bestmicrofiction 2026
“I know of no better representation of all that’s happening right now with the micro story than the Best Microfiction anthology. What a coming together of voices, energies, experiments, visions. This is not a collection to work through, as a reader. This is a collection to savor.”
Scott Garson, Wigleaf
The following stories have been chosen by final judge Diane Seuss to appear in Best Microfiction 2026. Congratulations!
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soon in bookstores worldwide. Ask for it by name!
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- Amy Allen, “Bad Guy” (Flash Frog)
- Mikki Aronoff, “I Keep Asking My Doctor What to Do About My Problem” (New World Writing Quarterly)
- Andrew Bertaina, “The Shape of Things” (Heavy Feather Review)
- Nick Bertelson, “Mistakes in Cars with Girls” (Wigleaf)
- Mary Biddinger, “Everyone Needs a Bit of Spiritual Devotion” (Whale Road Review)
- Caroline Bock, “Newboy” (The Hopkins Review)
- Amber Burke, “Dark Circles” (Okay Donkey)
- Tom Busillo, “Squirrel On My Back” (Does It Have Pockets)
- Luanne Castle, “Garden Seasons” (MacQueen’s Quinterly)
- Christine H. Chen, “Yellow” (Centaur Lit)
- Amanda Chiado, “My Great-Grandmother Had the Face of a Beast” (Waxwing)
- Chris Clemens, “How We Kept Going” (The Dribble Drabble Review)
- Thora Dahlke, “SPECULAR” (BRUISER)
- Natalie DeVaull-Robichaud, “Done” (The Prose Poem)
- Jose Hernandez Diaz, “The Search” (-ette review)
- Allison Field Bell, “Breasts” (The Hooghly Review)
- Sarah Freligh, “Sweet” (Ghost Parachute)
- Jeff Friedman, “A Note of Delirium” (The Ilanot Review)
- Sandie Friedman, “This Is Josephine” (Wild Roof Review)
- Frances Gapper, “Goodbye, goodbye” (Switch)
- Emma Goldman-Sherman, “The Summer My Mother Remarried” (Boudin)
- Michael Harper, “Homecoming Queen or I Could’ve Been the Queen of France” (Whale Road Review)
- Jeffrey Hermann, “Unimaginable Powers” (The Disappointed Housewife)
- Jeffrey Hermann, “Places Everyone” (Wigleaf)
- Ella Hormel, “Aftershock” (Pithead Chapel)
- L Andrew Huffman, “I WOKE UP DEAD” (Have Has Had)
- Joe Kapitan, “Visitation” (HAD)
- Zach Keali’i Murphy, “Alas!” (Full House Literary)
- L F Khouri, “The Distance We Name” (100 Word Story)
- L F Khouri, “The Map that Leads Nowhere” (SmokeLong Quarterly)
- Ani King, “Feels Like Rain” (Paranoid Tree Press)
- Kathryn Kulpa, “Bent Twigs” (Boudin)
- Kathryn Kulpa, “A Few Words About the Weather” (New Flash Fiction Review)
- Babal Lakghomi, “Fight” (The Cincinnati Review)
- Sydney Lea, “Nostalgia” (Cleaver)
- Matt Leibel, “How to Buy a Snow Globe” (-ette review)
- Christian Lesmes, “Dazed” (Tint Journal)
- Louella Lester, “Opening Drawers” (Rawhead)
- Kik Lodge, “Outside Chuckle and Chew” (Bending Genres)
- Kik Lodge, “Monosyllabic” (Milk Candy Review)
- Andy Lopez, “Funnel Cloud Baby” (Flash Frog)
- Lorette C Luzajic, “Marguerites” (Hot Flash Literary)
- Niamh Mac Cabe, “Peor es Nada” (Fictive Dream)
- Robert McDonald, “Jane Goodall of the Mantid Kingdom” (Gone Lawn)
- Kathleen McGookey, “Eight to Ten Inches by Nightfall” (The Mackinaw)
- Frankie McMillan, “The existential crisis of the bride (a triptych)” (MoonPark Review)
- Heather McQuillan, “Milk Carton Churches” (Rawhead)
- Claudia Monpere, “Morning Stroll” (Gooseberry Pie)
- Jack Morris, “Ernst is coming home” (New Flash Fiction Review)
- Devan Murphy, “The Beginning of the End” (Electric Literature (The Commuter))
- Erin Murphy, “Insomnia Chronicles XXIII” (ONE ART)
- Vic Nogay, “The Great Girl Evaporation of 2022” (Lost Balloon)
- Christopher Notarnicola, “Dysgeusia” (The Baltimore Review)
- Frances Orrok, “Have You Seen Me” (Pithead Chapel)
- Kalliopy Paleos, “The Ghost of the Hyeres Villa Sends the Drifter a Special Greeting” (Rawhead)
- Dawn Raffel, “Circus” (Centaur Lit)
- Samantha Rich, “Things in Threes” (Night Shades)
- Emily Rinkema, “Seventeen” (Flash Boulevard)
- Luke Rolfes, “Little Bluegills” (100 Word Story)
- Michelle Ross, “Long Game” (jmww)
- Tracy Royce, “Sibling Rivalry” (Blink-Ink)
- Marybeth Rua-Larsen, “Wild Turkeys” (Hot Flash Literary)
- Joanna Ruocco, “iDeath” (Big Other)
- Carolyn R. Russell, “The Way Back” (Pictura Journal)
- Carolyn R. Russell, “Summertime, and the Living is Easy” (Vestal Review)
- Samia Saliba, “poem in which I fantasize about taking direct action against my neighbour’s eagle screech motion detector” (ANMLY)
- Chris Scott, “Go Bag” (Milk Candy Review)
- Beth Sherman, “My Mother is the Everglades” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
- Kelli Short Borges, “We Don’t Meet in Buda” (Centaur Lit)
- Cheryl Snell, “Portrait of the Usual Suspects” (Bending Genres)
- L Soviero, “Ferment” (Pithead Chapel)
- Sarp Sozdinler, “Belongings” (100 Word Story)
- Norie Suzuki, “What Do You Mean “You’re Bilingual?” My Therapist Asks” (Emerge Literary Journal)
- Veronica Tucker, “The Waiting Room At The End of the Universe” (Astrolabe)
- Sage Tyrtle, “Playtime” (Milk Candy Review)
- Kyle Weik, “Escape to a Burning Moon” (Variant Lit)
- Rachel Weinhaus, “That’s All the Time We Have” (Moon City Review)
- Mizuki Yamamoto, “Receipt” (Does It Have Pockets)
- Kenton K Yee, “On the 38 Rapid Geary, the Children Know” (Southeast Review)
- Elena Zhang, “Do You Want to Become a Wolf” (Emerge Literary Journal)
- Tina S Zhu, “At the Dentist’s in Arlington Heights” (Centaur Lit)