Order A MAP OF LOST PLACES
A Map of Lost Places is now available for order. Purchase your copy at Gold Line Press.
If you’re a reviewer or editor and would like a review copy, contact me or Gold Line Press for a print or digital copy.
Order FOR EVERY TOWER, A PRINCESS
My chapbook For Every Tower, a Princess was released in October 2024 by Porkbelly Press. It’s available to order now. If you’re a reviewer or editor and would like a review copy, contact me or Porkbelly Press for a print or digital copy.
TWO STORIES SELECTED FOR BEST MICROFICTION 2025!
- Kathryn Kulpa, “Mushrooms” (Centaur Lit)
- Kathryn Kulpa, “Settle” (Dirtbag)
Nominations for Best Microfiction 2025
The following stories were nominated for Best Microfiction.
- “Mushrooms,” originally published in Centaur
- “Settle,” originally published in Dirtbag
- “The Lawn Ocean Regrets,” originally published in Bright Flash Literary Review
Nominations for Best Small Fictions 2025
The following stories were nominated for Best Small Fictions.
- “Here Be Wolves,” originally published in Ghost Parachute
- “Settle,” originally published in Dirtbag
“A Door is a Secret, Revealed” chosen for Best Small Fictions 2024
Available for order now!
My story “A Door is a Secret, Revealed” was selected for Best Small Fictions by editor Amber Sparks and appears in the 2024 anthology, published by Alternating Current Press. It was originally published in Fictive Dream and nominated by editor Laura Black. Copies can be ordered from Alternating Current Press or your local independent bookstore.
Read an interview about the creation of this story here.
Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist 2024
I have two stories in the Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist: “Big Jack,” published in Flash Boulevard, and “T, My Name is Tonya,” published in Fractured Lit.
Recent Readings
Book Launch with Maggie Cleveland and Jake St. John at Riffraff Books in Providence, February 8, 2025
Word Thursdays with Kathryn Kulpa and Lorette Luzajic, October 24 on Zoom and Facebook. Sponsored by Bright Hill Press.
F Bomb Reading: Friday, October 4, 2024 on Zoom
Watch a recording here.
Hosted by Francine Witte
Featuring readings by:
Karen Craigo
Michael Czyzniejewski
Damien Dressick
Sarah Freligh
Jeff Harvey
Kathryn Kulpa
Andrea Marcusa
Karen Schauber
Kathryn Silver-Hajo
An online reading and book launch with me and other Cleaver editors and teachers took place Sunday, September 22 at 7 pm.
I have a new Substack, Feed Your Demons. Subscribe for news on publications, writing classes, readings, and events–
and the occasional writing prompt.
NEWS & AWARDS:
My prose poem “Self-Portrait as a Root Vegetable” was nominated for Best of the Net by Unbroken. It appeared in issue #39.
My micro-story “Gooseberries” won second place in the first Gooseberry Pie Writing Contest, April 2024. Published in the special contest issue.
My flash chapbook For Every Tower, a Princess was chosen for publication by Porkbelly Press.
My flash collection A Map of Lost Places won the 2023 Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Competition, chosen by Marisa (Mac) Crane. It is forthcoming in 2025.
My story “1969” was a finalist in the Lascaux Review Flash Fiction Contest and was published in December 2023.
“A Door is a Secret, Revealed’ was nominated for Best Small Fictions by Fictive Dream.
My 100-word story “Dorothy Gale Hitchhikes to Omaha” was nominated for Best Microfiction by the Dribble Drabble Review.
“To My Mother, in the Air” was long-listed for the Bath Flash Fiction Award and featured in the 2023 Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, The Weather Where You Are.
“Switch” received honorable mention in the (One Hand in My) Pocket-Sized Fiction Contest and appears in Does It Have Pockets?
I signed copies of Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted at the Warren Walkabout on Sunday, October 29 from 1-3 pm at Ink Fish Books. Copies of the book can be purchased there.
My chapbook Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted won the New Rivers Press Chapbook Contest and was released in May 2023. The 
book launch was at Riffraff in Providence on Thursday, May 25 at 7 pm with fellow Kathryn, Kathryn Silver-Hajo, author of Wolfsong. A reading and writing workshop was held at the Barrington Public Library on Wednesday, June 28 at 6 pm.
My story “1969” was chosen for Scratching the Sands, the National Flash Fiction Day 2023 Anthology. The release day was June 24, 2023.
The Path the Lost Girls Take was a finalist in the 2022 Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Contest, judged by K. Ming Chang.
“Upside Down,” published in Five South, was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, and Best Small Fictions.
“Passerine” was longlisted for the Bath Flash Fiction Award (October 2022) and appears in the Bath Flash Fiction anthology Dandelion Years.
“Two Questions,” Interview in Milk Candy Review, August 29, 2022
“Exterminating Angel” won first prize in Flash Fiction Magazine‘s contest and was featured in the magazine on May 25, 2022. It was also listed in the 2023 Wigleaf Longlist.
“A Brief Catalog of Venial Sins,” published in Pithead Chapel, was included in the 2022 Wigleaf Longlist
“Mother-Daughter,” published in Monkeybicycle, was selected for Best Microfiction 2022 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize
“Warm on the Vine,” published in Flash Boulevard, nominated for Best Microfiction, 2022
“Telethon,” published in Flash Frog, nominated for Best Small Fictions, 2022
“Snow Angels”
Red Headed Writing: An Anthology of Grit Lit Incited by the Music & Lyrics of Willie Nelson
Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024
I never saw the punch that took her down, I only saw her fall, the way I still see it in my head, slow motion silent like an old movie, her arms out wide like a kid making snow angels, falling into that deep pile carpet like it was a bed of snow, a feather bed that would fold its wings around her, only I felt the slam through the soles of my feet and I picked her up, got her to the couch, smell of spilled coffee and fear sweat and she was shaking her head, Don’t fuss, split lip bleeding, one eye squinted shut, the other washed with tears like that song he always sang for her, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, he said it was her favorite but why would your favorite song be about crying?
