Dear readers,

Happy holidays to everyone! Always at this time of the year, we’re grateful for another year showcasing writers’ and artists’ work. This year the feeling is even more pronounced as we look ahead to 2026 and our 10th year at Sunlight! When we launched in January 2017 we had no idea what would happen, and YOU happened. Readers, writers, photographers, donors, and volunteers found us, and lo & behold, came back. It was exhilarating, and we thank you — one and all.

Anyone who’s already donated an end-of-year gift as part of our annual matching campaign, thank you for that too. For others who’d like to financially support artists and their work, please visit our Support page and see how. We’ll email an acknowledgement of your tax-deductive gift promptly. All donations go directly to artist honorariums.

In other news, we were thrilled to learn earlier this month that The Sunlight Press ranked #7 on the 2026 FISH (Finest Indie Story House) list. This is our second consecutive year landing on this list; read more about the scoring and criteria by clicking the FISH link above. Special thanks to judge and writer Sabrina Hicks (a previous contributor at Sunlight) who let us know about Sunlight’s ranking.

Other exciting news! Today we announce our nominations to the 2026 Best Microfiction anthology. This is our second time nominating to this annual anthology, and we congratulate the five writers for their microfiction (stories 400 words or less) published this year in our journal. You can read by clicking the links below.

2026 Best Microfiction Nominees

In case you missed it earlier this month, we also nominated work for the 2026 Pushcart Prizes. We congratulate these writers for notable fiction and poetry.

2026 Pushcart Nominees

Sam & Ruby on the Brink – Fiction by Kathryn Kulpa
Mother Said I Was Air – Fiction by Dawn Miller
Resistance – Fiction by Laura Nagle
Holding onto Sleeves — Poetry by Jeff Burt
Golden Ratio – Poetry by Heather Hoover
9December – Poetry by Robert L. Penick

And finally, where would we be without our volunteer staff? Huge thanks to Clive Collins, Meg Freer, Peggy Turnbull (poetry readers & aficionados); Elizabeth Spencer (nonfiction and fiction reader & book reviewer); Susan Pohlman (nonfiction and fiction reader); and Annie Scholl (our Artists on Craft writer/interviewer). Thank you for making our work fun and possible.

On that note, we end our last Editors’ note of the year. We close Wednesday with our final post, and we will be back Monday, Jan. 5. See you then as we begin Year 10!

Warmly,
Beth and Rudri

Rudri Patel & Beth Burrell
Editors
The Sunlight Press