Iowa Short Fiction Awards

About

The Iowa Short Fiction Award and the John Simmons Short Fiction Award are annual prizes awarded to two collections of stories. Writers who have yet to publish a book-length volume of fiction are eligible to apply, and winning manuscripts are published by The Iowa Press.

Submissions for the 2023-2024 awards are closed. Next submission period will open August 1st, 2024 and close September 30th.

Recent Winners

2023

Iowa Short Fiction Award

book cover: bicycle in the air with half a person visible

No Use Pretending

Thomas A. Dodson

Judge: Gish Jen

2022

Iowa Short Fiction Award

book cover: underwater with octopus tentacles sticking up from the bottom

Stories No One Hopes Are About Them

A. J. Bermudez

Judge: Anthony Marra

2022

John Simmons Short Fiction Award 

book cover: moody with gold, writing tangled in fir tree

The Woods

Janice Obuchowski

Judge: Anthony Marra

2021

Iowa Short Fiction Award

book cover: green anatomical heart on yellow background

The Boundaries of Their Dwelling

Blake Sanz

Judge: Brandon Taylor

2021

John Simmons Short Fiction Award

book cover: bright purple qbstract

You Never Get It Back

Cara Blue Adams

Judge: Brandon Taylor

2020

Iowa Short Fiction Award

book cover: silhouettes of white sheep with a single black one

Father Guards the Sheep

Sari Rosenblatt

Judge: Tom Drury

2020

John Simmons Short Fiction Award

book cover: abstract uterus veining up into a family tree

Ancestry

Eileen O'Leary

Judge: Tom Drury

2019

Iowa Short Fiction Award

book cover: dead birds laid out in rows

Not a Thing to Comfort You

Emily Wortman-Wunder

Judge: Carmen Maria Machado

2019

John Simmons Short Fiction Award

book cover: a grid of smiley faces with different expressions

Happy Like This

Ashley Wurzbacher

Judge: Carmen Maria Machado

Previous Winners

2018

Judge: Rebecca Lee
Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer The Water Diviner and Other Stories 
Christian Felt The Lightning Jar

2017

Judge: Andre Dubus III
Matthew Lansburgh Outside is the Ocean
Marian CrottyWhat Counts as Love

2016

Judge: Bennett Sims
Robert OldshueNovember Storm
Allegra Hyde Of This New World.

2015

Judge: Karen Russell
Edward Hamlin Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories
Charles Haverty Excommunicados.

2014

Judge: Wells Tower
Heather A. Slomski, The Lovers Set Down Their Spoons 
Kathleen Founds, Mystical Creatures Attack!

2013

Judge: Julie Orringer
Tessa Mellas, Lungs Full of Noise 
Kate Milliken, If I'd Known You Were Coming

2012

Judge: Jim Shepard
Marie-Helene Bertino, Safe as Houses 
Chad Simpson, Tell Everyone I Said Hi

2011

Judge: Yiyun Li
Will Boast, Power Ballads 
Josh Rolnick, Pulp and Paper

2010

Judge:
Marilène Phipps-Kettlewell, The Company of Heaven: Stories from Haiti 
Barbara Hamby, Lester Higata's 20th Century

2009

Judge:
Kathryn Ma, All That Work and Still No Boys 
Jennine Capó Crucet, How to Leave Hialeah: Stories from the Heart of Miami

2008

Judge:
Glen Pourciau,Invite 
Molly McNett, One Dog Happy

2007

Judge:
Don Waters, Desert Gothic 
Lee Montgomery, Whose World Is This?

2006

Judge:
Jim Tomlinson, Things Kept, Things Left Behind 
Kevin Moffett, Permanent Visitors

2005

Judge:
Doug Trevor, The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space 
Anthony Varallo, This Day in History

2004

Judge:
Janet Desaulniers, What You've Been Missing 
Merrill Feitell, Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes

2003

Judge:
Ryan Harty, Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona 
Beth Helms, American Wives

2002

Judge:
Jennifer S. Davis, Her Kind of Want 
Laura Valeri, The Kind of Things Saints Do

2001

Judge:
Sohrab Homi Fracis, Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America 
Donald Anderson, Fire Road

2000

Judge: Elizabeth McCracken
John McNally, Troublemakers 
Elizabeth Oness, Articles of Faith

1999

Judge: Marilynne Robinson
Nancy Reisman, House Fires 
Thisbe Nissen, Out of the Girls' Room and into the Night

1998

Judge: Stuart Dybek
Mark Brazaitis, The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala 
Kathryn Chetkovich, Friendly Fire

1997

Judge: Ann Beattie
Jim Henry, Thank You for Being Concerned and Sensitive 
Lisa Lenzo, Within the Lighted City

1996

Judge: Oscar Hijuelos
David Borofka, Hints of His Mortality 
Don Zancanella, Western Electric

1995

Judge: Ethan Canin
Tereze Glück, May You Live in Interesting Times 
Charles Wyatt, Listening to Mozart

1994

Judge: Joy Williams
Rod Val Moore, Igloo Among Palms 
Susan Onthank Mates, The Good Doctor

1993

Judge: Francine Prose
Renee Manfredi, Where Love Leaves Us 
Lex Williford, Macauley's Thumb 
Ann Harleman, Happiness

1992

Judge: James Salter
Elizabeth Searle, My Body to You 
Enid Shomer, Imaginary Men

1991

Judge: Marilynne Robinson
Sondra Spatt Olsen, Traps 
Elizabeth Harris, The Ant Generator

1990

Judge: Jayne Anne Phillips
Marly Swick, A Hole in the Language

1989

Judge: Gail Godwin
Starkey Flythe, Jr., Lent: The Slow Fast 
Miles Wilson, Line of Fall

1988

Judge: Robert Stone
Sharon Dilworth, The Long White 
Michael Pritchett, The Venus Tree

1987

Judge: Alison Lurie
Abby Frucht, Fruit of the Month 
Lucia Nevai, Star Game

1986

Judge: Tobias Wolff
Dan O'Brien, Eminent Domain 
Russell Working, Resurrectionists

1985

Judge: Tim O'Brien
Robert Boswell, Dancing in the Movies

1984

Judge: Frederick Busch
Susan M. Dodd, Old Wives' Tales

1983

Judge: Alice Adams
Ivy Goodman, Heart Failure

1982

Judge: Raymond Carver
Dianne Benedict, Shiny Objects

1981

Judge: Doris Grumbach
Annabel Thomas, The Phototropic Woman

1980

Judge: Francine du Plessix Gray
James Fetler, Impossible Appetites

1979

Judge: John Gardner
Mary Hedin, Fly Away Home

1978

Judge: Stanley Elkin
Lon Otto, A Nest of Hooks

1977

Judge: Leonard Michaels
Pat Carr, The Women in the Mirror

1976

Judge: Donald Barthelme
C. E. Poverman, The Black Velvet Girl

1975

Judge: George P. Garrett
Barry Targan, Harry Belten and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

1974

Judge: William H. Gass
Natalie L. M. Petesch, After the First Death There Is No Other

1973

Judge: John Hawkes
H. E. Francis, The Itinerary of Beggars

1972

Judge: Joyce Carol Oates
Jack Cady, The Burning and Other Stories

1971

Judge: George P. Elliott
Philip F. O'Connor, Old Morals, Small Continents, Darker Times

1970

Judges: Vance Nye Bourjaily and Kurt Vonnegut
Cyrus Colter, The Beach Umbrella