Alternating Current Press

Alternating Current Press

is an indie press dedicated to publishing and promoting incredible literature that challenges readers and has an innate sense of self, timelessness, and atmosphere. We love science, history, homebound roots, rural landscapes, sense of place, poetic literary fiction, diverse voices, and all that is electric in the literary world. We publish full-length books, multi-author anthologies, slim chapbooks, and various print and online journals featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work. [Learn More] [What We Publish]

Our Latest Release

Best Small Fictions 2025:
Flash, Haibun, Micro, & Hybrid: 110 Pieces by 110 Authors Nominated by Indie Presses Around the World

From the Introduction by Robert Shapard:
When James Thomas and I, decades ago, gathered a seminal volume of small fictions called Sudden Fiction, revolution was […] in the air—after all, very-short fictions broke rules. They were experimental. But our goal was modest. We just wanted to bring attention to new forms that, no matter how daring or intriguing, got no respect from the literary establishment. […] But BSF recognized a wider net needed to be cast, […] actively scanning the increasing number of flash journals around the world. […] BSF is becoming—arguably already is—the richest, most inclusive anthology of small fictions now publishing.

It’s often said a very-short story asks more of a reader than a novel, where we willingly allow the author to lead us through pages of memory or description. Short fiction readers may be given only a few lines to, in effect, help construct the story with whatever logic or rich imagery the author provides. […] As you read Best Small Fictions, one challenge may be to ask, after each story: To what extent are you the author, or do you share authorship? Is it the rule that the briefer the story the more you are required to fill in, thus you are higher on the author scale? Or is it vivid images, no matter the length of the story, that prompt you to conjure a world? I could never say, because I lose myself in stories altogether.

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New Releases

Calls for Submissions to Upcoming Anthologies

SEE ALL ANTHOLOGY OPEN CALLS

We’ve Always Done It:
Poems about Wartime Women

We’re seeking poems about women’s roles during wartime through the ages. Deadline: January 31, 2026.

SUBMIT NOW

Maintain the North:
An Epic Mountie Adventure Anthology

We’re seeking fiction, fanfic, histfic, pulp, and adventure stories for an anthology about the epic mythology and folklore of the historical Mounties. Deadline: January 31, 2026.

SUBMIT NOW

2025-26 Winter Release Schedule

BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2025: Flash, Haibun, Micro, & Hybrid: 110 Pieces by 110 Authors Nominated by Indie Presses Around the World (January 20, 2026)

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News & Updates

JANUARY 2026 OPEN-CALLS FOR ANTHOLOGIES: The following anthologies are open for submissions for September 2025: MAINTAIN THE NORTH: An Epic Mountie Adventure Anthology for adventure fiction about historical Mounties; WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT!: Poems about Wartime Women, for poems about women’s roles during wartime through the ages.

BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2026 is open for nominations!

JUL 30, NEW RELEASE: Happy Book Birthday to Bryanna Licciardi’s FISH LOVE, a collection of poetry about the beauty and tragedy of living life as a modern-day woman, now available to order!
JUL 6, CONTEST RESULTS: We are excited to announce the winners and finalists for the 2024 Luminaire Award for Best Poetry! See the full list of winners and finalists here, and find out more about the Luminaire Poetry Award here. All winning and finalist pieces will receive publication on THE COIL throughout the year.
JUL 5, CONTEST RESULTS: We are thrilled to announce the 2024 Front Range Book Prize winner and finalists! The Front Range Book Prize celebrates Colorado authors and themes, and our winner, Krista Hanley, is a native of Colorado with a uniquely Colorado story that needs to be told and retold and retold: a memoir of the 1999 Columbine school shooting and how to survive everyday life after collective mass trauma. See the full list of winners and finalists here, and find out more about the prize here.
JUN 25, SELECTION RESULTS: The top 10 Spotlighted Stories for BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2024 have been selected by guest editor Amber Sparks. See the full selection list here, and learn more about BEST SMALL FICTIONS here.
MAY 28, SELECTION RESULTS: The selections for BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2024 have been made by guest editor Amber Sparks. See the full selection list here, and learn more about BEST SMALL FICTIONS here.
MAR 22, ACQUISITION: Announcing the acquisition of Afghanistan war veteran Brian Kerg’s FALLING MEN! This stunning collection of short stories portraying the lives of men and women soldiers and military personnel on and off duty will be joining our Alternating Current Press full-length catalog!
MAR 22, ACQUISITION: We’re so excited to announce the acquisition of Eloise Schultz’s REGULAR REMEMBERING, a hybrid poetry collection about history and excavation based on the author’s experiences as a copyeditor and educational reenactor at a historical society in coastal Maine. This chapbook will be joining our Little Pigeon series soon!
MAR 18, ACQUISITION: We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Mark Stein’s TABERNACLE, a hybrid nonfiction exploration that seeks to replicate verbally and visually the physical work of outsider artist James Hampton’s infamous Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly art installation. This quirky collection will be joining our Little Pigeon chapbook series!
MAR 17, ACQUISITION: We’re so excited to announce the acquisition of Stacy Carlson’s THE GYRE, pitched as “THE REVENANT meets Angela Carter among the icebergs,” a novel of the far northern wilds wherein a Russian monk of questionable motives aims to be the northernmost holy man in the world as he travels on foot through a remote world of tundra and ice bears, accompanied by patron saints, pagan figments, and strange stories. Coming soon to the Alternating Current Press full-length catalog.
MAR 17, ACQUISITION: We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Jerusalem-based author Shoshana Sarah’s NOT ON THE MAP, a collection of poetry and lyric hybrid essays that evokes the idea of the Tower of Babel and draws on the author’s multicultural experience to explore questions of home, identity, boundaries, multilingualism, and the tensions among them. This collection joins the Alternating Current Press upcoming full-length catalog.
MAR 16, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Barbara Schwartz’s WHAT SURVIVES IS THE FIRE, a hybrid collection of poetry, interview transcriptions, and lyric essays that explores the generational effects of the Holocaust on one family, inspired by the author’s grandparents’ lived experiences. This collection will join our ACP upcoming full-length catalog!
MAR 15, ACQUISITION: We’re so excited to announce the acquisition of Jason Olsen’s ROBOT ACTION PINBALL, a collection of 11 inventive short stories filled with humor, strangeness, and a touch of the surreal, joining our upcoming ACP full-length catalog!
MAR 15, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to welcome Kathleen Rooney to our ACP family with the acquisition of ROBINSON ALONE, a new reprint edition of her novel-in-poems based on the life, work, and disappearance of mid-20th-century multigenre artist Weldon Kees! We’re so excited to bring this work to a whole new audience as part of our upcoming full-length catalog!