Issue 271
May-August 2025
In this issue of Prime Number Magazine we offer our readers not four, but five, 53-Word Story Contest winners; our four inaugural flash nonfiction essays selected by editor and award-winning FNF author Shuly Xóchitl Cawood; poetry selected by guest poetry editor Howard Faerstein; and short fictions selected by guest short fiction editor Dennis McFadden.
Please note: Submissions to Prime Number Magazine for poetry and short fiction will open again on September 1 when we launch Issue 277, our annual awards issue. That issue will include winners and runners-up of the 2025 Prime Number Magazine Awards and winners of our seventh annual “Prime 53 Poem” Summer Challenge that will open for submissions on June 1. This is a free contest and four winning Prime 53 Poems, selected by Press 53 poetry editor (and co-inventor of the Prime 53 Poem) Christopher Forrest, will receive publication and the winning poets will receive a free book from Press 53.
The reason for this pause on submissions for poetry and short fiction is so we can adjust our timeline for responding to submissions for each issue. Prior to our policy of closing submissions for poetry and short fiction once we reached 199 submissions, we were receiving up to 500 submissions in each category. Our editors needed more time to read, which meant that a May 1 submission wouldn’t be published until January 1. Since we are now limiting submissions to 199, we can eliminate some of the time required to read. Submissions during our September 1 submissions period will be published on January 1, same as it would have been for our May 1 submissions period. This gives our selected poets and authors a shorter wait to see their work published. We hope everyone understands and agrees with our decision.
Now, on to Issue 271!
But first a brief message . . .
We are looking for an outstanding, unpublished collection of poems!
First Prize: publication, $1,000 advance, 53 copies
Runner-Up (if selected): publication, $500 advance, 25 copies
Read guidelines before you enter
Deadline: July 31
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
Two winners named for January. A first for our contest!
Flash Nonfiction selected by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood
Prompt: Becoming
A note from Shuly: I received wonderful flash nonfiction submissions for our first issue, and it took me a while to narrow down my top choices. Some writers also sent me: poetry; fiction; more than one submission; and wonderful pieces of writing that were completely unrelated to the prompt. Thank you to everyone who did read the guidelines and submitted work for me to consider. And a big congratulations to the four writers whose work I chose for our inaugural issue of publishing flash nonfiction.
I tried to offer words of encouragement to some writers, and in a few cases, more specific feedback that I wish I had gotten as a writer early on. To anyone whose piece got rejected from me, please remember I am only one editor, one opinion, one mind. If you believe in your piece, don’t give up on it.
Next up, my flash nonfiction prompt for Issue 277: Party
Read our submission guidelines here and submit
Submissions are open from now until we reach 101 submissions
Only one submission per person, please
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 271, May-August 2025.
GUEST EDITOR FOR POETRY
Howard Faerstein
Howard Faerstein’s debut poetry collection, Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklyn, and his second, Googootz and Other Poems, were both published by Press 53 in their Silver Concho Poetry Series, edited by Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root. His work can be found in numerous journals including Great River Review, Nimrod, CutThroat, Off the Coast, Rattle, upstreet, Mudfish, Gris-Gris, Peacock Journal, and Connotation. He lives in Florence, Massachusetts.
GUEST EDITOR FOR SHORT FICTION
Dennis McFadden
Dennis McFadden, a retired project manager, lives and writes in a cedar-shingled cottage called Summerhill in the woods of upstate New York. His collection Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, won the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. Over a hundred of his stories have appeared in publications such as The Missouri Review (including the winner of the 2023 Perkoff Prize in fiction), New England Review, The Sewanee Review, The Antioch Review, Arts & Letters, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and The Best American Mystery Stories.
prime number
: any integer other than 0 or ± 1 that is not divisible without remainder by any other integers except ± 1 and ± the integer itself (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary)
In literature: poetry and prose that is distinctive and unique (Prime Number Magazine)
Prime Number Magazine is a Press 53 online publication, founded by Clifford Garstang and Kevin Morgan Watson on July 17, 2010, beginning with Issue 2, and continuing with all issues in prime numbers