Categories Literary magazine Founder Laura Furman Country United States | Frequency Triannual Year founded 1991 | |
Publisher Badgerdog Literary Publishing | ||
American Short Fiction is a nationally circulated literary magazine based in Austin, Texas. Issued triannually, American Short Fiction publishes short fiction, novel excerpts, and an occasional novella, and strives to publish work by both established and emerging contemporary authors. The magazine seeks out stories "that dive into the wreck, that stretch the reader between recognition and surprise, that conjure a particular world with delicate expertise—stories that take a different way home."
Contents
American Short Fiction sponsors two annual short fiction contests, the American Short Fiction Contest, judged in 2016 by Justin Torres, and the American Short(er) Fiction Prize. The magazine also sponsors a reading series in Austin as well as online workshops for fiction writers.
History and publication
Founded in 1991 by editor Laura Furman, American Short Fiction was published until 1998 by the University of Texas Press in cooperation with the Texas Center for Writers and National Public Radio's "The Sound of Writing" broadcast. During its initial run, the magazine was a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award for fiction and contributors’ work was anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses.
The journal was purchased in 2003 by Badgerdog Literary Publishing and released the first issue of its second run in Winter 2006. The journal maintains high standards for publication. Two recent stories, Ethan Rutherford’s "The Peripatetic Coffin" and Karl Taro Greenfeld’s "NowTrends" have been chosen to appear in The Best American Short Stories 2009. Contributions have also been anthologized in The Best American Nonrequired Reading and have appeared in Best American Fantasy.