The Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) announced at Capclave on September 30 that Naomi Kritzer won the 2023 WSFA Small Press Award for best short fiction published by a small press in 2023.

Kritzer’s winning story is “The Dragon Project”, published in Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 186 (March 2022), edited by Neil Clarke.

The award was announced by Capclave Chair Aaron Pound.

The other finalists for the 2023 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction were:

• “Ashes of a Cinnamon Fire” by R. Z. Held, Shattering The Glass Slipper, ed. by Crystal Sarakas and Rhondi Salsitz, Zombies Need Brains, LLC (June 2022); and
• “At the Lighthouse, Out by the Othersea” by Juliet Kemp, Uncanny Magazine, Issue 47 (July/August 2022) ed. by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas; and 
• “In the Belly of the Whale” by Angus McIntyre, Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls: Cyberpunk Fairy Tales, ed. by Rhonda Parrish, World Weaver Press (January 2022); and  
• “Not the Youngest, Nor the Prettiest, But Someone Else” by Alyse Winters, Shattering The Glass Slipper, ed. by Crystal Sarakas and Rhondi Salsitz, Zombies Need Brains, LLC (June 2022); and
• “Possession” by Taylor Jones, Reckoning, #6 (September 25, 2022), ed. by Aicha Martine Thiam and Gabriela Santiago; and 
• “Simons, Far and Near” by Ana Gardner, Cast of Wonders, episode 485 (February 6, 2022) ed. by Katherine Inskip; and 
• “This Living Hand” by Marie Brennan, Sunday Morning Transport, (February 13, 2022) ed. by Julian Yap and Fran Wilde.

The award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction, and showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year (2022). An unusual feature of the selection process is that the voting is done with the identity of the author and publisher hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story.  The winner was chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association and was presented at their annual convention, Capclave, held at the Rockville Hilton, Rockville, MD.