_The Oxford American is thrilled to announce our Pushcart Prize XLVII nominations, representing an electric range of essays, short stories, and experimental works from 2021. 

Mirror House

By Garrard Conley, Summer 2021

“The world is familiar to most people, even if they have not seen most of it. Especially if they have not seen most of it.”

Walls

A story by Indya S. Finch, Summer 2021

“Sometimes no one spoke for so long the low growl of a man’s voice could break the skin out in goosebumps, uncontrolled waves of them.”

The High Shelf

A story by Dawnie Walton, Fall 2021

“She’s left the cordless phone in the living room—but even if it was within reach who could she call, to catch her indecent like this?”

한년 (WOAMN, WHITE)

By S. J. Kim, Fall 2021

“You are a tertiary female character in a Korean drama. You are small and all your clothes are oversized. You wear a lot of pastel.”

Country Boy Gone City

By Rebecca Bengal, Winter 2021

“The El Grotto is a neighborhood bar—beer, wine, records on the jukebox, fights on the regular, and sometimes, guns drawn.”

Overnight Scenario

By Karen Good Marable, Winter 2021

“I’ve been waiting all my life for a party like this. To be shoulder to shoulder with young, gifted Black people from everywhere, dancing in the dark to music I love and music I’ve never heard before.”