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bestmicrofiction 2026

“When you read a piece under 400 words that stops you in your tracks, it only makes you want to read another with such power. Fortunately, thankfully, we have Best Microfiction, which gives us a book of the best. They may be short, but the pieces will last you a year, making their way into your heart and mind—just in time for next year’s edition.” Brian Mihok, matchbook

We are pleased to say that Best Microfiction 2026 will be published by Pelekinesis in the summer of 2026. 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 Pulitzer Prize winning poet Diane Seuss serve as final judge.

We are accepting submissions from Literary Magazine editors on a rolling basis from November 2nd, 2025 and continuing through to a deadline of December 15th, 2025. Please feel free to nominate stories that have yet to be published in December, as they are stories published in 2025.

Each nomination should be a separate submission. At the top of each submission, please write your own name, the name of your magazine, and the author’s name and e-mail address.

You are welcome to nominate up to five microfiction stories that were published by your publication in 2025. Please do not include work that has already appeared in an anthology or 'best-of' list, or that has won a prize from another competition. If your nomination wins an award after our selections have been made, that’s fine. But if the work has already won an award, please do not submit it here.

So, to summarize...

    Requirements:
  1. Nominations from Literary Magazine editors only
  2. 400 words or less
  3. Limit of five nominations published in 2025
  4. Deadline December 15th, 2025
    At the top of each submission, write:
  1. your name
  2. the name of your magazine
  3. author’s name and e-mail address
    Not accepted:
  1. work previously published in anthologies
  2. work published in ’best of’ lists
  3. prize-winning stories from other competitions

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the Best Microfiction anthology series, and good luck!

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