Stack Awards 2018: Best Original Fiction shortlist
There are loads of amazing literary magazines out there, championing established and emerging talent in fiction. And in other titles not focused on literature, creative writing gives readers a break from essays and interviews — a space to let their imagination float freely. This category of the Stack Awards wants to recognise exactly this.
Our judges are Evie Wyld and Luke Neima — find out more about them on our awards page, and scroll down to explore the eight magazines and the eight pieces of fiction shortlisted in this category.
American Chordata | New York
Delivering delectable short stories, affecting poetry and thought-provoking essays, American Chordata pairs brave and illuminating writing with artfully weaved photography and illustration. The shortlisted story is by Sasha Laing, who worked with subtlety and shock in ‘The Bear’.
Archivio | Turin
Pulling materials from personal and institutional archives around the world, Archivio tells interesting and forgotten stories. Michael Salu’s piece for this entry contextualises a set of unpublished private pictures made by a soldier during the first Gulf War.
Ecotone | North Carolina
An ecotone is a transition zone between two adjacent ecological communities, and the magazine explores the ecotones between landscapes, literary genres, scientific and artistic disciplines. Their contributors are winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, as well as MacArthur, Guggenheim, and NEA fellows.
View this post on Instagram
Summer lit, meet summer thunderstorm. #litmags #intherain #takingitoutside #sweetsummer #stayawhile
Funhouse | London
Funhouse is a magazine of new writing, illustrations and comics. The shortlisted story, ‘An Apiary Concubine’, is an excerpt from Vi Khi Nao’s forthcoming novel.
View this post on Instagram
Iota | Matlock
Iota is a literary journal with a new direction. ‘The Killing of WEK’ by Vivien Furbacchione draws you into the claustrophobia of Edwardian parlours where three Bloomsbury suffragettes face a difficult decision.
Sand | Berlin
Sand is an English literary journal based in Berlin. Jeremy Packert Burke’s piece, ‘Glittering Dark’, is an illicit, fantastical love story set during a plague of insects.
Still | New York
Still magazine features writing that’s inventive and challenges narrative conventions. Isabelle Lehn’s ‘Spring Awakening’, the story submitted for this category, invites readers into the protagonist’s conversation with her therapist.
View this post on Instagram
The Tangerine | Belfast
Literary title The Tangerine features new creative work, thoughtful discussion, and critical engagement with culture and politics in Belfast and beyond.
