“These are small, arresting stories that cut right to the heart of the matter, demonstrating that a story well told, no matter how small, expands beyond the
space it inhabits.”
Robert Scotellaro, author of God in a Can and Ways to Read the World
The following stories have been chosen by final judge Deb Olin Unferth to appear in Best Microfiction 2023. Congratulations!
- Shastri Akella, “Attaboy Louis” (CRAFT)
- Christine Arroyo, “El Deliveryboy” (Variety Pack)
- Matt Barrett, “Home” (Flash Frog)
- Matt Barrett, “The Beach” (trampset)
- Janelle Bassett, “From Yoyo” (Wigleaf)
- Patricia Q. Bidar, “Visitacion Valley, 1962” (Ghost Parachute)
- Brett Biebel, “Holy War” (Atlas and Alice)
- Jamy Bond, “Tattoos” (CHEAP POP)
- Diamond Braxton, “A Piece of You” (Stanchion)
- Mathieu Cailler, “Warmer Water” (Flash Frog)
- Tim Craig, “Cat Barbeque” (Atticus Review)
- Tommy Dean, “Knocking” (Alternating Current Press)
- Tommy Dean, “The Romantic Maneuvers of a Tilting Planet” (The Citron Review)
- Teddy Engs, “Dad Paddles In” (trampset)
- Sean Ennis, “That Vasectomy Talk” (Pithead Chapel)
- Epiphany Ferrell, “Everything Depends on the Potato” (Ghost Parachute)
- Epiphany Ferrell, “Jack and Jill’s Final Adventure” (805 Lit + Art)
- Sara Fetherolf, “Via Combusta” (Flash Boulevard)
- Kathy Fish, “A Solid Contribution” (Milk Candy Review)
- Erica Frederick, “To You When You’re Twelve and You Hate Yourself” (Split Lip)
- Jeff Friedman, “My Mother's Dress Shop” (The Fortnightly Review)
- James R. Gapinski, “Karol's Cleaners Will Clean Anything” (Ghost Parachute)
- Diane Gottlieb, “21 Allen Drive” (SmokeLong Quarterly)
- Ryan Griffith, “24 Hour Elevator” (New World Writing Quarterly)
- Tina May Hall, “The Extinction Museum #506: Home Pregnancy Test, c. early 2000s” (Big Other)
- D.E. Hardy, “What We Believed” (FlashBack Fiction)
- Candace Hartsuyker, “When You're The Contortionist” (Cleaver)
- Jeffrey Hermann, “The Deaths of the Great Lakes” (Okay Donkey Magazine)
- Sabrina Hicks, “When the Cowboy Separates the Calves for Tomorrow’s Branding” (Emerge Literary Journal)
- Sabrina Hicks, “Potential” (Stanchion)
- Bruce Johnson, “Breath” (Wigleaf)
- Shelly Jones, “A Field Guide to Prehistoric Motherhood” (Apex Magazine)
- Tucker Leighty-Phillips, “Groceries” (Moon City Review)
- Tucker Leighty-Phillips, “Mr. Boggins” (The Journal)
- Monica Louzon, “9 Dystopias” (Paranoid Tree Press)
- Nicholas Mainieri, “Snapper” (The Cincinnati Review)
- Avra Margariti, “Cure for Tears” (Pidgeonholes)
- Leila Martin, “Grease and Feathers” (Nurture: A Literary Journal)
- Kathleen McGookey, “Workshop” (New World Writing Quarterly)
- Ross McMeekin, “Tusks” (Cease, Cows)
- Frankie McMillan, “The Knife Thrower's Daughter” (The Phare)
- Janna Miller, “What Bones Cary” (Whale Road Review)
- Lynn Mundell, “Chiltepin” (Bending Genres)
- Lynn Mundell, “Centaurs in the Laundromat” (The Disappointed Housewife)
- Elizabeth Maria Naranjo, “Windows” (Fractured Lit)
- Hema Nataraju, “Her Mother, My Mother” (100 Word Story)
- Bishop V. Navarro, “The Fox” (beestung)
- Christopher Notarnicola, “Available in Standard Sizes” (The Baltimore Review)
- Judith Osilé Ohikuare, “Occur” (CHEAP POP)
- Abigail Oswald, “Selected Google Searches Regarding Peter Jackson’s King Kong” (Paranoid Tree Press)
- Pamela Painter, “An Empty Day” (Pangyrus)
- Pamela Painter, “Sorrow Everywhere” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
- Helena Pantsis, “Artificial Autonomy” (Wyldblood (Wyld Flash))
- Meghan Phillips, “The Final Girl Prepares to Watch Her Season of American Horror Story” (Wigleaf)
- Camil Piperni, “rice & sugar” (Paranoid Tree Press)
- Keith J. Powell, “Kindling” (Bending Genres)
- Marzia Rahman, “The Dream He Forgot” (The Antonym)
- Faye Rapoport DesPres, “By the Sea” (The Dribble Drabble Review)
- Leila Renee, “Alight” (Split Lip)
- Maria Robinson, “Laugh Track” (The Forge)
- Michelle Ross, “What I Owned” (Monkeybicycle)
- Michelle Ross, “Squash” (The Forge)
- C.C. Russell, “Luck/History” (takahē)
- Kristina T. Saccone, “Hardy Holds Court at the Corner Store” (Cease, Cows)
- Aureleo Sans, “banana boat” (Ghost Parachute)
- Aureleo Sans, “Stamps” (trampset)
- Jasmine Sawers, “Your Childhood Best Friend Gets Her Hands on Some Questionable Dope” (beestung)
- Slawka G. Scarso, “54.7754° N, 31.7890° E, April of 1940” (FlashBack Fiction)
- Slawka G. Scarso, “Stay as Long as You Need” (CLOVES Literary)
- E.J. Schwartz, “Warmup” (Pithead Chapel)
- Gail Louise Siegel, “What the Mirror Tells You” (MicroLit Almanac)
- Marvin Shackelford, “Long After the Long Ride into the Sunset” (Janus Literary)
- Parth Shah, “My Uncle Lived in the Future” (hex)
- Eric Scot Tryon, “I'm a Honda Odyssey, I'm a Chrysler Voyager” (Whale Road Review)
- Eric Scot Tryon, “Bone on Bone” (Fractured Lit)
- Rebecca Turkewitz, “A Queer Girl’s Guide to Reading Fairy Tales” (The Cincinnati Review)
- Evan Williams, “An Eight Foot Possum” (Heavy Feather Review)
- Evan Williams, “The Circle Is A Part of the Hole” (Heavy Feather Review)
- Francine Witte, “Owen Will Tell You” (Five South)
- Sabina Y. Wong, “Shine in Her Light” (The Citron Review)
- Douglas A. Wright, “Last Time” (Vestal Review)
- Tara Isabel Zambrano, “My Mother Visits Me in America and is Offended by What the Dishwasher Can Do” (Okay Donkey Magazine)
- Lucy Zhang, “Unstable Relationship” (Exposition Review)
