Literary Magazines :: NewPages Guide
Our Stories
Email: editor <at> ourstories <dot> us
Web: www.ourstories.us
Frequency: quarterly Simultaneous submissions: yes for contests, no during open submissions Email submissions: yes, only Reading period: year-round Response time: 3 weeks to 3 months Payment: no Contests: yes (see website)
Publisher's Description: At Our Stories we publish some of the best fiction found online. Numerous stories have been nominated for awards and anthologies including Best of the Web and StorySouth Awards and starting in 2009 will be nominating for the Pushcart Prize and Best of Short Stories anthologies. Further, in our series entitled "Interview with a Master" we interview established authors. Past issues have included fiction writers such as: Richard Bausch, George Saunders, T.C. Boyle, Junot Diaz, Adam Haslett and Steve Almond.
We pay particular attention to the submission process and have the unprecedented belief that every author's submission should receive customized feedback on his or her short story. Preposterous? Too much work, right? We don't think so. Every story received is given at least a couple of paragraphs that speak to the strengths and weaknesses of a piece, to get them started or keep them going-no matter the quality of that work. Hence, our slogan: Don't just submit. Learn to receive.
Bi-annually, Our Stories runs two contests, the Richard Bausch Short Story Prize and Our Stories Best Emerging Writer Award. For the entrance fee–unlike any other contest in the country–your money goes to more than a nice note. At Our Stories experienced, working writers with MFA experience will read through your story, and provide extensive feedback using Microsoft Word's Track Change feature, as well as a one-to-two page thorough critique. Of course, the best five or six stories are published, paid prize money but unlike everywhere else, those who don't win at least gets something. In addition, to help serve those who cannot attend MFA programs or have access to writing groups, we offer the only one-on-one creative writing workshop found on the web. Writers work on multiple drafts of one story with an editor to refine their work. We think for everything we just said, it proves our commitment to the goal of the journal, being a positive force both to the writer and to the craft.