Cliff Garstang is out with his annual Perpetual Folly Pushcart Prize rankings, which ranks literary journals according to how many Pushcarts or special mentions they've won in the past decade.
As is wise with any of these lists, he offers the disclaimer:
What are the surprises?
As Cliff notes, One Story and A Public Space were the biggest risers. Both are in the top twenty now. I feel this accurately reflects their escalating influence in the lit journal world.
Antioch Review and Witness both took a tumble, down 6 spots and 4 spots, respectively.
Amazon Shorts (?!) was awarded a special mention. Look for them to climb the rankings in the following years. Perhaps until nearly all short fiction is published through them and they try to extort/boycott any remaining bastions of short story publishing.
Subtropics and Sycamore Review are surprisingly low, with a mere point each. Electric Literature still isn't listed — it hasn't received a special mention or a win. For being such a great journal, Fence (at 6 points) is also rather low. Ninth Letter (with 3 points) is likely suffering due to its status as newcomer, since it didn't launch until halfway through the decade.
Once again, many thanks to Cliff for his hard work in putting this together — it really is a valuable resource for writers.
One thought on “Perpetual Folly Pushcart Prize Rankings”
This list is gonna be helpful. Thanks for highlighting it.