A.K. McCutcheon
Publications
Short Fiction Break ~ January 2026
Sunlight On Water earned a Runner-Up award in The Write Practice's Fall 2025 Short Story Contest and was published in their partner digital magazine. The story: A young woman struggles to reconcile regrets after her father's death with startling revelations about the life he lived -- and the life he dreamed of living.
September 2025
My historical suspense story The Blood Stone of Shiva won First Prize in the "Suspense/Thriller" category of the 2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards and was published in the print Anthology of Winners. And, my contemporary story The Time and Space Conundrum was a Finalist in the "Wild Card" category and is listed in the anthology.
Look for the anthology on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
SPECIAL OFFER: Scroll to the end of the page to learn how you can read The Blood Stone of Shiva -- free!
"An End of Troubles" Anthology
History Through Fiction ~ March 2025
My story The Blood Stone of Shiva appears in History Through Fiction's print anthology as a Top Ten prize winner in their Fall 2024 short story contest.
From Mana W Rothstein's review on Medium:
“The Blood Stone of Shiva is a truly exceptional story that will appeal to anyone who loves historical fiction, complex characters, and thought-provoking themes. What I think really sets this story apart is its ability to balance suspense with deeper questions about identity and morality. It’s a short that will keep you up late at night, turning pages and wondering what happens next."
Find the Anthology on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
Elegant Literature ~ July 2024
A House Fire on Woodside Road is a somber tale of two neighbors in a crumbling Atlanta suburb whose relationship explodes into violence and revenge on a steamy Fourth of July. This story features social conflict I hadn't previously explored in my writing. I enjoyed stretching a new set of "writer muscles."
Elegant Literature ~ May 2024
In The Tempests, two co-workers, Lucia and Nick, conceal their passionate affair from their colleagues at a boutique art museum on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It's a lush contemporary romance. . . until Lucia begins to wonder if Nick is concealing clandestine activities from her.
On The Premises ~ April 2024
I was thrilled when the editors of On The Premises invited me to be a guest writer. House Sitting by Betty features one of my favorite characters. Betty is an aging woman who must battle her inner demons as she struggles with major life challenges, until relief arrives in an unexpected form. A version of this story placed as a Finalist in the San Diego Public Library Short Story contest in 2025.
Elegant Literature ~ January 2024
The Offerings won the San Diego Public Library Prize for Best Short Fiction in 2023. It's a bittersweet contemporary love story about grief, guilt, and forgiveness, with undertones of suspense. The version published in Elegant Literature is a shorter version of the story that won the SDPL Prize -- but the emotional heat and its afterglow remain.
Elegant Literature ~ December 2023
Fur Baby is my first published short fiction. It's a quirky tale about a young woman who is having a series of very bad "hair days." Very. Bad. After a stealth video of her predicament goes viral, things get really bad. Really. Bad.
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