STELLA KUPFERBERG MEMORIAL SHORT STORY PRIZE

The Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize is awarded annually by Selected Shorts and a guest author judge. This year, Simon Rich selected Laurie Lathem's story “The Flamingo Café” as the 2026 winner. Please enjoy Susan Pourfar's performance of this story.

The story is also available to read on Electric Literature:

Laurie Lathem writes fiction, essays, and plays. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The New England Review, Electric Literature, Cream City Review, The Plentitudes Journal, About Place Journal, and others. She has been awarded a 2026 Trout Lily Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center (fiction) and was longlisted for the 2026 Disquiet Fiction Contest. Her story, “Dildo Story” won third place in the 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction. She is a recent alum of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (fiction) and the Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop (fiction). She is at work on a collection of short stories.

Susan Pourfar has worked on and Off-Broadway for more than two decades, garnering an Obie Award, a Theater World Award, and the Clarence Derwent Award from Actor’s Equity. Her most recent stage appearances include the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist Meet the Cartozians and the Broadway production of Mary Jane. Susan has appeared in a variety of award-winning television shows including The Beast in Me, Black Mirror, House of Cards, Scandal, The Sinner, Winning Time, and The Staircase. Films include Manchester by the Sea, In the Heights, A Journal for Jordan, and the upcoming independent feature Last Hand. She is currently working on the film Hello Darkness, and will appear in the Apple TV series The Off Weeks. Pourfar is a proud and frequent collaborator in staged readings of Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States. She is currently reading Louis Sachar’s Wayside School series aloud for a home audience.

Simon Rich is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. He has written for Saturday Night Live, Pixar, and The Simpsons and is the creator of the TV shows Man Seeking Woman and Miracle Workers, which he based on his books. His other collections include Ant Farm, Spoiled Brats, New Teeth, Glory Days, and Hits and Misses, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Rich’s plays, All In: Comedy About Love and All Out: Comedy About Ambition debuted on Broadway in 2024 and 2025, respectively. He is the writer and producer of the film An American Pickle, and he was a contributing writer for SNL 50: The Anniversary Special. Forthcoming projects include Artificial and Everyday Parenting Tips.