bestmicrofiction 2021

The following stories have been chosen by final judge Amber Sparks to appear in Best Microfiction 2021. Congratulations!

• Cezarija Abartis, “Sisters” (Matchbook Literary Magazine)
• Sudha Balagopal, “P h i l t r u m” (The Dribble Drabble Review)
• Tyler Barton, “Eternal Night at the Nature Museum, a Half-hour Downriver from Three Mile Island” (Passages North)
• Sarah Bates, “The Dinosaurs that Didn't Die” (Pidgeonholes)
• Roberta Beary, “Shut Your Mouth and Listen” (The Phare)
• Garrett Biggs, “Parade” (Threadcount)
• Despy Boutris, “Burials” (The Roadrunner Review)
• Despy Boutris, “Forest Elegy” (Craft)
• Faye Brinsmead, “Rapunzel, let down your” (perhappened mag)
• Lori Sambol Brody, “I’ve Seen Bigger” (New Flash Fiction Review)
• Exodus Oktavia Brownlow, “It’s 5am-ish and my father tells me a story from his time in Singapore” (No Contact)
• Taylor Byas, “On Hesitation” (perhappened mag)
• Jonathan Cardew, “A World Beyond Cardboard” (Atticus Review)
• K Ming Chang, “Asymmetry” (Jellyfish Review)
• K Ming Chang, “Half Moon Bay” (The Offing)
• Ranjabali Chaudhuri, “Windows” (FlashBack Fiction)
• Anne Cooperstone, “Floaters” (Variety Pack)
• Noa Covo, “Ghoul” (Fractured Lit)
• Moisés R. Delgado, “There are Frijoles Pintos Lost Inside the Sofa” (Puerto Del Sol)
• Leonora Desar, “Some Meaning-” (Cincinnati Review)
• Leonora Desar, “Matt's Basement” (No Contact)
• Emily Devane, “Something Like Happy” (Lost Balloon)
• Christopher M. Drew, “When We Were Young” (Trampset)
• Epiphany Ferrell, “Places I Have Peed” (Miracle Monocle)
• Pat Foran, “What The Dreaming Town Says To You” (Tiny Molecules)
• Sarah Freligh, “Instructions for Cleaning A Mirror” (100 Word Story)
• Lauren Friedlander, “Alice in Voreland” (Okay Donkey)
• Jeff Friedman, “Lost Memory” (New World Writing)
• Jeff Friedman, “Not Everything Was in My Father's Will” (New World Writing)
• Frances Gapper, “She's Gone” (Wigleaf)
• Rosie Garland, “The Correct Hanging of Game Birds” (X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine)
• Scott Garson, “Junk” (Bluestem magazine)
• Marie Gethins, “Beating the Herring” (FlashBack Fiction)
• Christopher Gonzalez, “In the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria” (HAD)
• Charlotte Hughes, “Fairy Tale in Which You Date the Morally Ambiguous Boy in Math” (Monkeybicycle)
• Jason Jackson, “Of Photography and Truth” (Fractured Lit)
• Di Jayawickrema, “Cactus” (Matchbook Literary Magazine)
• Ruth Joffre, “A Girl Opens a Museum” (Pidgeonholes)
• Ruth Joffre, “What I'm Made Of” (Fiction Southeast)
• Jad Josey, “It Finally Happened” (Atlas and Alice Literary Magazine)
• Matt Kendrick, “a list of things that are white” (Fictive Dream)
• Tarah Knaresboro, “lilac bed” (Electric Literature)
• Kathryn Kulpa, “Roadrunners” (Milk Candy Review)
• Kat L’Esperance-Stokes, “A Short List Explaining Why I’m An Okay Person” (Newfound)
• Minyoung Lee, “A Desert Graveyard” (Trampset)
• Tara Lindis, “The Glowing” (Kenyon Review Online)
• Christopher Linforth, “Finale” (Whale Road Review)
• Cyndi MacMillan, “When Alice Became the Rabbit” (The Ekphrastic Review)
• Erinrose Mager, “Neighbors” (Wigleaf)
