By Chidima Anekwe / First Place, 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction /          Though Chioma had been raised Catholic, she never minded...

By Nancy L. Davis / Second Place, 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction /         Perspiration blanketed Lena’s face as she carried two fat...

By Laurie Lathem / Third Place, 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction /           When I go with my girlfriend to the sex shop to buy a...

By Caressa Layne / Fiction /   Turning a light on by the bedside, Etta found her housecoat and shoved one arm through, then the...

By Shelagh Powers Johnson / Fiction / In her more brutal moments, Maeve would say that the wrong child had survived: when the...

By Kristel Chua / Fiction /   In the rearview mirror, Yakima valley resembled a bowl of milk. Clouds swirled in ominous slow-motion,...

By Maggie Riggs / Fiction /   Michael watched his shoes toss shadows down on the dry brown grass beneath the swing set in the...

By Ines Rodrigues / Fiction /   “…for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.” James Baldwin (“Giovanni’s Room”)  ...

By Marla Braverman / Fiction /     “… papers that Israeli officials say were recovered from Hamas command centers show advanced...

By Anthony Lee Head / Fiction / Only moments before, I had been driving towards a fiery ball glowing like a distant beacon on the...

By Eve Newstead / Fiction /   What they don’t tell you is that wedding season lasts years. If Maeve had known, she would have taken...

By Monica L. Woo / Fiction / Born in 1964 in Patterson, New Jersey, Ryan was heir to a welder father and homemaker mother. His parents...

By Alexa Hirst / Fiction / It’s the people inside that make this a home, the cross-stitch on Ava’s wall says. The pink thread words loop...

By Christie Cochrell / Fiction / The sound of angry voices rose up from the road below on Monday morning, Juliana's farmhouse under...

By Paula Brancato / Fiction / Halloween. 10 pm. Tati shows up at my apartment after her frantic call. I didn’t want to call her back,...

By Jeanne Althouse / Fiction / It was the farthest north they had ever been. That this would be their last expedition never crossed...

By José F. Ureña Martínez / Fiction / Raúl scanned his room. The carpet was vacuumed. Both beds were made—his and Diego’s. Clothes and...

By Jenna Bly / First Place, 2024 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction / Montreal, April 2005 The first part ended with a bird and the second part...

By Helen Han Wei Luo / Second Place, 2024 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction / In the dark desert passage between Yilin and Langtougou, I...

By Ber Anena / Third Place, 2024 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction / The boda boda man carrying Owino pulled right up to the main entrance of...

By Carolyn Mikulencak / Fiction / I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters. To you they have shown some truth. When shall we meet...