“This collection of micro-stories teems with energy and talent. To pick this up and read it is to feel the pulse of our world: the heartbreak, the strangeness, the vast variety of voices and desires, the coming of the future. This is exactly what I want to read.”
Deb Olin Unferth
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)
