Autumn House Press Fiction Prize

Amie Whittemore's Nest of Matches is a lavish declaration of the beauty of the natural world, queer identity, and of the imagination set free. Whittemore's third collection explores the complexities of love-romantic, familial, and love for place-and wonders at cycles of life, finding that: "Every habit / even love-strangest / of them all-offers exhaustion / and renewal." Moving seamlessly from meditations on the moon's phases to explorations of dream spaces to searches for meaning through patterns of love and loss, Whittemore's work embodies the mysteries of dichotomies-grief and joy, consciousness and unconsciousness, habit and spontaneity-and how they coexist to create our identities. Throughout the collection, Whittemore reveals how interior nature manifests into exterior habits and how physical landscapes shape the psyche.

His third collection, Noyes writes a novella and stories, focused on how humans interact and destroy the earth.

Glori Simmons's new book, Carry You, is a timely collection of linked short stories that examines how war shapes and distorts our understanding of family, friends, country, and self. Simmons draws out the humanity of her characters, their flaws and failings, their hopes and desires, and their dreams for the future. These stories show that the human capacity for violence, compassion, and love are not bound by time or place.

Not Dead Yet studies the uncertainties of loss, turning a gaze toward the often-silenced voices of the infirm, elderly, and adolescent. Rich in humor and honesty, Hadley Moore's debut collection of short stories presents a contemporary set of narratives from a lush cast of characters. We find the protagonists of her stories tenderly revealing their pain after the loss of loved ones and coping with the voids left by the passing of youth, happiness, and fulfillment. https://youtu.be/1fK95ztQVdM. Thanks to Madville Publishing for including the story in their anthology!

In his debut short story collection, Pitt pulls his characters from the background, eschewing convention and facing the ironies and difficulties of life in the twenty-first century.

Salvatore Pane's The Neorealist in Winter is a collection of eleven short stories that explore what it means to be human in an age of media oversaturation. Utilizing methods of speculative, historical, and postmodern storytelling, Pane grapples with legacies of immigration, poverty, toxic masculinity, and moral failures, while focusing on working-class issues, family drama, and PTSD. Following eleven Italian narrators, Pane builds a cast of cinematic characters across disparate times and places-a struggling director attends a house party in the la dolce vita of 1960s Rome, gangsters chase a low-level lottery runner in coal valley Scranton, a woman contemplates experimental surgery to purge memories of her childhood trauma in Minnesota, and a pro wrestling promoter descends into self-denial through his autobiography.

In her debut story collection, Shields unveils the truth behind every monster.

Wendy Wimmer's debut short story collection, Entry Level, contains a range of characters who are trying to find, assert, or salvage their identities. These fifteen stories center around the experience of being underemployed-whether by circumstance, class, gender, race, or other prevailing factors-and the toll this takes on an individual. Wimmer pushes the boundaries of reality, creating funny, fantastic, and at times terrifying stories. Her characters undergo feats of endurance, heartbreak, and loneliness, all while trying to succeed in a world that so often undervalues them. From a young marine biologist suffering from imposter syndrome and a haunting to a bingo caller facing another brutal snowstorm and a creature that may or not be an angel, Wimmer's characters are all confronting an oppressive universe that seemingly operates against them or is, at best, indifferent to them. These stories reflect on the difficulties of modern-day survival and remind us that piecing together a life demands both hope and resilience. https://youtu.be/UVU-CVPZD78.

This debut novel tells the story of nine-year-old Raymond, nicknamed "Ray Moon" by Molly, his adoptive caretaker, a waitress, and the former partner of his recently deceased uncle. These two outcasts rely on one another for survival, and their bond forms the heart of this book. Living in a trailer atop a mesa in the high desert of New Mexico in 1968, Raymond ages quickly amid hostile circumstances. With the help of a keen imagination that Molly inspires, he navigates various forms of loss and exploitation amid enduring hardship. Kevin Honold's deft and trance-like prose is interspersed with sharp insights and brings attention to the displacement of Native Americans, the hardships of capitalism, the ills of misogyny, and the raw hurt of living a displaced or marginalized life. This is a story of endurance, memory, and unceasing change.

The debut collection of short stories by Kathy Anderson. Darkly funny, these stories explore gender, sexuality, and family dynamics.

Andrew Bourelle's novel, Heavy Metal, gives us a glimpse into the life of Danny, a teenager who seeks peace and stability after the suicide of his mother.

In this first story collection, Gerkensmeyer crafts broken fairy tales that re-imagine the life of women.

Steeped in a long history of violence and suffering, Michael X. Wang's debut collection of short stories interrogates personal and political events set against the backdrop of China that are both real and perceived, imagined and speculative. Wang plunges us into the fictional Chinese village of Xinchun and beyond to explore themes of tradition, family, modernity, and immigration in a country grappling with its modern identity. Further News of Defeat is rich with characters who have known struggle and defeat and who find themselves locked in pivotal moments of Chinese history-such as World War II and the Tiananmen Square massacre-as they face losses of the highest order and still find cause for revival.