Save Our Short Story

[coalescent]

See here:

The aims of the campaign are to:
* Increase the number and visibility of high quality outlets for short fiction
* Give the short story form more prestige and a higher profile
* Enable writers to specialise in the short story form
* Encourage and promote exciting short fiction.

What are we doing?
* Research
* Raising the profile
* Online anthology
* Sharing experience

Basically, the centrepiece is the online anthology Endangered Species, which publishes two short stories a month and is edited by Val McDermid. It even mentions genre fiction specifically, so all in all it seems like a fundamentally Good Thing. That said, the suggestion that the site will only be running until July '04 - twelve months in total - is a little disappointing. Maybe if it's a success (however they're going to define success), they'll keep it running longer.

Comments

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

I fully support this initiative. They're funding a research project into short stories!

I wouldn't have had Val McDermid pegged as a big short story supporter, as the vast majority of her stuff is novels, but if she's happy to get involved with this then more power to her. Crime is a genre where short stories should work well - I don't know why there aren't more of them. It's true that outside SF it's not that easy to come across short fiction - even fantasy doesn't have much of a short story tradition (unless you count fairy tales, which personally I would).

Definitely my preferred literary form.