Each year, storySouth, a fine online magazine, runs the Million Writers Award competition. It’s a little unusual in that it has both popular and juried components to it. It begins with a long nomination process during which both online magazine editors and readers nominate their favorite stories from the past year. Then a panel of judges selects 50 stories as the year’s “Notable Stories.” Another panel then whittles that list down to 10, at which point readers are invited to vote to select a winner. I don’t love that last part of the process, if only because real money is at stake–through donations, storySouth offers some nice prize money–and I don’t believe that the prize should depend on who has the most friends.
BUT, having said that, I’m all in favor of drawing attention to good writing in online magazines because those publications often get overlooked.
AND, I’m very pleased that I have an interest in 3 of this year’s Notable Stories.
First, there’s my own story, “Cousin Barnaby is Dead,” which appeared last year in Joyland. And then there are 2 stories from Prime Number Magazine, which I edit. They are “Treasures Few Have Ever Seen” by Mary Akers and “Art Lessons” by Gleah Powers.
I’d love it if we all made it into the top 10!