I offer a gigantic thank you to our wonderful Guest Selecting Editor Andrew Porter. He is the author of five books, including the forthcoming short story collection The Letters (Knopf, 2027). His other books include the short story collections The Theory of Light and Matter (Vintage), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and The Disappeared (Knopf), which was longlisted for The Story Prize and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and the novels In Between Days (Knopf), which was a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection, and The Imagined Life (Knopf), which was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and selected as one of the "Best Books of the Year" by The New Yorker, NPR, and Esquire. He is currently a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Trinity University in San Antonio. Truly, an honor to have Andrew Porter select the Wigleaf Top 50 this year.

In the ever-vibrant arena of flash fiction, writers produced an astonishing treasure trove of stories this year, which means putting together a longlist was challenging. Many, many thanks to the Wigleaf reading team, for going through many, many journals, for the dedication, effort and time they put into this endeavor — all for their love of short fiction. Grateful thanks to Associate Editors, Alice Maglio, Colleen Rothman, Ruth Joffre and Vincent Chavez. Much gratitude also to our Readers, Latoya Jordan, Sacha Bissonette, Anne Weisgerber, Jenee Skinner, Erica Williams, Kate Tooley, Casey Hannan, Sean Lovelace, Will Musgrove, Kelli Short Borges, Srilatha Rajagopal, Patricia Bidar, Mario Aliberto and Nina Miller.

And to the person who makes this celebration of flash fiction possible, Wigleaf Editor, Scott Garson, thank you for your vision, for this opportunity to put together a list of marvellous stories every year.

This is my first year as Series Editor and I am simply awed by the staggering wealth of talent in the flash writing community, so many writers, so many venues, so many luminous stories. Thank you for your writing, for your words, for your worlds.


— Sudha Balagopal

Sudha Balagopal's collection, Family Matters, is forthcoming from Santa Fe Writers Project in 2027.


Top 50 art and design on main page by Levin Garson.









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