Purchase a copy at Amazon.
Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted
New Rivers Press, 2023
“Kathryn Kulpa writes unforgettable stories that feel enormous despite their brevity. I’ve been a fan for years and am excited for readers to experience the magic of this collection.”
–James Tate Hill, author of Blind Man’s Bluff
“Kathryn Kulpa is a master of distilling a story down to its most essential, powerful form. She proves that again and again with every story in this stunning collection.”
–Cathy Ulrich, author of Ghosts of You
“Demons and ghosts inhabit many of Kathryn Kulpa’s dazzling stories. They dare us to go along for the ride. Read and never forget – that’s what readers do with Kulpa’s stories.”
Purchase a signed copy at Paypal.
Purchase a signed copy at Etsy.
“Where I’ll Find You”
Moon City Review, 2023
“Where do you want to live? I’d ask, and that would start the game. We had to play it every night, or we couldn’t go to sleep. In our room with the dormer window and the pink-striped wallpaper and the twin beds with white ruffled canopies, until the allergy doctor said they attracted dust and our mother took them down.”
Purchase a copy at Moon City Review.
Best Microfiction 2022
Available now from Pelekinesis Press
Pelekinesis Press, 236 pages
Series Editor: Meg Pokrass; Editor: Gary Finke
Guest Editor: Tania Hershman
Purchase a copy at Pelekinesis Press.
Best Microfiction 2021
WINNER of the Bronze Medal for a book series in the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards
Pelekinisis Press, 248 pages
Series Editor: Meg Pokrass; Editor: Gary Finke
Guest Editor: Amber Sparks
“In only a few years, Best Microfiction has established itself as one of the most exciting anthologies of new fiction. If short stories are airplanes, the tiny miracles in this collection are hummingbirds.” –James Tate Hill, author of Blind Man’s Bluff
“Amber Sparks’ introduction is a gauntlet thrown down as she cites inspiration and bravery as the defining attributes of the brilliant stories in Best Microfictions 2021. The pulse of these microfictions is operating at the speed of light, the fever a white heat of sound.” –Pamela Painter, author of Fabrications
Purchase a copy at Pelekinesis Press.
Best Microfiction 2020
Pelekinisis Press, 219 pages
Series Editor: Meg Pokrass; Editor: Gary Finke
Guest Editor: Michael Martone
The Best Microfiction anthology series provides recognition for outstanding literary stories of 400 words or fewer.
“One crucial thing that was missing in the world until recently? A single place to celebrate all of the wondrous and wonderful bigness of the tiniest of stories. Much gratitude for Best Microfiction.” –Grant Faulkner, executive director of National Novel Writing Month
“Short, sharp, funny, and sometimes dark. Penguins, too. The microfictions in Best Microfiction 2020 are compressed works of wondrous delight.” –Marcy Dermansky, author of Very Nice
Purchase a copy at Pelekinesis Press.
Girls on Film
Paper Nautilus Press, 33 pages
2015 Vella Chapbook Award Winner
“Girls on Film is a flash fiction collection delving into our obsession with celebrity and image. Limiting herself to under one-thousand words per story, author Kathryn Kulpa produces a rich hybrid of short story and poetry, abundant with imagery and dense in lyricism.”
–South Coast Almanac
“With wit, pathos, and fresh insight, Kulpa captures the essence of American young-womanhood in eight loosely connected flash portraits. Each story is a small world, lean as a haiku and powerful as a novel.”
–Karen Rile, founding editor, Cleaver Magazine
Read more at the publisher’s site.
Purchase a signed copy at Etsy.
Pleasant Drugs: Stories
Mid-List Press, 219 Pages
“[Kathryn Kulpa] has crafted the 15 stories of her debut collection with an archivist’s keen eye and a native New Englander’s emotional thrift.” –Publishers Weekly
“Pleasant Drugs will not numb your senses; rather, it will sharpen and refine them, each potent story honing in on that slice of life between grief and joy.“–Ami Zensius, Mills Quarterly
“The author has many kinds of stories to tell, but all are character-driven and as finely cut as gemstones. An exemplar of the short story.”–Kliatt
Purchase a copy at Amazon.
“Three Pictures of My Father That Survived the Great Divorce Purge of 1977”
The Lascaux Review, Volume 7
Lascaux Press, 2020
“He moved with a kind of feline grace, not so much tiger as alley cat, forever on the prowl. Even his eyes were like a cat’s, green in some lights, brown in others, almost yellow if you caught him in headlights, in flashlight, in a camera’s flash in the hands of a private detective as he left a motel room with some other man’s wife.”
Purchase a copy at Amazon.
“Mother-Daughter”
Monkeybicycle, June 11, 2021
“She was pretty once, I tell him. I look at the side table, the picture of us in matching daisy dresses she sewed herself. I was five then. I didn’t know why she locked herself in every full moon. Didn’t know why people crossed themselves when they passed our house.”
Read more at Monkeybicycle.
“Knock,” Women’s Studies Quarterly
Vol. 48, Nos. 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2020
“I think of him in black and white. In a postwar world still clearing away its rubble, not quite ready to step into glorious Technicolor. I think of him knockingly, if knockingly is the word I want. … His sharp, questing chin. His foot in your door. All he needs is a moment of your time. All he needs is a chance.”
Purchase a copy through The Feminist Press
ISBN: 9781936932924
Publication Date: 05-12-2020
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