Indian-origin writer Shastri Akella’s short story, “The Border Ghosts”, has won the 2025 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize. He will receive a cash prize of €2000 along with a week’s residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, a consultation with Literary Agent Ed Wilson from Johnson and Alcock, and a manuscript assessment with The Literary Consultancy. Runners-up Swithun Cooper and Alisha Dietzman will receive €1000.
Akella’s debut novel, The Sea Elephants, has been published by Flatiron Books (USA, Canada) and Penguin Random House (India).
The judges for this edition of the Prize were writers Henry Hoke, Mariana Enríquez, and Ottessa Moshfegh. The aim of the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize is to celebrate the best of new short fiction and to give winners the most visibility possible for their writing. The Prize has teamed up with 14 different literary and artistic institutions to offer cash prizes, writing retreats, and publish shortlisted writers in print and online journals in different countries.
Here’s the complete shortlist:
“A Big, White Fluffy Dog” by Iseult de Mallet Burgess
“Beyond Grandeur” by Matthew Kinlin
“California” by Alisha Dietzman
“Expansion Street” by Swithun Cooper
“Glimpses of Her” by Shelley Hastings
“Hygienic Filial Cannibalism” by Sohini Basak
“kenosis” by Fox McGlasson
“Sip the river” by Chloe Agar
“So Much Here is Green” by Juan Fernando Villagómez
“The Border Ghosts” by Shastri Akella
“The Last Love Song” by Miguel Joaquin Arroyo
