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Eleven Stories: The Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize Shortlist Selection 2025
One of our most exciting selections yet, our 2025 shortlist covers a spectrum of experimental and boundary pushing fiction.
From a Faulknerian river story to the lushest, queerest body horror — from cross-country feminist malaise to cross-border love — prophets, mothers, labourers — a tedious apocalypse, post-capitalist hope — these eleven stories are brimming with magic, longing, and humour.
Including work by:
Shastri Akella (WINNER), Swithun Cooper (RUNNER-UP), Alisha Dietzman (RUNNER-UP), Chloe Agar, Sohini Basak, Shelley Hastings (EU SALON PRIZE), Miguel Arroyo, Matthew Kinlin, Iseult de Mallet Burgess, Fox McGlasson, and Juan Fernando Villagómez (DL RESIDENCY PRIZE)
From a Faulknerian river story to the lushest, queerest body horror — from cross-country feminist malaise to cross-border love — prophets, mothers, labourers — a tedious apocalypse, post-capitalist hope — these eleven stories are brimming with magic, longing, and humour.
Including work by:
Shastri Akella (WINNER), Swithun Cooper (RUNNER-UP), Alisha Dietzman (RUNNER-UP), Chloe Agar, Sohini Basak, Shelley Hastings (EU SALON PRIZE), Miguel Arroyo, Matthew Kinlin, Iseult de Mallet Burgess, Fox McGlasson, and Juan Fernando Villagómez (DL RESIDENCY PRIZE)
81 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2025
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5 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 30, 2026
A really varied collection of stories from last year's Desperate Literature Prize - Matthew Kinlin does experimental language poetry but as prose, while Shelley Hastings' story is a moving meditation on illness and family told from within the unspoken reflections of a mother facing a health crisis. Iseult de Mallett Burgess writes from inside a misogynistic man's POV - and really holds your attention as you get to the reveal.
The first two stories share a certain queer magic realist DNA: Shastri Akella's 'The Border Ghosts' has a George Saunders-like premise - a gay soldier is posted to patrol the Kashmir border alone, where the ghosts of those separated from their families barter for his help by offering to assist in a forbidden love affair; 'Expansion Street' by Swithun Cooper is set in a city where a new street appears overnight in the poorest neighbourhood, and the rumours begin that it's a portal to a better life. The local government tries to restrict access, while the rich of the city start wanting a piece: to colonise or capitalise on it. But the story is told through a bisexual love triangle where the street/portal also offers escape from facing up to what you really want in life. A lot going on in both stories...!
Overall, while this might feel a bit 'jumbled' as an anthology (as any prize lomglist would, with three judges and all kinds of stories eligible for entry), and personally not all of the stories were to my taste, it's an exciting snapshot of what's happening at the very edge of contemporary literary fiction right now; weird, inventive, political, personal, cutting. Really enjoyed.
The first two stories share a certain queer magic realist DNA: Shastri Akella's 'The Border Ghosts' has a George Saunders-like premise - a gay soldier is posted to patrol the Kashmir border alone, where the ghosts of those separated from their families barter for his help by offering to assist in a forbidden love affair; 'Expansion Street' by Swithun Cooper is set in a city where a new street appears overnight in the poorest neighbourhood, and the rumours begin that it's a portal to a better life. The local government tries to restrict access, while the rich of the city start wanting a piece: to colonise or capitalise on it. But the story is told through a bisexual love triangle where the street/portal also offers escape from facing up to what you really want in life. A lot going on in both stories...!
Overall, while this might feel a bit 'jumbled' as an anthology (as any prize lomglist would, with three judges and all kinds of stories eligible for entry), and personally not all of the stories were to my taste, it's an exciting snapshot of what's happening at the very edge of contemporary literary fiction right now; weird, inventive, political, personal, cutting. Really enjoyed.
January 1, 2026
I am featured in this collection :)) and I love Swithun's story in it
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews