Short Stories & Poetry
PUBLISHED WORKS & CONTEST WINNERS
“Holiday Traffic” - short story published in Flora Fiction in February 2026. Online here.
“21st Century American Birthday” and “Winter Wind”- two poems published in the Mid-Atlantic Review in February 2026. Online here.
“We Used to Hunt Whales” - short story published in Half and One in 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.
“One Hundred Thousand Steps” - short story published by Unlikely Stories in February 2026. Previously published by Kallisto Gaia Press in Ocotillo Review Volume 6.1, Winter 2022. Available for free online here.
“Fog in the Desert” - short story published in Issue #18 of the Free State Review in January 2026. Journal available for purchase here.
“Of Wolves and Snakes” - poem published in the After Happy Hour Review in December 2025. Interview and audio here. Journal available online here (p. 65-69).
“A Desert Crossing” / “Too Close to the Sun” / “Careful with the Knife” - three poems published in October 2025 in Floating Acorn Review's Issue Four. “Too Close to the Sun” nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Online links embedded in poem titles.
“Addicted to Plastic” - short story published in the New Ohio Review in December 2025. Available online (and audio version) here.
“Once is Enough” - short story published in the Los Angeles Review in November 2025. Online here.
“Machines Don’t Whimper” - short story published by The Brussels Review in December 2025. Journal available for purchase 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.”
“Preschool Drop-off on a Monday Morning” - flash fiction published in the Los Angeles Review in October 2025. Online here.
“Lost and Found” - short story published in 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.”
“Two Dollars a Door” - poem published in May 2025 as part of the anthology, Screaming at America, Volume 2—An Anthology of Disobedience. Available for purchase here.
“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.
“The Reburial” - published (p 93-106) in Driftwood Press 2023 Anthology as a runner-up in their annual short story contest. Available online here.
“Remember this Morning” - short story published by The Los Angeles Review in December 2022. Online here.
“A Night to Remember” - flash fiction published by The Los Angeles Review in June 2022. Online here.
UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS
“Heat of Summer” - poem to be published in Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment in 2026.
“A Literate Life” - flash fiction to be published in Flash Fiction Magazine in 2026.
“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.
“If You Can Hear This” - poem to be published in Bramble Spring 2026.
“Sylvia Plath Party” - poem to be published in Bramble Spring 2026.
“Swamp Creature” - poem to be published in Bramble Spring 2026.
“Shooting Threes and Eating Candy” - short story to be published in Sybil Journal in 2026. Previously a winner of an SB Nation basketball fiction writing contest in 2009.
FINALISTS & HONORABLE MENTIONS - UNPUBLISHED AS OF FEBRUARY 2026
“One More Jump” - finalist in Tucson Festival of Books 2024 Short Fiction Contest.
“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.
“And the Sign Says” - semi-finalist for Story Magazine’s 2023 Story Foundation Prize.