“The times they are a-changin’!” Thank you, Bob. Happy New Year, everyone! We do have some changes coming to Prime Number Magazine to begin this new year. Here you go:
We have added a new category of writing that we will publish: Flash Nonfiction, which will be edited by award-winning flash nonfiction author and inspiring workshop leader Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, author of several books including What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said, winner of the 2022 Iron Horse Literary Review Prose Chapbook Contest for her chapbook of creative-nonfiction essays. Submissions are open now and will close once we receive 101 entries (a prime number). More information is below along with a note from Shuly.
Also beginning today, our submissions for poetry and short fiction will close for each category once we receive 199 submissions (also a prime number). This submission limit will give our guest editors some relief since we are now receiving nearly five hundred entries in each category during our rolling two-month submission periods. That is a lot of reading to ask anyone to work their way through, especially writers who might also have full-time jobs and/or a family. So please submit early to avoid missing out.
That’s it for our changes!
In this issue you will also find our six selections for the 2025 Pushcart Prize; winners of our free, monthly 53-Word Story Contest; poetry selected by guest editor Kathleen McGookey; short fiction selected by guest editor Stephanie Carpenter; and introductions for our guest editors for Issue 277 of Prime number Magazine, Sept-Dec 2025.
Now, on to Issue 263!
But first a brief message . . .
The 2025 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry & Short Fiction are now open for entries!
$1,000 First Prize in each category plus publication in Issue 277
$250 each for two Runners-Up plus publication in Issue 277
Deadline: March 31
Submit Your Flash Nonfiction!
Beginning today, right now, Prime Number Magazine will begin accepting submissions for flash nonfiction, with publication of three to four pieces in Issue 277, Sept-Dec 2025. Shuly Xóchitl Cawood will be the full-time editor and will select all the pieces we publish. Here is a note from Shuly:
Hello writers and readers! I’m so excited to be serving as editor for flash nonfiction. If you’ve never heard of this genre, it basically means very short AND all-true pieces of writing. It’s a genre I love and have written and taught for many years. Sometimes I’ll give a prompt for the submissions, sometimes I’ll give you a title to write to, and sometimes I’ll ask for a specific type of flash nonfiction piece, so be sure to read the guidelines every time.
Send me your best work! I look forward to reading your flash nonfiction. We are only taking submissions via Submittable, so click here to read our guidelines before you submit.
Also, if you haven’t seen the news: I am teaching a class on micro essays on January 9. Check it out!
Congratulations to our 2025 Pushcart Prize Nominees!
Every year, small presses are invited to nominate six pieces from the dozens or hundreds they published that year in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
The editors are pleased to announce the following selections that we published in 2024 as our nominations the 2025 Pushcart Prize.
(Short Fiction): “The Rendering Plant” by Max Block (Issue 257, May-Aug, 2024)
(Short Fiction): “Jumping Off” by Ginger Pinholster (Issue 263, Sept-Dec, 2024)
Winners of our FREE, monthly
53-Word Story Contest
Join our email list to get your prompt on the first day of each month.
Write a 53-word story about (prompt)
Send your story by the fifteenth (15th) day of the month to 53wordstory@gmail.com
September (a set): “Thrift Store Porcelain: Made Separately, Sold Together” by Lele Xiong
October (a catch): “Tricky Trippings” by Zoie Noranho
November (a mustache): “Conditional Beauty” by Elise Pritchard
December (a brush):
"I Still Find Them" by Justine Busto
Editors' Selections in Poetry & Short Fiction
Each issue, we ask our guest editors to select their favorite poems or stories from those submitted during our open submission period. Submissions are free and only accepted through Submittable. Here are the guest editors and their selections for Issue 269, January-April 2025.
GUEST EDITOR FOR POETRY
Kathleen McGookey
Kathleen McGookey is the author of four collections of prose poems, most recently Paper Sky: Prose Poems from Press 53. Her translations have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best Microfiction 2019, Best Small Fictions 2019, Copper Nickel, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Epoch, Field,, New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, Quiddity, and The Southern Review. Visit Kathleen’s Press 53 author page to learn more.
GUEST EDITOR FOR SHORT FICTION
Stephanie Carpenter
Stephanie Carpenter won the 2017 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction for her debut story collection, Missing Persons. Her debut novel, Moral Treatment, is forthcoming from CMICH Press Summit Series. Her prose has appeared in Witness, Nimrod, The Cossack Review, Big Fiction, The Crab Orchard Review and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing and literature at Michigan Tech University, in the northernmost reaches of the Upper Peninsula. Missing Persons is her first book-length publication. Visit Stephanie’s Press 53 author page to learn more.
Meet Our Guest Editors for Issue 277, Sept-Dec 2025
Submit a story or poem now via Submittable
Poetry and Short Fiction are limited to 199 total submissions in each category,
so submit early!
Terri Kirby Erickson is the author of seven full-length collections of poetry, six of which were published by Press 53, including A Sun Inside My Chest, winner of the International Book Award for Poetry and Night Talks: New & Selected Poems, a finalist for “general” poetry in both the International Book Awards and the Best Book Awards. Her work has appeared in “American Life in Poetry,” Asheville Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, JAMA, NASA News & Notes, ONE ART, Poetry Foundation, Poet’s Market, Rattle, storySouth, The Christian Century, The SUN and many others.
Rhonda Browning White’s debut novel, Filling the Big Empty, was shortlisted for the 2022 Neilson Prize and is available from Redhawk Publications. She is the winner of The 2019 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction for her short-story collection The Lightness of Water & Other Stories, a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. Four of the stories were nominated for 2021 Pushcart Prizes. Rhonda’s work also appears in Ignatian Literary Magazine, Entropy, Prime Number Magazine, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Qu Literary Journal and many others.
Visit Rhonda’s Press 53 author page to sample a story and to learn more before submitting.
Submit a story or poem now via Submittable
Poetry and Short Fiction are limited to 199 total submissions in each category,
so submit early!