2023 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.
Prose Poetry
“How to Write About the Body” by Ceridwen Hall
“(up to now separately)” by KC Trommer
“All the Women I Know (Sandra, Dani, Roma, Alex)” by Christine Hume and Laura Larson
Creative Nonfiction
“What I Do and Don’t Remember from the Days and Nights of Endlessly Smoking Crack and Shooting Heroin” by Christian Bodney
“Home Like This” by Amanda Whitehurst
Fiction
“Here and There and Everywhere” by Robert Herbst
“Costumes” by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala
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
“This Shattering” by Wiam El-Tamami
“What I Do and Don’t Remember from the Days and Nights of Endlessly Smoking Crack and Shooting Heroin” by Christian Bodney
“On Possessing a Body” by Lotte Mitchell Reford
Short Fiction
“Costumes” by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala
“The Ten Deaths of Mrs. Haverhill’s Second-Grade Class” by Sam Berman
“Cillian” by Janey Tracey
Best Microfiction
Best Microfiction 2024 will be published by Pelekinesis in the summer of 2024. 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 Grant Faulkner serve as final judge.
“Sibling Parenting” & “Father’s Day” by Shih-Li Kow
“Sacrament,” “Living on Stilts,” & “Oh my god your voice sounds so haole” by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
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 ninth year of existence, Best Small Fictions features the best microfiction, flash fiction, haibun stories, and prose poetry from around the world.
Originally founded by Tara L. Masih, Best Small Fictions is now steered by series editor Nathan Leslie, who has served in this role since 2019. Guest editors have included Pulitzer Prize-winner 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), PEN/Faulkner-nominee Rilla Askew (2019), Sonder Press operator Elena Stiehler (2020), PEN/Bingham Prize-winner Rion Amilcar Scott (2021), Bridport Prize-winner Elaine Chiew (2022), and People’s Book Prize-winner Catherine McNamara (2023). The 2024 guest editor will be selected soon!
“There Are Hundreds of Beautiful Asian Women Waiting to Meet You” by Tessa Yang
“The Replacement” by Paul Rousseau
“Penny, Barbara, Ruth, Irene” by Amy Grote
Best of luck to all our nominated contributors and to all contributors whose work will be considered for The Best American Essays, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories.