Publications
SELECTED WORK
2026
In your dream, you turn into a boulder - Ghost Parachute
* Forthcoming
Of all the landscapes her life has led her through - Literary Namjooning
Therapy - 100 Word Story
Swifties - Waxwing
Dead butterflies don't know what closure is because they're dead - Ghost Parachute
Still Drowning - Flash the Court
Nominated for 2027 Best of the Net
Cast Offs - Gooseberry Pie, 3rd Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention
Killing Robby Jenkins - Cutleaf
with Emily Rinkema
I'm a decorative throw pillow, I'm a pair of memory foam house slippers - New World Writing Quarterly
Smokelong Quarterly March Micro Marathon Competition, 400-word story, Honorable Mention
Teeth - New World Writing Quarterly
Lost But Found - New World Writing Quarterly
Dad Jokes - Bending Genres Anthology (print only)
Pure Trash - Fractured Lit, Flash Fiction OPEN, finalist
Dottie & Coco & Me - River Teeth Beautiful Things
Just Another Saturday Night - Necessary Fiction
2025
Sex In Public: A Triptych - Ghost Parachute
Nominated for The Pushcart Prize
Nominated for Best Small Fictions
The Menopausal Woman and the Tsunami - Bath Flash Fiction Award
Bath Flash Fiction Award, Highly Commended
Nominated for The Pushcart Prize
They Tell Us - Writers Resist
Why You Start Drawing Again - Fictive Dream
The Menopausal Woman can't understand why anyone would want to be a woman if they didn't have to - Sundog Lit
Détente - The Lascaux Review, The Lascaux Prize in Flash Fiction, Finalist
Nominated for 2026 Best Small Fictions
Your Mom is Wearing Mermaid Underwear at Dave and Buster’s - Mythic Picnic, Fiction Collection
You Were Supposed To Find Me, Not Get Eaten - Ghost Parachute
David as Toaster - JMWW
Nominated for Best Microfictions
What Moon Wouldn't Give - Inkfish Magazine
Nominated for The Pushcart Prize
Bully - The Woolf
Girl, you ain't missing nothing - Gooseberry Pie, 2nd Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention
The Election Goes Badly - The Forge
Lepidoptera - Moon City Review 2025 (print only)
What they don't understand is, getting used to the pronouns is the hardest part - MoonPark Review
Bra Shopping - In Short: A Journal of Flash Nonfiction
Nominated for Best American Essays
2024
Afternoon Nap - Iron Horse Literary Review PhotoFinish 2024
So Tightly Wound - Atlas + Alice
You Stupid Kid - Roi Fainéant Press
American Short(er) Fiction Contest, Semi-Finalist
Triple-Digit Fire Weather - Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine
Nothing Is Wrong with Him - Emerge Literary Journal
Mom gets me a dog for my ninth birthday because she says all kids should have a dog - Fractured Lit
Smokelong Quarterly Workshop Prize, Long List
Rules Keep You Safe - BULL
Smokelong Quarterly Workshop Prize, Long List
The Blue Frog, Finalist
The Masters Review 2023 Spring Small Fiction Awards, Short List
Somewhere Else Better - Anti-Heroin Chic
Clean Floors - The Welkin Writing Prize
Selected for Best Small Fictions 2025
The Welkin Mini, Second Place
Nominated for The Pushcart Prize
2023
I’m trying but it’s really hard - Ghost Parachute
Détente - Bath Flash Fiction Award
Bath Flash Fiction Award, First Prize winner
Nominated for 2024 Best Small Fictions
Unmentionables - Stanchion
Nominated for Best Small Fictions
How to Survive a Black Hole - Pithead Chapel
2024 Wigleaf Top 50, Long List
The EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories: writers of color 2025 - EastOver Press
Thorns - MicroLit Almanac
Nominated for Best American Essays and The Pushcart Prize
Sometimes she wishes he was dead, but then she’d miss him - Flash Frog
Smokelong Quarterly Workshop Prize, Finalist
Nominated for Best Small Fictions
Why you drive seven hours up to Yreka to check up on your little sister after she moved there with your Mom - Milk Candy Review
Alone on Your Kid’s Birthday - Many Nice Donkeys
Nominated for Best of the Net
Survival Instinct - SoFloPoJo
2022
Crossing the Limen - Heimat Review
INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
"I believe in flash, and I especially believe in microfiction": An Interview with Melissa Llanes Brownlee - Fractured Lit
Judge's Report, October 2025, Kathryn Aldridge-Morris - Bath Flash Fiction Award
Interview with Dawn Tasaka Steffler - Inkfish Magazine
Flash stories by Dawn Tasaka Steffler - Turn and Work
Author Interview with Dawn Tasaka Steffler - The Forge
Q&A with Dawn Tasaka Steffler, October 2023 First Prize Winner - Bath Flash Fiction Award
Judge’s Report, October 2023, Sara Hills - Bath Flash Fiction Award
Two Questions for Dawn Tasaka Steffler - Milk Candy Review
ANTHOLOGIES
How to Fold a World Map: Bath Flash Fiction Volume Ten - Ad Hoc Fiction
The Menopausal Woman and the Tsunami
Bending Genres Anthology - Bending Genres
Ghost Parachute: 175 Flash Fiction Stores - Ghost Parachute
Best Small Fictions 2025 - Alternating Current Press
Clean Floors, The Welkin Writing Prize
Flash Fiction Writing Tips: Penned By Masterful Flash Writers From Around the Globe - Vancouver Flash Fiction
The EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories: Writers of Color 2025 - EastOver Press
How to Survive a Black Hole, Pithead Chapel
The Weather Where You Are: Bath Flash Fiction Volume Eight - Ad Hoc Fiction
FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
Storyknife Writers Retreat, April 2024
StoryStudio Chicago StoryBoard Workshop Fellow, 2023
Smokelong Quarterly Fellowship for Emerging Writers, 2023
Periplus Fellowship Finalist, 2022
READINGS & PANELS
Fractured Lit Reading, AWP 2026 Baltimore, March 2026
Ghost Parachute Reading, AWP 2026 Baltimore, March 2026
The Prose Garden Reading, November 2025
FBOMB Global Flash Reading, February 2025
Live From Storyknife reading series, April 2024
"The Long-term Book Program as MFA Alternative" (AWP panel with Maria S. Picone, Linsey Krolik, Simone Stolzoff, Shella Paracey), Seattle, WA, 2023