Winners, Finalists, Semifinalists Announcement

 On announcing that Stuart Dybek would join Series
Editor Tara L. Masih as this year’s Guest Editor, we
promised that The Best Small Fictions 2016 would
offer “the same excitement and depth as the first”
volume.
Without the many journals and presses that
nominated their writers, as well as the writers
themselves who poured so very much onto the
page, we wouldn’t be able to say that we feel
we’ve made good on our pledge.
We have to thank Assistant Editors Michelle Elvy and
Clare MacQueen, and our expert roving editors who
read countless stories: Michael Cocchiarale, Tara
Laskowksi, and Mary Slechta. Consulting editors X.J.
Kennedy, Michael Martone, Dawn Raffel, Motoyuki
Shibata and James Thomas assisted Tara Masih in
narrowing down hundreds of eligible stories. Finally,
our greatest thanks goes to Stuart Dybek for
selecting 45 exceptional stories from 100 finalists.
Overall, thousands were narrowed down to the list
below. So it is with great pleasure that we give you
the winners, finalists, and semifinalists of the
October-releasing Best Small Fictions 2016:
WINNERS
Amir Adam, “The Physics of Satellites” (One Throne Magazine)
Daniel Aristi, “Tempus Fugit” (SAND)
Tina Barry, “Going South” (from Mall Flower, Big Table Publishing Co.)
Paul Beckman, “Healing Time” (from Peek, Big Table Publishing Co.)
Laurie Blauner, “The Unsaid” (The Collagist)
John Brantingham, “The California Water War” (Tahoma Literary Review)
Alberto Chimal, “The Waterfall” (trans. George Henson, from Flash Fiction International, Norton)
Justin Lawrence Daugherty, “A Thing Built to Fly Is Not a Promise” (Pithead Chapel)
Toh EnJoe, from “Twelve Twitter Stories” (trans. David Boyd, Monkey Business International)
Grant Faulkner, “The Toad” (from Fissures, Press 53)
Grant Faulkner, “Way Station” (from Fissures, Press 53)
Kathy Fish, “A Room with Many Small Beds” (from Rift, Unknown Press)
Rosie Forrest, “Bless This Home” (from Ghost Box Evolution in Cadillac, Michigan, Rose Metal Press)
Megan Giddings, “Reunion” (PANK)
Megan Giddings, “Goodbye, Piano” (matchbook lit mag)
Amelia Gray, “These Are the Fables” (from Gutshot, FS&G)
Charles Hansmann, “Camouflage” (from KYSO Flash Anthology of Haibun and Tanka, KYSO)
Britt Haraway, “Papa, Too” (Great Weather for Media)
Mary-Jane Holmes, “Trifle” (The Tishman Review)
Laird Hunt, “Star Date (Avant-History)” (Monkey Business International)
A. Nicole Kelly, “Milk Teeth” (Fiction Southeast)
James Kennedy, “World's Worst Clown” (SmokeLong Quarterly)
Etgar Keret, “The Story, Victorious” (trans. Nathan Englander, from Flash Fiction International, Norton)
R. O. Kwon, “Hey” (NOON)
Nathan Leslie, “A New Cycle” (from Root and Shoot, Texture Press)
Paul Lisicky, “Modernism” (from Shale, Texture Press)
Eliel Lucero, “The Herald” (Great Weather for Media)
Nancy Ludmerer, “First Night” (River Styx)
Melissa Manning, “Woodsmoke” (Overland)
Michael Martone, “In the Ditch, Minnesota I-35 . . .” (Quarter After Eight)
Elizabeth Morton, “Parting” (SmokeLong Quarterly)
David Naimon, “Past a Roar Completed” (Fiction International)
Jessica Plante, “Natural Disaster” (SmokeLong Quarterly)
Dianca London Potts, “Mama's Comb” (Obsidian)
Dawn Raffel, “Conductivity” (Tammy)
James Reidel, “Black Out” (Fiction Southeast)
Sophie Rosenblum, “Strawberry Festival” (PRISM International)
Caitlin Scarano, “Pitcher of Cream” (Conium Press)
Vincent Scarpa, “Easter, 1991” (NANO Fiction)
Robert Scotellaro, “Bug Porn” (from What We Know So Far, Blue Light Press)
Courtney Sender, “The Solidarity of Fat Girls” (American Short Fiction)
Janey Skinner, “Carnivores” (KYSO Flash)
Curtis Smith, “Illusion” (Moon City Review)
Robert Vaughan, “A Box” (from Rift, Unknown Press)
Clio Velentza, “Midsummer Gothic” (Hermeneutic Chaos)
FINALISTS
Gareth David Anderson, “So Much” (Blue Monday Review)
Fay Aoyagi, “Confession” (Modern Haiku)
Britt Ashley, “Film Adaptation of a Love Scene from My Unread Copy of Wuthering Heights” (Juked)
Andy Bailey, “Cellar” (Hermeneutic Chaos)
Lauren Becker, “Form and Line” (Journal of Compressed Arts)
Annie Bilancini, “The House of Schiaparelli” (The Collagist)
Ali Brennan, “Feamainn” (Banshee)
Gerri Brightwell, “My Promotion” (Cleaver Magazine)
Jonathan Cardew, “The Season for Persephone” (Flash Frontier)
