2022 Nominations
Each year we are privileged to be able to nominate work for anthologies and awards including Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers (Best Debut Short Stories), and the Pushcart Prize. Additionally, we proudly send all eligible work for consideration in the Best American series, including The Best American Essays, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, and The Best American Short Stories, and for consideration in The O. Henry Prize Stories.
Best of the Net
The Best of the Net is an awards-based anthology designed to grant a platform to a diverse and growing collection of writers and publishers who are building an online literary landscape that seeks to break free of traditional publishing. This space has been created to bring greater respect to the continually expanding world of exceptional digital publishing.
Creative Nonfiction
“Like Water Flowing” by April Bradley
“some things I knew by age seven” by Shaina Phenix
Short Fiction
“Graftings” by Stella Lei
“Terrible Things” by Adelina Sarkisyan
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.
Creative Nonfiction
“Thieves” by Beth Kephart
“The Writer” by Matthew Raymond
“Deaf Rage” by Ross Showalter
Short Fiction
“Always with You” by Robert Maynor
“Graftings” by Stella Lei
“Terrible Things” by Adelina Sarkisyan
Best Microfiction
Best Microfiction 2023 will be published by Pelekinesis in the summer of 2023. The Best Microfiction anthology series considers stories of only 400 words or fewer. Coedited by award-winning microfiction writer/editor Meg Pokrass, and Flannery O’Connor Prize-winning author Gary Fincke, the anthology will have Deb Olin Unferth serve as final judge.
Microfiction
Three Very Sad Homos by Shastri Akella
“My Favorite Elvis”
“Less than Samuel”
“Attaboy Louis”
Best Small Fictions
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 microfiction, 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).
Small Fictions
“When It Gets Cold in the South, You Get a Jesus, You Get a Jesus,
Everybody Gets a Goddamn Jesus” by Exodus Oktavia Brownlow
“The Sluagh” by Kendra M. Pintor
“Fangs” by Tara Isabel Zambrano
“Bear” by Ben Loory
“The Life Cycle of Fire” by Rosaleen Lynch
Best of luck to all our nominated contributors and to all contributors whose work will be considered in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories.