Congratulations to Mimi Kawahara, winner of the 2026 Desperate Literature Prize for Short Fiction, for “Disaster preparedness test, ex post facto,” which is ‘devastatingly intimate …accomplishes something exceedingly rare.’ —Ottessa Moshfegh, 2026 judge
This year’s runners-up are Eric Baker’s “This History of Violence” and Emily Roese’s “Slug.” Congratulations to all!
To learn more about the prize, go to desperateliterature.com