The 2026 Small Bites Short Story Winners illuminate the moments when truth breaks through - sometimes gently, sometimes like a lightning strike. In Exposed and Other Small Bites Stories, ordinary lives tilt toward the extraordinary as secrets surface, shadows shift, and clarity arrives in unexpected forms.

Across genres and worlds, these characters confront the instant when everything hidden comes into view - a discovery in a darkened office, a soul forged in the aftermath of apocalypse, a traveler confronting the cost of compassion, a veteran haunted by battles that refuse to stay buried.

These brief narratives move from the intimate to the cosmic, from the deeply human to the quietly uncanny, offering glimpses of lives transformed by clarity. Thoughtful, haunting, and resonant, this collection invites readers to pause, reflect, and consider what is revealed when we finally choose to look.

AUTHORS

Timothy Baldwin - Ron Schultz - Scott Meehan - Donna Doty - JW Bell - D. Krauss - Susan April

COMPILED BY

Lisa Orban