soldier fighting in the south exerts his democracy by reading printed out online story

Here’s the list. I may need to be corrected on this, but I think this is how it works: 1) editors and readers nominate stories via blog comments under their respective categories, 2) notable anonymous editors pick through the list and come up with the ‘notable stories’ list, and 3) finally, Jason Sanford, the editor of storySouth, picks the winners (forthcoming).

This is a gathering of diverse tastes, wherein anyone (as readers), can nominate their favorite stories. So at this point in the process, these stories have received praise from at least two entities. With all respect to Jason Sanford’s final decision, I’m always more interested in this list, as it is indicative of a greater population of sensibilities.

There’s likely suspects Kim Chinquee, J.A. Tyler, Corey Mesler, Blake Butler, Myfanwy Collins, Spencer Dew; nice surprises (and I don’t mean that I’m ‘surprised’ you were nominated, just that it’s very nice to see you here — shit writers are so sensitive!) Molly Gaudry, Sam Pink, Crispin Best; and other familiar names Kyle Minor, Alicia Gifford, CL Bledsoe, Lily Hoang (and just because I’m not including you on the list of people who it’s nice to see doesn’t mean it’s not nice to see you too!); not to mention many deserving others. Good job people.

We (both contributors and commenters) have been rather vocal in our critique of Narrative Magazine’s (who recieved ‘best online publication’) submission fee. This may (or may not) give them some renewed leverage, as writers may (or may not) paypal their hopes away. What’s great and invigorating about ‘online lit democracy’ is that everyone has a voice — my cheesy meter is on full blast today, sorry — and writers with otherwise no audience can now be read here. It’s free to read — it just sometimes costs money to be read — cynical meter creeping up again, I’m back.

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