storySouth, one of the more notable literary journals operating online, has announced the longlist of short stories up for the Million Writers Award. All stories published online in 2008 were eligible. On May 15th, the shortlist of ten stories will be announced, at which point the winner is determined by public vote. I would offer a snarky comment about using mass voting to determine a literary winner, but 1) I imagine the people devoting time reading online short stories are a cut above general public and 2) it can’t be any less scientifically accurate than the debacle of juried awards — just read the behind the scenes finagling of any juried prize.
Kudos to the storySouth team for pumping up the prize money from last year (total of $800 bucks for the top winners, now). Also, if you want to keep up with discussions about the top stories, check out storySouth editor Jason Sanford’s blog, including the stories about the quick disqualification (!) and how awesome Kyle Minor is, considering he nabbed four nominations (I totally agree with the awesomeness).
Narrative Magazine scored the enviable position of Most Story Nominations (8!), which indicates how quickly it’s risen in the online literary journal world. But it’s innovative, attracts big names, and pays big bucks (perhaps the last two are related somehow?). Most importantly, although often online-published stories are deemed as second-citizens, Narrative really is blazing the way in establishing cachet for stories published online. I must say, though, that Narrative is like McSweeney’s in some ways: it has an ardently devoted fan base while suffering under a flock of vocal detractors.
Some other mags garnering high numbers of nominations:
AGNI (4)
Blackbird (4)
Carve (5)
Eclectica (4)
Fantasy Magazine (6)
Storyglossia (5)
Strange Horizons (6)
