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How Literary Journals Select Short Story Award Nominations
A litmag editor shares how he chooses stories for Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction & Best of the Net
Unless they’re Lauren Groff or Joyce Carol Oates, short story writers tend not to receive lots of fanfare. Publication is often a triumph itself, with some literary journals accepting only one percent of submissions. When spring comes, though, we have a small chance at fame—or at least anthology publication. That’s when awards like the Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, Best American Experimental Writing, and others announce the foremost in fiction.
After a story is published, litmag editors take it and others ran that year. From these pieces, they choose their nominations. These stories join others from hundreds of journals, then the award chooses winners from there.
To better understand the way journals choose nominations, I interviewed Eric Scot Tryon, editor-in-chief of Flash Frog, an online litmag that publishes one new short story every week. Eric is also a writer whose fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Monkeybicycle, and others.
