A smiling man wearing a baseball cap. Behind him is a scenic landscape and clear skies.

WILL WILLOUGHBY, WRITER AND EDITOR

I'm a writer who makes a reasonable living as an editor. My short stories, populated by characters facing absurd, comically sad situations, have appeared in a number of publications, including Epiphany, Pangyrus, and Points in Case. I've been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. In May 2025, I won a Maine Literary Award. See my bio for more.

Check out the featured stories below. If you like my stuff, please spread the word. And don't hesitate to reach out. You can even buy me a coffee if you want to.

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Downstream Benefits

Pangyrus (August 2024)

Winner of 2025 Maine Literary Award for Short Fiction

"I can't help her. I can't stop what's happening. But I do things. I buy groceries, wash the clothes, pick up her meds. She spends her days in bed while a glacier of blankets builds up, layer by layer, around her."

Sparse conifer trees silhouetted against a dusky sky. We see the taillights of a car driving away down a dark road.

Zephyr

BULL (October 2025)

"Around 1:26 a.m., the car—along with Zephyr and, presumably, my medium Carnivore's Delite—evaporated. Along that stretch, at this time of night, something marginally catastrophic may have happened, and I don't want to get into a whole big thing here, but this should, ideally, be concerning."

A professional but somehow sinister man in suit sits at desk with his hands steepled annoyingly.

For the Record, I'm the One
Who Said That Legendarily
Funny Thing, Not Chad

Points in Case (August 2025)

"I've recently learned that the joke you've all been giddily repeating since it was told at last year's company picnic—the one about the wiener car—is once again being attributed to Chad. It was not Chad. It was me."

Crescent-shaped snowbank in sharp sunlight with blue sky and white clouds above it.

Splice

Epiphany (Summer 2023)

"He's not unreasonable, he tells me. But he's genuinely alarmed by the extent of the first-round edits. Entire captions have been rewritten. Much has been cut. Actual names—the town hall—have been lowercased. Passive voice has been used."

Jellyfish underwater, looking up through the surface toward the sun

Visions and Revisions

MIDLVLMAG (Summer 2024)

"I don’t give the dining room a second act. I just withdraw. I scuff out back to brood over the stainless steel sink filled with gray water and chopped veggie floaters."

Man walking down the aisle of a darkened theater, silhouetted against the movie screen

The Projectionist

Does It Have Pockets? (February 2024)

Best of the Net Nominee

"There's a sleeper down in the theater. I've seen them before, these sleepers, and never know what to do."

Featured Stories

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