The Masters Review is proud to announce the thirty stories and essays that have been shortlisted for our thirteenth anthology, Best Emerging Writers. Ten winners from this shortlist will be selected by Gina Chung for inclusion. Our winners will receive a $700 prize, along with publication both in print and, for the first time, online. Congratulations to the thirty writers whose impressive work is honored here, and thank you so much to every single one of our submitters. Winners will be announced in October!
Postictal State by Margaret Adams
Trace Evidence by Darcy Alvey
Medeyork: Memorias de mis Rimas Tristes by Diego Alejandro Arias
Disfigured by Emilie Pascale Beck
Winter’s Barter by Hillary Behrman
Gnats by Mark Bryk
Putting Down the Old Story by Éanlaí P. Cronin
My Own True Name by Vicky Grut
Fermentation by Jacqueline Gu
The Sanchez Sisters and their Quest for Tom, Dick, and Harry by Marilyn Holguin
SeaWorld by Aurora Huiza
Skydiving by Nic Job
Driftwood by Elizabeth Kleinfeld
Excavation by Anita Koester
(Other Mother.) by River Lucero
Intrusive. by Caitlyn McCain
A Mother’s Face is an Atlas That Leads You Home by Howard Meh-Buh
Mace by Keya Mitra
Faoileag by Valerie O’Riordan
In Praise of the Collective Noun by Beth Richards
Never Flourish, Never Die by Taylor Roseweeds
Fruit of My Body by Julia Schneider
May Wentworth by Kerrin Piché Serna
Almost Nineteen by Martha Stallman
Blades of a Feather by Laura Price Steele
Quake by William Thompson
The Wound by Josephine Wu
The Real Boys of Summer by Jillian Weiss
Lizard Skin and the Salvation of a Godly Wife by CM West
Shadow Objects by Sol Xuan Wooten