Each year in May we celebrate Short Story Month by offering interviews, essays, and original fiction by established authors, all alongside work from emerging writers. In case you missed any of the goodness, here is an easy guide to everything we did last month in our Short Story Month Recap. Enjoy!

FICTION:

• Read Ben Loory’s story “The Candelabra,” a dark little tale that palpably conveys the ways in which we take those we love for granted, down to the smallest detail.
• Science fiction writer Nancy Kress contributed an apocalyptic story titled, “It’s Always The End of The World,” as part of five end-of-the-world stories as we examined the apocalypse in fiction.
• In our first week of Short Story Month, we looked at stories that “hinted” at larger fictions. For Hint Fiction week, we give you six stories you can read in under a minute.
• We love animals in fiction, so we took a focused look at how they appear in our stories: as plot constructions, to set tone, or to add texture. Here we linked to six of our favorite stories by established authors that center around animals.
• New Voices writer Jessica Richardson wrote us an amazing story about a woman who searches for a new home with her best friend… her pet lion. Read “House Hunt” here.

INTERVIEWS:

• Want to learn more about craft? What better way than through those who know it best. Check out this interview with THE DEAD LANDS (and short story writer) Benjamin Percy. “Will this be fun to write? That’s what I wonder. The keyboard is my zoo, my circus, my waterpark, my candy store, my haunted house — I’m so excited to write every day, and I hope that energy carries onto the page.”
• Robert Swartwood is the authority on hint fiction. He discussed the form with editor Sadye Teiser in this interview: “For me, a successful hint fiction story stands by itself. It’s not a first sentence or random sentence plucked out of a much larger work. In many ways, it has a beginning, middle, and end.”
• Daniel Orozco’s short story “Orientation” is a favorite among writers. Masters Review intern Cole Meyer had the opportunity to interview Orozco on this fantastic and beloved story. “I’ve come to believe that there’s no greater arena for high drama than the workplace, whether your job is a grocery bagger or an administrative assistant or a test pilot. Everybody’s got a job, and for most people the workplace is a highly regulated environment—you can’t wear what you want, you can’t eat when you want, and you can’t avoid that guy who drives you absolutely nuts (because you work with him, or because he’s your boss).”

ESSAYS AND DISCUSSIONS:

• Looking for some lit mags with open submissions? Our literary forecast outlines six lit mags with themed submissions that have due dates later this summer.
• Don’t mess up your literary terms. Do you know the difference between apocalyptic, dystopian, and post-apocalyptic?
• Editors Kim Winternheimer and Sadye Teiser continue the discussion of animals in fiction in this online “Editors Discuss.”
• And finally, we announced our Short Story Award for New Writers — an opportunity to win $2000, publication, and agency review by Curtis Brown Literary. SUBMIT NOW!