Flash Flood Winner October 2026 – Bryce Berkowitz
Bryce Berkowitz Leaving Montana for Indiana On a pink-gray highway outside The Badlands near Wall, South Dakota, a Bronco passes in the slow lane, cigarette smoke pours thru its cracked [...]
Flash Flood Winner—Bizzy Coy
Bizzy Coy The Un-alivers There was a deep and narrow gorge in upstate New York where all the millennials came to kill themselves. It started with one man who smashed [...]
Laura O’Gorman Schwartz
Laura O'Gorman Schwartz The Lemon Tree Runner-up for the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Fiction, Judged by Olufunke Grace Bankole I hoisted a lemon tree onto my shopping cart [...]
Emily Uecker
Emily Uecker Prairie Fire Second Runner-up for 2026 American Literary Review Award in Essays, Judged by Ira Sukrungruang On a tallgrass prairie, the majority of the biomass lies below the [...]
Wes Jamison
Wes Jamison Amas Veritas First Runner-up for the American Literary Review Award in Essays, Judged by Ira Sukrungruang The frogs were omen—how, one night, when the moon was only a [...]
Rebecca Hanauer
Rebecca Hanauer In the Absence of Findings Winner of the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Essays, Judged by Ira Sukrungruang Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are extra beats from the [...]
Matt Dhillon – Butt Joint
Matt Dhillon Butt Joint Winner of the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Poetry, Judged by Carl Phillips 1. A joint made by fastening the parts together end-to-end without overlap [...]
Nicole Robinson
Nicole Robinson Here in the After Second Runner-up for the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Poetry, Judged by Carl Phillips We linger at the lake a little longer, try [...]
Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim
Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim A Hymen Tale Winner of the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Fiction, Judged by Olufunke Grace Bankole There is something about returning to a place where [...]
Keana Aguila Labra
Keana Aguila Labra South Bay Cebuano First Runner-Up for the 2026 American Literary Review Award in Poetry, Judged by Carl Phillips Keana Aguila Labra (they/she) is a Cebuana-Tagalog Filipinx poet, [...]
Flash Flood Winner—Nicholas Claro
Nicholas Claro Housekeeping On the phone she said her hotel might be better. “I can’t do the house,” she said. “It’s too intimate and familiar. I left a key at [...]
Flash Flood Winner—Audrey Coldwell
Audrey Coldwell Egg There was a full-grown woman in my omelette today. I hadn’t been expecting her. Hadn’t wanted any more protein for breakfast than a cooked yolk or two—if [...]