Kim Chinquee, “Touch Me” (100 Word Story)
Lisa J. Cihlar, “O Baptism, Sings the River” (from Shale, Texture Press)
James Claffey, “Hardscrabble” (Thrice Fiction)
Sheldon Lee Compton, “These Falling Stars” (Blue Five Notebook)
Kathy Fish, “A Proper Party” (from Rift, Unknown Press)
Rosie Forrest, “Where We Off To, Lulu Bee?” (from Ghost Box Evolution in Cadillac, Michigan,
Rose Metal Press)
Vanessa Gebbie, “Three Stages in Learning to Fly” (from Ed’s Wife and Other Creatures,
Liquorice Fish Books)
Amelia Gray, “On a Pleasant Afternoon, Every Battle Is Recalled” (from Gutshot, FS&G)
Carol Guess and Kelly Magee, “With Human” (from With Animal, Black Lawrence Press)
Re'Lynn Hansen, “The Ghost Horse” (from To Some Women I Have Known,
White Pine Press’s Marie Alexander Series)
Aubrey Hirsch, “Afterbirth” (Booth Journal)
Tamsin Hopkins, “Death by Kissing” (Neon)
Jennifer A. Howard, “The Big Rip” (New South Journal)
Sabrina Huang, “There Is Nothing to Bind Our Hearts Together” (trans. Jeremy Tiang,
Read Paper-Republic)
Gail Ingram, “Whispers” (Flash Frontier)
M. J. Iuppa, “641” (Nanoism)
Elizabeth Kerlikowske, “Reading Maps” (from The Female Complaint, Shade Mountain Press)
Julia LaSalle, “Helmet Shell” (Monkeybicycle)
Nathan Leslie, “The Miniaturist” (from Root and Shoot, Texture Press)
Kristie Letter, “Late July, Clover Lick, West Virginia” (Tahoma Literary Review)
Henry Wei Leung, “Getting There” (Cha: An Asian Literary Journal)
Fiona Lincoln, “Long Shadows” (Flash Frontier)
Bob Lucky, “The Current Situation” (from KYSO Flash Anthology of Haibun and Tanka, KYSO)
Ilana Masad, “In a World Gone Mad” (One Throne Magazine)
Jamey McDermott, “A Brief Dispatch on Proper Expectation Management” (The First Line)
Frankie McMillan, “The House on Riselaw Street” (Flash Frontier)
Christopher Merkner, “Up To and Including Our Limits” (Hotel Amerika)
Sabine Miller, “Keeping Cool” (Mariposa)
Geoffrey Miller, “The Belvedere: Iquitos” (defenestrationism)
David Morris, “Consumption” (Monkeybicycle)
Valerie Nieman, “Hotel Worthy” (from Hotel Worthy, Press 53)
Chris Okum, “To Keep the Dark Away” (Camroc Press Review)
Lisa Prince, “things found in rain puddles” (from Shale, Texture Press)
Doug Ramspeck, “Dog Memories” (Cleaver Magazine)
Ryan Ridge and Mel Bosworth, “Where the Doors Went” (from Camouflage Country, Queen’s Ferry Press)
Katey Schultz, “Paddy, the Albino” (KYSO Flash)
Amy Shearn, “2025” (People Holding)
T. L. Sherwood, “Pretty Changes” (Jellyfish Review)
Aaron Sommers, “Real Numbers” (Word Riot)
Kelly Stark, “Ceremony” (Corium)
Daniel Uncapher, “Infestation Miracles” (Neon)
Robert Vivian, “Last Minute Contributor” (Duende)
Deborah Walker, “Ghost Nebula” (from (AFTER)life: Poems and Stories of the Dead, Purple Passion Press)
Anne Elizabeth Weisgerber, “Sleeping Beauty: Markson Fangirl” (Tahoma Literary Review)
Will White, “The Secret Underground Tooth Economy of Boston” (Strangelet Journal)
Diane Williams, “Specialist” (Granta)
SEMIFINALISTS
Annabel Banks, “Payment to the Universe” (matchbook lit mag)
Damyanti Biswas, “Picasso Dreams” (Bath Flash Fiction Award)
Ron Currie, Jr., “Cross Your Fingers God Bless” (Wigleaf)
John Englehardt, “This Is Great but You Don't Need It” (Conium Press)
Elliott Freeman, “When I Was Afraid of My Grandfather's Skin” (Blue Monday Review)
Lydia Copeland Gwyn, “Recipe” (Hermeneutic Chaos)
Mercedes Lawry, “Was there transposition?” (Cleaver Magazine)
Joshua Robert Long, “Occasional Self-Portrait, Part II” (The Harpoon Review)
Kelly Luce, “Outside” (NANO Fiction)
Sarah Hulyk Maxwell, “Whales in Minnesota” (NANO Fiction)
Marion Michell, “Cuffs and Collars” (SAND)
Samantha Murray, “Portrait of My Wife as a Boat” (Flash Fiction Online)
Ethel Rohan, “Dark Stars” (from Winesburg, Indiana)
Robert Scotellaro, “Weights and Measures” (from What We Know So Far, Blue Light Press)
Annesha Sengupta, “No More Broken Bones” (Pithead Chapel)
David Swann, “Children of Dirt and Thunder” (from Stronger Faster Shorter,
Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press)
Rachael Thomas, “Easter Sunday (triptych)” (Journal of Compressed Arts)
Dorothy (Hiu Hung) Tse, “Bridges” (trans. Nicky Harman, Read Paper-Republic)
Chris Tusa, “Winter Wonderland” (Corium)
Deb Olin Unferth, “The Walk” (NOON)