We’re so pleased to announce that our judge for this year’s Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize will be Daniel Mason, author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, and most recently North Woods, a New York Times bestselling novel, a New York Times and Washington Post Top 10 Book of 2023, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

This year, we’re again partnering with the Tasajillo Residency, an idyllic writing residency that neighbors the Halifax Ranch just outside of Austin in Kyle, Texas. In addition to publication and a $2,500 prize, we are excited to offer the winning writer an all-expenses-paid writing retreat at the Tasajillo’s beautiful cabin.

General Guidelines

— Submit your entry online between April 9, 2024, and June 1, 2024. 

— The winner will receive a $2,500 prize and publication in an upcoming issue of American Short Fiction. In addition, the winner will receive a week-long all-expenses-paid writing retreat (optional—dates TBD) at the Tasajillo Residency, which neighbors the Halifax Ranch just outside of Austin in Kyle, Texas. The residency must be scheduled within a year after the winner is announced. All submitters will receive a copy of the prize issue.

— Please submit your $20 entry fee and your story through Submittable. We no longer accept submissions by post. International submissions in English are eligible. The entry fee covers one 6,500 word fiction submission.

— All entries must be single, self-contained works of fiction, between 2,000-6,500 words. Please DO NOT include any identifying information on the manuscript itself.

— You may submit multiple entries. We accept only previously unpublished work. We do allow simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you notify us promptly of publication elsewhere.

Conflicts of Interest

Staff and volunteers currently affiliated with American Short Fiction are ineligible for consideration or publication. Additionally, students, former students, and colleagues of the judge are not eligible to enter. We ask that previous winners wait three years after their winning entry is published before entering again.

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About Daniel Mason

Daniel Mason is author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent novel, North Woods, was a New York Times Bestseller, a New York Times and Washington Post Top 10 Book of 2023, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.  His writing has been translated into 28 languages, awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his short stories have been selected for Best American Short Stories, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. An assistant professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, his research and teaching interests include the subjective experience of mental illness and the influence of literature, history, and culture on the practice of medicine.

American Short Fiction is grateful to The Burdine Johnson Foundation for their grant in support of this prize.