bestmicrofiction 2025

The following stories have been chosen by final judge Dawn Raffel to appear in Best Microfiction 2025. Congratulations!

• Mikki Aronoff, “Crossing Margo's Larder Off your Bucket List” (The Illanot Review)
• Steve Almond, “Communio Sanctorum” (Vestal Review)
• Nin Andrews, “I Ask My Doctor to Pray for Me” (Plume Poetry)
• Amy Barnes, “The Princess of Tides” (Literary Namjooning)
• Andrew Bertaina, “Moonlit Fields” (Literary Namjooning)
• Guy Biederman, “Rosetta Post-Its” (New Flash Fiction Review)
• Shlagha Borah, “Umami” (ANMLY)
• Kelli Short Borges, “It Was a Year” (Fictive Dream)
• Timothy Boudreau, “Bug Facts” (FlashFlood)
• Angelita Lapuz Bradney, “Shape-shifting for beginners” (Emerge Literary Journal)
• Leone Brander, “When the Dog Died” (Wigleaf)
• Nicole Brogdon, “Dangling Over the Sea” (Whale Road Review)
• Melissa Llanes Brownlee, “The Devil You Don't Know” (The Ilanot Review)
• Kati Bumbera, “Afterlife for Rent” (Does It Have Pockets)
• Laton Carter, “Clara Schumann Washing Dishes” (Salamander)
• Christine H. Chen, “Where Is Home” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
• Christine H. Chen, “Mary” (The Ilanot Review)
• Kim Chinquee, “Breaking Bread” (Ghost Parachute)
• Hayli May Cox, “Somewhere, Deep inside her Lacrimals, Something is Blocking Cora’s Tears” (Lookback Window Genres)
• Tim Craig, “Pet Shop Boys” (New Flash Fiction Review)
• Karen Crawford, “Stuck” (Flash Boulevard)
• Barbara Diggs, “Questions The Caseworker Should Have Asked After My Ex Accused Me of Neglect” (The Disappointed Housewife)
• Dara Yen Elerath, “The Tired Daughter” (Waxwing)
• Patricia Engel, “Lookback Window” (Aster(ix))
• Federico Escobar, “Self-Portrait in the Time of Disaster” (Sad Girl Diaries)
• Alexis Rhone Fancher, “Cruel Choices” (The Mackinaw)
• Grant Faulkner, “Plotting” (Boudin)
• Epiphany Ferrell, “I Fell in Love with a Caveman” (Wigleaf)
• Sarah Freligh, “Seawatchers” (Pithead Chapel)
• Jeff Friedman, “Sleepwalking” (Wigleaf)
• Avital Gad-Cykman, “You're Safe” (The Ilanot Review)
• Emma Goldman-Sherman, “Appetites” (NUNUM)
• Ryan Griffith, “Anya Underground” (Peatsmoke Journal)
• Mary Grimm, “Mother Teaches Us to Play Tennis at Brookside Park” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
• Mary Grimm, “Open the Door” (Apple Valley Review)
• Stella Hayes, “Luda, The Girl Who Was My Best Friend” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
• David Henson, “A Memory of Dreams, A Dream of Memories” (Bright Flash Literary Review)
• Suzanne Hicks, “Vandals” (matchbook)
• Lindsay Hill, “Motel Radio” (New England Review)
• Richard Holinger, “Mars” (Midway Journal)
• Vanessa Hua, “Forecast” (Split Lip Magazine)
• Katie Humphries, “Empty Nest” (Tahoma Literary Review)
• Ingrid Jendrzejewski, “Spent” (Everyday Fiction)
• Jonathan Johnson, “Newlyweds” (Glacier)
• Jessica Klimesh, “The Day I Went Missing” (Gooseberry Pie)
• Kathryn Kulpa, “Mushrooms” (Centaur Lit)
• Kathryn Kulpa, “Settle” (Dirtbag)
• Matt Leibel, “How to Become an Auctioneer” (matchbook)
• Richard Leise, “Of Ducks” (jmww)
• Jenny M. Liu, “Baby on the Verge” (jmww)
• Melanie Maggard, “What I Can't See” (The Citron Review)
• J.W. McCollum, “CDEFGA” (Pithead Chapel)
• Kathleen McGookey, “Without You” (MacQueen's Quinterly)
• Marie-Louise McGuinness, “When She Falls” (Milk Candy Review)
• Joshua McKinney, “The Poet at Twilight” (MoonPark Review)
• Frankie McMillan, “Separation” (Landfall 248)
• Skyler Melnick, “Two Girls” (HAD)
• Dawn Miller, “The Wives” (Milk Candy Review)
• Claudia Monpere, “River” (Emerge Literary Journal)
• Lynn Mundell, “Valuables” (New World Writing Quarterly)
• Will Musgrove, “Laugh Track” (The Cincinnati Review)
• Catherine Ogston, “The End of the World Comes While You Are Singing Acapella in a Room Full of Strangers” (The Phare)
• Pamela Painter, “I Have Lied to You” (10 by 10)
• Angeline Schellenberg, “Screentime” (Vast Chasm)
• Nina Schuyler, “Outside” (Ghost Parachute)
• Robert Scotellaro, “Forest Nuns in the Wild” (South Florida Poetry Journal)
• Parth Shah, “Defpotec” (Wigleaf)
• Cheryl Snell, “The Incident” (The Ekphrastic Review)
• Chelsea Stickle, “Our First Night Together” (Identity Theory)
• Charisse J. Tubianosa, “Tikbalang” (The Offing)
• Cathy Ulrich, “the girl goes” (Centaur Lit)
• Karen Walker, “The Meaning of Words Unknown to Doug” (Does It Have Pockets)
• Sheree Winslow, “Christmas Markets, Strasbourg, France” (The Masters Review)
• Francine Witte, “Where Did You Go?” (The Mackinaw)
• Jenny Wong, “Fish Soup” (Identity Theory)
• Didi Wood, “Woolworth” (Gooseberry Pie)
• Janaya Young, “Invisible Roads” (matchbook)
• Tara Isabel Zambrano, “Manual for an American Novice in a Small Indian Town” (Centaur Lit)
• Tara Isabel Zambrano, “Once in our home in Agra, the monsoon was over” (Your Impossible Voice)
• Addison Zeller, “Holothurian” (The Disappointed Housewife)
• Elena Zhang, “Three Hearts to Love Myself” (Lost Balloon)