print magazine, via ASF Online, and through live events and literary programming.

Founded in 1991 by Laura Furman at the University of Texas at Austin in cooperation with the Texas Center for Writers and NPR’s “The Sound of Writing” broadcast, the magazine quickly gained a national reputation for exemplary fiction. In 2019, the organization won the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize, with judges noting that, “[ASF] remains urgent and fresh, its purpose clear: to shake us awake and bring the peculiarity of existence into full focus.” In 2021, ASF was named a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Fiction for the third time. In 2022, the magazine launched a new collaboration with Texas Monthly: a semi-regular series of short stories from Texan authors edited by ASF editors and copublished in ASF Online and Texas Monthly‘s print and digital editions. ASF has also won recognition for its work from The Sunday Times’ Short Story Award, CLMP’s Firecracker Award, and AWP’s Small Press Publisher Award. Stories published by ASF are anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Best American Non-Required Reading, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, and elsewhere.

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American Short Fiction

The prize recognizes extraordinary short fiction under 1,500 words.

American Short(er) Fiction Prize

All stories should be submitted here. Submission guidelines can be found here.

Fiction

All entries must be single, self-contained works of fiction, between 2,000-6,500 words

Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize

We are thrilled to announce that the brilliant Bret Anthony Johnston—internationally bestselling author of We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This and director of the Michener Center for Writers—will judge the 2026 American Short(er) Fiction Prize. The prize recognizes extraordinary short fiction under 1,500 words. The first-place winner will receive a $1,000 prize and publication. Previous winners of the Short(er) Fiction Prize have gone on to be anthologized in places such as The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. All entries will be considered for publication. The deadline to enter is February 1, 2026.

 
General Guidelines
•  Submit your entry online between November 22, 2025 – February 1, 2026
•  The first-place winner will receive a $1,000 prize and publication in a future issue of ASF. All entries will be considered for publication.
•  Please submit your $18 entry fee and your work through Submittable. We no longer accept submissions by post. International submissions in English are eligible.
•  Stories must be 1,500 words or fewer. You are allowed to include up to two stories per entry. Please submit all stories in one document. Each story must begin on a new page and be clearly titled. For the title of your submission list the story titles, separated by a comma. 
•  DO NOT include any identifying information on the manuscript itself.
•  You may submit multiple entries. We accept only previously unpublished work. We 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.
American Short Fiction adheres to the CLMP Contest Code of Ethics.  You can find the CLMP Code of Ethics and our contest procedures here.


 
We can't wait to read your submissions!

American Short Fiction

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