A sincere expression of gratitude, very much so, and so much, to Gerardo Sámano Córdova for serving as the Guest Selecting Editor of The Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions of 2025. As soon as I read his novel Monstrilio, I immediately became such a huge fan and reached out to Gerardo to see if he would be willing to take part in this series. Thank you so much, Gerardo, a million times over.

Gerardo is a writer and artist from Mexico City living in Brooklyn. He's currently Writer in Residence at Fordham University, and he received his MFA from the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. He has studied at Bread Loaf as a work/study scholar (2023) and fellow (2019) and at the Tin House Summer Workshop (2019).

Currently working on his second book, Gerardo's first novel Monstrilio won the Balcones Fiction Prize, and it was a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, as well as a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for the Best Horror and Best Debut Novel. Monstrilio has been highly praised across several platforms, including being recognized as a Book of the Year in 2023 by such venues as NPR, Elle, Goodreads, Barnes&Noble, Book Riot, and The Observer.

Gerardo's writings have appeared in American Short Fiction, The Common, Chicago Quarterly Review, Passages North, The Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. He has also been known to draw little creatures. His website can be found here, and he can also be found on social media here.

To The Wigleaf Top 50 team: thank you for always being there and for sharing your time for this experience. For y'all to give such care and thought and to be a part of the literary community and the world in such a way, and to be a part of it with y'all, it truly is a blessing, and I don't think I can ever properly explain or describe how thankful I am for y'all. This is all for the love and passion for very short fictions and its writers, and it means so much to me to share such an occasion with y'all. Over and over, thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you do.

Our Readers for this past year are Anne Weisgerber, Casey Hannan, Sean Lovelace, Sacha Bissonnette, LaToya Jordan, Erica L. Williams, Jeneé Skinner, Vincent Chavez, Alexandria Juarez, and Kate Tooley. Our Associate Series Editors are Alice Maglio, Colleen Rothman, Ruth Joffre, and Sudha Balagopal. A special congratulations to Sudha who will be serving as the Series Editor next year. Thanks again, my friends, so much.

Of course, of course, and of course, thank you, Scott Garson, for all this—for providing a space for us all to celebrate the art and craft of very short fictions.

Words, that's all. Small, medium, large, and you kind of just put them together to see what happens. So, let's see.

Love.

Onward and onward, shome