Announcing Our First Ever Pushcart Prize Nominees!

Hello Coffee Clubbers!

We are excited to announce that, for the first time, The Fictional Café has nominated a handful of our members for a Pushcart Prize. For those who are unfamiliar with Pushcart, they publish an anthology of short stories, essays and poetry from small presses and literary magazines each year—they’ve been doing it since 1976! Small presses and literary magazines can nominate works they’ve published over the course of that given year.

The idea to nominate FC members came to us in early 2020. With the pandemic bearing down on the writing world, we wanted to offer something else to our talented, creative members. Ruth Simon, Michael Piekny and I were throwing around ideas and this one stood out as a perfect way to show just how much we value the work we publish. So without further ado, here are the nominees for 2021.

Sharon L. Dean — “24/7“

Selma Haitembu — Poetry

Gopal Lahiri — Poetry

Paul Negri — “Rat Road“

Robert Pope — “Professor Walker’s Leap of Faith“

Shoshauna Shy — Poetry

Thank you to all our submitters this year! We plan to continue to nominate those we publish each year, so send us your best work. And remember, each work of fiction, poetry or art we publish on FC is considered for our print anthology. Be on the lookout for Volume II in 2022!
– Mike