Embedded Files
Published Stories
Published Stories
Sundogs (Ninth Letter, 2025) *
Stripe! (The Rialto Review, 2024)
Awe and Wonder and Delight (American Literary Review, 2024) *
Good Food for Starving Things (Ploughshares, 2021) *
Last Great Flight of an American Kestrel (Sheepshead Review, 2023)
Dreams Where My Father Kills Me (The Coil, 2023)
Do You Remember that Time on the Road? (Lindenwood Review, 2022)
Saint Sam (Leon Literary, 2022)
We Who are Splendid (The Tiny Journal, 2022) *
Abditory (LitMag, 2021) *
The Moth Catcher (Laurel Review, 2021)
The Rest of Us (Orca Literary, 2020)
You Only Have the Tea You Brew (Heirlock Magazine, 2020)
Don't Waste Your Prayers, Saints Are Bad Listeners (Exposition Review, 2018) †
Leaving Things (Brainchild, 2017)
Slumber Americana (Brainchild, 2017)
*contest placement
†Pushcart Nomination
“‘Good Food for Starving Things’—dark, abrupt, and a bit wild—is a deft cross-pollination concerning what it means to be a beast, and what it means to belong. With addictive and highly personal prose, O’Toole creates an even-handed exploration of the erosion of language, and the fraught difference between starvation and hunger. This is one of those chilling narratives that refuses to ask permission or forgiveness. It’s visceral and haunting, yet emotional and delightfully absurd."
Kiley Reid
“Meghan E. O’Toole’s fiction story “Abditory” . . . is a hazy and dreamlike exploration of how longing can manifest in dreams and become necessary for engaging with reality. . . O’Toole’s story successfully employs elements of magical realism, which create a vivid sense of place that is consistent in every scene. I instantly believed in the fictional world she created, and this lack of hesitancy to trust and settle into the story’s place drew me back for a second and third read."
“"Through the lens of childhood, Meghan E. O'Toole's story 'Sundogs' captures the moment we are living: the ecological and societal destruction wrought by industrial food production is pervasive, and the window for embracing the promise of regenerative food systems that heal our land and rural communities is narrowing. 'Sundogs' speaks not only to that narrowing, but also to the hope that regeneration offers for the next generation. The story is a warning and a call to action, a layered narrative of our children’s reality and the restorative future we could give them instead, all delivered in poignant prose."
Stephanie Anderson
Honors and Awards
Honors and Awards
Ninth Letter Regeneration Contest, winner | 2024
American Literary Review Short Fiction Contest, First Runner-up | 2023
Ploughshares Emerging Writers’ Contest | 2021
the tiny journal Summer Flash Fiction Contest, First Place | 2021
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award | 2021
Alfred J. Lindsey Memorial Scholarship | 2020
Ron & Leslie Walker Fellowship | 2020
LitMag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction | 2018
Elmhurst Carlson Contest | First Place 2016 | Second Place 2017
National Community College Humanities Association Literary Magazine Contest | 2017
Robert Monteith International Poetry Competition, Third Place | 2016
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