the 2021 fractured lit ghost, fable, and fractured fairy tale prize longlist

We’re proud to announce the 57 titles of our longlist! The submissions we received were so thrilling, inventive, and affecting that we’ve had a hard time narrowing down the list! From this list, 20-25 stories will make it to the shortlist for judge Kevin Brockmeier to choose his final 3 winners and 2 honorable mentions! Please don’t identify your story title as the shortlist will be delivered to Kevin anonymously!

A Guide to Small Town Ghosts

The Better to See

Ghosts in Towers

The Only Problem

This Is How You Become a Myth

Sinta

El Triste

The Changeling

The Fischers

In Her Own Darkness

The sixth-eldest dancing princess looks back at her legacy

The Good Wife

The Meal

The Bone Child

Recorded Live

Nosebleed Weather

A Too Small Room

The Sea Witch

Marjorie

Mortimer

Springriven

Refrigerator Death

A Home With You In It

The Day The Moon Fell

Midnight

Into the Wild

The Fisherwoman

Mother

1,000 Words on Leftovers

Unsure by Faces

Scratchers

Boiling Point

Shimmer

Bitter Doll

Funeral Party

The Last Days of the Henry Doorly Zoo

Bardo

The Moon That You Wait For By Standing

Bloodcoat

He Becomes the Wind

Griselda

Shame Street

The Eaves

Dialogue Between a Woman and Her Ba

A Short Story about a Long Time in the Woods; A Short Story about Boxes

White and Wolf

The Mermaid’s Tale

The woodcutter’s daughter

With Appetite

Ornithology for Girls

Women’s Work

Tap-Tap

An Ordinary Wife

His Mother’s Teeth

god at the side of the road

I Wake with The Cicadas

The Thick Green Ribbon