PUBLISHED SHORT STORIES & FLASH FICTION

“One More Jump” - After Happy Hour Review Issue #30 (Summer 2026). Previously a finalist in TFOB 2024 Short Fiction Contest. Online here (and audio here).

“A Literate Life” - Flash Fiction Magazine in June 2026. Online here.

“And the Sign Says” - Valparaiso Fiction Review Vol. 15 Issue 2 (Summer 2026). Previously a semi-finalist for Story Magazine’s 2023 Story Foundation Prize. Online here.

“One Hundred Thousand Steps” - Unlikely Stories, February 2026. Previously published by Kallisto Gaia Press in Ocotillo Review Volume 6.1, Winter 2022. Online here.

“Shooting Threes and Eating Candy” - Sybil Journal in spring 2026. Online here.

“Holiday Traffic” - Flora Fiction, February 2026. Online here.

“We Used to Hunt Whales” - Half and One, February 2026. Previously a finalist for 2024 Prime Number Magazine Award and semi-finalist in Winning Writers Tom Howard/John H. Reid 2024 Fiction & Essay Contest. Available free online here.

“Fog in the Desert” - Free State Review Issue #18, January 2026. Journal available for purchase here.

“Addicted to Plastic” - New Ohio Review in December 2025. Available online (and audio version) here.

“Once is Enough” - Los Angeles Review, November 2025. Online here.

“Machines Don’t Whimper” - The Brussels Review, December 2025. Journal available for purchase here. Free online here.

From The Brussels Review: “McConnell interrogates technological agency and emotional absence in a world where response has been automated and empathy externalized. The story resists easy futurism, focusing instead on ethical residue: what is lost when feeling becomes optional or simulated. Humanity is measured not by intelligence but by the capacity for discomfort.”

“Lost and Found” - Dogwood Literary Journal Spring 2025 edition. Journal available for purchase here.

“Before it Gets Cold”- winner of 2025 Slippery Elm Literary Journal’s annual short story contest. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Journal available for purchase in November 2025 here.

From Slippery Elm: “Before it Gets Cold’ is lyrical rumination of the liminal space between day and night, between relationships, and between stagnation and moving on. Throughout this story the longing for sleep mimics the writer’s longing for connection. Although an inherently queer story, it rises to the universal in its ache for resolution.”

“Preschool Drop-off on a Monday Morning” - Los Angeles Review in October 2025. Online here

“The Reburial” - Driftwood Press 2023 Anthology as a runner-up in their annual short story contest.

From Driftwood: “‘The Reburial’ stands out as a memorably weird, yet remarkably subtle rendering of obligation through the lens of grief. We experience the obligation of sons to their father, of brothers to one another, and of family members to a home.”

“How to Say Goodbye” - published as 2nd place winner in Flash 500 contest, March 2023. Also selected as a finalist in New Millenium Writing Awards 55. Available online here.

‍ ‍From 1Q2023 Flash 500 Contest Judge Amanda Saint: “Even though this story is told in second person, there’s a real connection with the You of the story and the confusion, loss and pain she feels about ending this relationship. I loved the ambiguity of it and that I couldn’t understand what she was really feeling as part of her was so determined to say goodbye but then another part was so bereft at having done it. I think it reflects the myriad of thoughts and emotions we go through all the time so well, to show that reality is a constantly shifting phenomena.”

“Remember this Morning” - The Los Angeles Review, December 2022. Online here.

“A Night to Remember” - The Los Angeles Review, June 2022. Online here.

UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS

“Older than You” - short story to be published in Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment in 2026. Previously selected as finalist in New Millenium’s 2025 short story contest.

“Sunsets on the Pier” - short story to be published in Mangrove Review in 2026. Previously a finalist in New Letters’ 2022 Robert Day Award for fiction contest.

“Avoiding Paralysis” - short story to be published in The North American Review as a finalist in their 2026 short story contest.

“Rest in Piss” - short story to be published in October 2026 in Poetries in English Magazine.

“Small Embarrassments of Childhood” and “The Cane and His Old Man” - two flash fiction pieces to be published by Short Beasts Flash Fiction in late-2026.

FINALISTS & HONORABLE MENTIONS - UNPUBLISHED AS OF AUGUST 2026

“Things Burn in the Country” - finalist in Tucson Festival of Books 2024 Short Fiction Contest and semi-finalist in Driftwood Press 2024 Short Story Contest.

“A Misunderstanding” - finalist in Tucson Festival of Books 2023 Short Fiction Contest.

”Mother, Mother” - shortlisted in 2022 Write by the Sea competition in Kilmore Quay, Ireland.

”The Letter” - honorable mention in Writer’s Digest 2022 Annual Short Story Competition.

“Halley’s Comet” - long listed in Fish Publishing’s 2022 Short Story Contest.‍ ‍

“The Machine” - semi-finalist in Ruminate Magazine 2022 Fiction Contest.