• Avra Margariti, “A Dog Like a Ghost” (The Baltimore Review)
• Avra Margariti, “The Clown King” (Milk Candy Review)
• Carson Markland, “Armadillo Jesus” (Smokelong Quarterly)
• Kathleen McGookey, “Three Postcards” (Ilanot Review)
• Frankie McMillan, “The Ringmaster's Boys” (Atticus Review)
• Sarah McPherson, “Ornithologia Corvidae” (Splonk)
• Rebecca Meacham, “Good Stretch” (Wigleaf)
• Bill Merklee, “Magic Bullet” (FlashFlood)
• Shareen K. Murayama, “Arrhythmia” (MORIA Literary Magazine)
• Hema Nataraju, “Tonight” (Atlas and Alice Literary Magazine)
• Elsa Nekola, “Hemiboreal” (Cincinnati Review)
• Darren Nuzzo, “Stranger Disconnected” (Okay Donkey)
• Nuala O'Connor, “Rehearsal” (Lost Balloon)
• Melissa Ostrom, “Red” (Matchbook Literary Magazine)
• Abigail Oswald, “Autopsy Report” (takahē magazine)
• Lee Patterson, “an essay about ghosts” (Milk Candy Review)
• Meghan Phillips, “There's a Trick With a Knife” (Okay Donkey)
• Patrick Pink, “The Book of What If” (Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction)
• Claire Polders, “Stella Is” (The Mambo Academy of Kitty Wang)
• Regan Puckett, “Moon Watching” (FlashFlood)
• Xoşman Qado, “Streets” (Epiphany)
• Dawn Raffel, “City of Serena” (Big Other)
• Angela Readman, “Some Roses Only Need Pepsi” (The Phare)
• Noʻu Revilla, “Myth Bitch” (Anomaly)
• Matthew Richardson, “Foundering” (FlashBack Fiction)
• Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez, “Velcro Shoes” (Lost Balloon)
• Michelle Ross, “Mirrors” (New World Writing)
• C.C. Russell, “med(I)a” (takahē magazine)
• Sarah Salway, “Lilly” (Matchbook Literary Magazine)
• Pete Segall, “Fleas, Markets” (The Adroit Journal)
• Hibah Shabkhez, “Zastrugi” (Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction)
• Shoshauna Shy, “The Anorexic's Mother” (Blink Ink)
• Rachael Smart, “Steep It the Colour of Hedgerows and Two Sugars” (Lunate)
• Grace Q. Song, “The Eternity Berry” (CHEAP POP)
• Andrew Stancek, “Just a Few Facts” (Boston Literary Magazine)
• Samantha Steiner, “My Closet” (Citron Review)
• Chelsea Stickle, “Postcard Town” (Cease, Cows)
• Hannah Storm, “Drosophila Melanogaster” (X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine)
• Jennifer Todhunter, “The Car Tag Kids” (Hobart Pulp)
• Cathy Ulrich, “And I Still Remember How Your Hands Were So Much Larger Than Mine” (Whale Road Review)
• Kara Vernor, “B is for Balls” (Okay Donkey)
• Elisabeth Ingram Wallace, “The Chorus in My Walls” (Okay Donkey)
• Najah Webb, “Ne Plus Ultra” (805 Lit + Art)
• Joyce Ann Wheatley, “When Mother Roasts a Chicken, She Shines” (A3 Review)
• Charmaine Wilkerson, “Far From this Howling” (100 Word Story)
• Evan Williams, “Ted” (HAD)
• Sophia Wilson, “Safe House” (Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction)
• Francine Witte, “A Fingernail is Nothing” (Atticus Review)
• Francine Witte, “It's Ghost Time Again” (Cleaver Magazine)
• RP Wood, “Rejected Endings for Titanic” (Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction)
• Benjamin Woodard, “Other People” (HAD)
• Jennifer Wortman, “Moon Pillow” (Fractured Lit)
• Lucy Zhang, “Code Baby” (Third Point Press)