American Short Fiction's Long To-Do List

American Short Fiction editor Jill Meyers recently dropped us a line about what's happening in ASF's near future, and goodness, it's a full slate.

First things first, there is a deadline just around the bend – as in tomorrow – for ASF's annual short story contest. Details about the contest, including rules, regs, how to submit, all that jazz, can be found here. Justin Cronin, the man behind the wildly popular vampire literary novel The Passage and its 2012 sequel The Twelve, will judge the finalists.

If you're still reading, that means you're interested in writing, and that means you may be interested in how to become a better writer. ASF can help with that. Its online fiction writing class, on Short Story Essentials, launches Jan. 18. Novelist Ted Thompson will lead the eight-week course. More details here.

Finally, ASF is teaming up with BookPeople for a curated series of readings. Details are a little fuzzy, but the series certainly starts with a bang on Jan. 24 with Ben Marcus, whose new book The Flame Alphabet is one of the most anticipated novels of the new year. Future visiting writers include Jackie Luckett on Feb. 4 and T.C. Boyle on March 19.