So it won’t be so hard to catch up on my short story readings of the literary journals:
Prairie Schooner, Fall 2004: A total of four short stories; 64 pages out of 190.
Ploughshares, Winter, 2004-2005: Six short stories; 84 pages out of 193 (one story is 40 pages long).
Yes, I will read the poems as well–maybe. But as primarily a fiction writer, I’m obviously interested in the short story format much more than the reviews, essays or poetry. I’ve posted on this before and bemoaned the odds against the short story writer gaining publication in a journal of import such as the two above. But more to the point, are these stories going to prove to be the cream of the crop?
They’d better be.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Funny you should bring this up. Just this morning I was preparing to mail off a short story to a fairly prominent lit journal. Then I did a bit more digging and saw that: a) they only publish twice a year; and b) they only publish two short stories per issue. I won’t be submitting to them after all–given those odds against me, it’s not even worth the postage.
Pete, I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from sending in, but the one thing I would strongly urge is that if they–on top of the odds–ask that your submission not be simultaneous, then they’d be put back on the bottom of my list for sure.