2019 Nominations
For the 2019 Best of the Net
This anthology promotes the diverse and ever-growing collection of voices who are publishing their work online and serves to bring greater respect to an innovative and continually expanding medium.
“Ricochet” by Paul Crenshaw
“The Shape of Skin” by Kristina Jipson
For the 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers
The PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers recognizes 12 emerging fiction writers each year for their debut short story published in a literary magazine or cultural website and aims to support the launch of their careers as fiction writers.
Each of the 12 winning writers receives a cash prize of $2,000. The independent book publisher Catapult will publish the 12 winning stories in an annual anthology entitled The PEN America Best Debut Short Stories.
“There Is in This Dirty Night a Running Chase Off and Away” by Jim Bosiljevac
“Lasso” by Essie J. Chambers
“The Provider” by Anne C. English
“Winters” by Marilyn Hope
For the Best Microfiction 2020
The Best Microfiction anthology series considers stories of only 400 words or fewer. Co-edited by award-winning microfiction writer/editor Meg Pokrass, and Flannery O’Connor Prize-winning author Gary Fincke, the anthology will have Michael Martone serve as final judge.
“After Dinner” by Jacqueline Doyle
For the 2021 Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America.
Since 1976, hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in our annual collections. Each year most of the writers and many of the presses are new to the series. Every volume contains an index of past selections, plus lists of outstanding presses with addresses.
“The Warden’s Prowess” by Ethan Chatagnier
“The Knife Intifada” by Dewaine Farria
“Pig Son” by Sequoia Nagamatsu
“The Solution Woman” by Kenan Orhan
“Every Bird a Rival” by Jacqui Reiko Teruya
“Mystery Lights” by Lena Valencia
For The Best Small Fictions 2020
The Best Small Fictions is the first ever contemporary anthology solely dedicated to anthologizing the best internationally published short hybrid fiction in a given calendar year. Now in its sixth year of existence, Best Small Fictions features the best micro fiction, flash fiction, haibun stories and prose poetry from around the world.
Founded by Tara L. Masih, Best Small Fictions is now steered by series editor Nathan Leslie. Guest editors have included Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Olen Butler (2015), PEN/Malamud Award winner Stuart Dybek (2016), Pen/Malamud Award winner Amy Hempel (2017), two-time Pushcart Prize winner Aimee Bender (2018) and, most recently, PEN/Faulkner nominee Rilla Askew (2019).
“How Loudly We Dead Howl” by Sarah Arantza Amador
“The Skins” by Tyler Barton
“Sacred and Profane” by Melissa Goode
“Five A.M. Ravens” by Natalie Teal McAllister
“Twelve-Step Program for Quitting My Life” by Kristen M. Ploetz
UPDATE: “The Skins” by Tyler Barton and “Twelve-Step Program for Quitting My Life” by Kristen M. Ploetz have been selected to appear in the anthology!