I've got four spots left! Come join us to discuss "Just Another Family" by @loriostlund.bsky.social and many other wonderful short stories (in person or Zoom options are available). bit.ly/3WrL9B2

One of my favorite mail days of the year! Congratulations to @loriostlund.bsky.social, Madeline Ffitch, Zack Salih, and others included in these pages! I was especially happy to see Jane Kalu’s story “Sickled” from America Short Fiction included, one of my favorites of the past year!

Thank you to Evelyn Ch'ien at @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social for these insightful questions.

Thank you, Washington Post! "Don’t let ARE YOU HAPPY? pass you by: There’s not a word out of place in these brilliant Midwestern sketches. They’re lonesome, for sure . . . But they’re also hilarious."

Join me and Eric Puchner—whose work I have always loved and that includes his brilliant new novel DREAM STATE—as we converse with Nate Brown for the Greedy Reads Lost Weekend Book Festival in Baltimore this weekend--Sunday, June 1, at 11 am.

Join me in Portland, Maine!

Thank you, Leslie, for interesting and fun questions!

Check out prompts at StoryADay, including my prompt about bathrooms!

Thanks, Midge & Shelby!

Big THANK YOU to Lit Hub for featuring "Clear As Cake," one of the stories in ARE YOU HAPPY?, which is out today!

Thank you to Electric Literature for featuring my story "The Gap Year" and to Kristen Arnett, for taking the time to write this generous introduction in the midst of all the fanfare regarding her brand new novel Stop Me If You've Heard This One. My collection is 8 days from launch!

Let's celebrate all day long!

So looking forward to my book launch on May 6 with @ovillalon.bsky.social, fabulous interviewer and editor of @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social, where two of the stories from ARE YOU HAPPY? first found homes.

So grateful to NER for giving my story such a great first home!

Congrats to all the winners of the O. Henry Prize! May all your plot twists be good ones! Here are the winners I found on Bluesky (apologies to anyone I missed): @loriostlund.bsky.social @njanekalu.bsky.social @dsparis.bsky.social @chikaunigwe.bsky.social lithub.com/announcing-t...

1. Every morning, the first thing my wife does is check her texts to make sure that there is something—some word—from our friend, a refugee who is living in terror in Tunisia, where they are once again picking up Sub-Saharan refugees and dumping them in the desert to die or be sold to traffickers.

American caregivers miss as many as 126 million workdays each year, far too many of them unpaid, to care for themselves and their families during illnesses. nyer.cm/lo1juR4

I asked the screening judges for the FOC Prize: What are 2 or 3 things that really grab you about a short story?

Today, the FLANNERY O'CONNOR AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION officially opens for submissions! Link below to guidelines, my statement/advice sheet, & bios of our great screening judges: @shanders.bsky.social, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Iheoma Nwachukwu, @carolrohspaulding.bsky.social @rachh.bsky.social

Seeing, supporting, celebrating!

The countdown to May 6—launch day for ARE YOU HAPPY?—begins...

Join us this Saturday, San Francisco! Or find a HANDS OFF protest in your city.

AWPers: I will talk to 4 writers who have served as screening judges for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction about gleaned insights. Michael Wang, @jennyshank.bsky.social, Hasanthika Sirisena, & @toniannj.bsky.social on Fri, 3/28 at 1:45 in Rm 404AB, Level 2, Conv. Ctr. Description below

I am so excited to announce this year's screening judges for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction! Check out their story collections & prepare to submit your own: Apr 1 - May 31. Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, @shanders.bsky.social, Iheoma Nwachukwu, @carolrohspaulding.bsky.social, Rachel Hall.

I am absolutely thrilled to see Iheoma Nwachukwu's collection, JAPA AND OTHER STORIES, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, on the longlist for the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Story Collections! Congratulations, Iheoma!

So looking forward to this one!

@hughsheehy.bsky.social talks with Iheoma Nwachukwu about his Flannery O'Connor Prize-winning collection JAPA: "japa’s transliteration is “rip an arm off.” To break free so brutally the arm pops out. And emigration can be a violent act. A vicious act of freedom."

STARRED review of ARE YOU HAPPY? Thank you, Kirkus! "These stories are not comfortable worlds to inhabit, but they are precise and endlessly fascinating ones. Ostlund proves herself a master of the form."

B & N has declared today (and tomorrow! and Friday!) ARE YOU HAPPY?-preorder-sale day. To celebrate, see below:

“I wanted to tell her that I was afraid. I was afraid all the time, of not doing the right thing, of not even recognizing what the right thing was, afraid of how hard it was to be in love with someone who always believed the best of you.” “The Bus Driver,” Lori Ostlund, ARE YOU HAPPY? (out May 6)

I'm trying to get to know people over here, SO: who has a book coming out soon? Tell us about it below in ONE sentence, including title, genre, and drop date.

I have loved @andrewporter01.bsky.social's work since I read his very first book back when it won the Flannery O'Connor Award almost 20 years ago. I read everything he writes, and I am here to tell you: THE IMAGINED LIFE, out in April, is amazing. Preorder below.

It is always an honor to be recognized by the NEA, especially on this year, our 40th anniversary. And a big thank you to all of our readers and contributors and donors who allow us to do the work that we do.

Poets and nonfiction writers with projects underway: you have five days left to apply for a Barbara Deming grant!

🎉Happy New Year! Our submission period for 📚 debut novels opens next Saturday 1/11/2025 at 12:01 a.m. PT and stays open until Sun 1/12/2025 at 11:59 p.m. PT. See full guidelines, FAQ, and how to submit your work here: tinhouse.com/book-submiss...

Short story collections that distort, stretch, collapse, and cycle through time to reveal something entirely new (@mlensheffer.bsky.social) electricliterature.com/8-short-story-collections-that-play-with-time

That feeling when your book's not even out yet, but it already made someone's "favorite reads" list...

Two great pieces of news: a new imprint has been launched by University Press of Kentucky: "Dedicated to discovering unique, exceptional, and varied voices within Black literary traditions, the Screen Door Press Imprint will celebrate the very best in fiction across a broad range of categories." 1/2

January is application month at the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund! If you are working on a project in POETRY or NONFICTION, reside in the US or Canada, and write with a feminist lens, consider applying. Grants from $500 to $2000. demingfund.org/apply-pd-11....

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our very first Betty book launch! It was an unforgettable evening with @janishubschman.bsky.social and @loriostlund.bsky.social, filled with amazing questions and insights. Watch the full event on YouTube! www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcC3...

What a strange headline for a story that notes: 1. 2,169 ballots were rejected for no ID. 2. "The voter ID law disproportionately hindered Democrats." 3. "The evidence overwhelmingly shows" that fraud "is essentially nonexistent." 4. The state Supreme Court race was decided by only 625 votes.

Working on a poetry or nonfiction project? Grant applications for the Barbara Deming Fund are accepted in January. Info below.

This is Oscar. He loves short stories also. Here is is with the 2022 Flannery O'Connor Award-winning collection by Carol Roh Spaulding and the 2023 winner by Iheoma Nwachukwu. He highly recommends both of them.

I post about short stories, story collections, and story awards, especially the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction at @ugapress.bsky.social, for which I am the series editor. We open for submissions on April 1st, so start getting your story collections ready! Length: 40,000-75,000 words.

This Wednesday, SF friends!