Anthology & Award Selections
Wigleaf Top 50
“The Final Wish” by Umi Agawa
Best Small Fictions 2025
“A Trip to the Moon” by Nina Schuyler
Flash Fiction Magazine Contest Winners
Learn More about Our Contest Here
First Place Winners ($500)
- “The Dog Is Dead on the Floor” by Bev Craddock
- “The Butterfly Effect” by Elana Lavine
- “The Woman Who Kept Bees in Her Mouth” by Allison Zhang
- “Lee Aeronautics” by Indigo Rue
- “Dust” by Laurie Knapp
- “The Dead Don’t Get Detention” by Dana
- “Forget Jacob Davis” by Jaime
- “Memorials” by Irene Westcott
- “An Incident at the Dancing Badger” by M.W. Irving
- “The Robin’s Lament” by Amy Gozelski
- “The Inevitable Recipe for Solace” by Michele Wong
- “The Golden Boy” by Mike Magluilo
- “Hoarder” by Tim Hanson
- “Last Seconds” by Jack Zaccaro
- “He Opens One More Door” by Andrea Goyan
- “Exterminating Angel” by Kathryn Kulpa
- “Boys” by Jody M. Keene
- “Regular John” by Dustin Walker
- “Here We Are” by Robyn Allers
- “Dandelion Ghosts” by Jen Knox
- “Ballad of the Wren” by Luis Garcia Romero
Second Place Winners ($300)
- “The Not-So-Dead-Man Caper” by M D Smith IV
- “Seaweed and Shell” by Alexis Somerville
- “Salt Under Her Nails” by Susmita Mukherjee
- “Love, Death, and Tetris” by R. F. Foxfire
- “Equinox” by Michael Kozart
- “The Ink Dries on All Life Stories” by Jaime Gill
- “School Day” by Jamie Ogden
- “Firstcomer” by Alex Terrell
- “A Trip to the Moon” by Nina Schuyler
- “A Necessary Rebellion” by Natalie J. Chan
- “A Country of Feathers and Scars” by Santiago Márquez Ramos
- “Questions to Ask Adela” by Yuvi Zalkow
- “Compass” by Danny Menter
- “Compromise” by Michael Gigandet
- “Bertha’s Big Break” by Hannah Sears
- “We Are the Welcoming Committee” by Tracy Neiman
- “Hock” by Michael Kozart
- “How I Learned to Read” by Kathryn Kulpa
- “The Night Chisel” by Phoebe Brueckner
- “Spanish Ham & Cigarettes” by Annie Kuster
- “A Childhood Ago” by Amanda White
Third Place Winners ($200)
- “Horse Girl” by Jordan Nishkian
- “The Angel of Clement Says Fuck You” by Sidharta Muskat
- “Leading Man” by Haline Gregory
- “The Woman Who Forgets to Be Alive” by Meredith Alder
- “A Night Out in the Water Wars” by Abby Gleason
- “Dead” by Hope K. Martin
- “Someone Else’s Penguin” by Manu St. Thomas
- “Patchwork” by Laurel Streed
- “Figments of Her Imagination” by Debra A. Daniel
- “Elisabeth and the Bench Heron” by Lisa Lange
- “Wolves” by Marina Richards
- “Secondhand Emotion” by Geneviève Goggin
- “Conservation” by Pamela Zero
- “Ruin” by M. J. Bekelian
- “Clown Shoes” by Michael Kozart
- “The History Shop” by Mathew Channer
- “Just a Girl” by Kait Leonard
- “Don’t Move” by Barbara Ridley
- “Donuts; A Piece of an Image or an Image of a Piece” by C.A. Coffing
- “Mathieu” by Stephanie Grella
- “Kettlebell Kate and Handsome Jake” by Elisabeth Giffin Speckman
Pushcart Prize Nominations
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, which was established in 1976, showcases a selection of poetry, short stories, and nonfiction in its annual publication. The included works are selected from those nominated by magazine and book editors.
2025
- “River-Born” by Tunvey Mou
- “Reclaimed” by Leo Johnson (👉🏼 What Makes this Story Exceptional)
- “Saturated Mud” by Evan Burkin (👉🏼 What Makes this Story Exceptional)
- “Brain Aneurysm Kills Boy in Beauty Salon” by Rob Reynolds (👉🏼 What Makes this Story Exceptional)
- “Progress” by Stefan Sofiski
- “Ex Cinere” by Christine Cohen
2024
- “Bloom” by Rosie Gailor
- “Cheerio So” by Gary Finnegan
- “Fogbow” by Dana Brewer Harris
- “What You Cannot Hold” by Michele Moseley
- “Praying to the Aliens” by Adara Schwartz
- “The Shot” by Andrea Rinard
2023
- “Worms” by Ruby Gaffney
- “The Chair” by Jordan Abbruzzese
- “My Brother” by Jessica Bryan
- “Jellyfish” by Jamie Holland
- “Trigger” by Angela Gilbert
2021
- “Becoming Roadkill” by James Cato
- “Candy Eucharist” by Michelle Bellman
- “Falling” by C.A. Coffing
- “Growing Season” by Molly Weisgrau
- “Mall, 2004” by Alice Martin
- “The Night Chisel” by Phoebe Brueckner
2020
- “The Big Ear: A Cautionary Tale” by Mary Roher-Dann
- “Everyone Needs a Little Granny” by Anne Howkins
- “How to Keep from Sinking” by Jan Alexander
- “A Childhood Ago” by Amanda White
- “Ballad of the Wren” by Luis Garcia Romero
- “Promises” by Suzanne C Martinez
2019
- “Birds of Prey” by Coco Mellors
- “A Chicago Story” by Megan Catana
- “Eden” by Allison King
- “In Other Words” by Liz Hufford
- “Luigia and Saint Francis” by Nathan Bogart
- “A Lesson on the Properties of Life” by Patrick Lind
Best Small Fiction Nominations
2026
- “The Bones We Never Fully Bury” by Annie ZH Sun
- “In Case of Emergency” by Kim Bundy
- “Mackerel” by Emmelie Cora
- “Caught” by Jeanne-Marie Fleming
- “1969” by Dallon Robinson
2025
- “Irreplaceable” by Fiona Murray (👉🏼 What Makes this Story Exceptional)
- “Unchoreographed” by Anne Georg (👉🏼 What Makes this Story Exceptional)
- “Bruised Chrysanthemums” by Autumn Bettinger
- “Notes from Underground (A Cancer Cell’s Manifesto)” by Dana Wall
- “Pjeshkë (Peach)” by Alyssa Cami
2023
- “Hush” by Jessica Klimesh
- “Exposition” by Josje Weusten
- “Not Pink” by Angélica Pina Lèbre
- “A Brief History of a Cat” by Aidan O’Donoghue
- “Dig Two Graves” by Charlotta Majithia
2022
- “This Is the Room” by Finnian Burnett
- “The Rain in My Chest” by Marissa Meche
- “All The Things They Couldn’t Hand Back” by Emma Phillips
- “As Told at the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas” by Maxwell Radwin
Best of the Net Nominations
2025
- “Unloading” by Emily Rinkema
- “A Taste of Lime and Honey” by Jenny Williams
Best Micro Fiction Nominations
2025
- “Nancy” by Ellen Comley (👉🏼 What Makes this Story Exceptional)
Editor’s Choice Award ($1000)
- “Mall, 2004” by Alice Martin (2021)
- “Hot Pink” by Susan Mockler (2020)
