(Work avoidance and general messing about continues.)
So, hey kidlitosphere: I have a quick question: Where do you go to get your fix for YA short stories in whatever genre? What are some of the most widely read literary sources for young adults who don’t have the time or ability to commit to an entire long novel, but who like to read shorter pieces? I know that Carus Publishing still produces CICADA, but there must be a plethora of places I don’t know about. Where do young adults that you know go for other short stories?
I give them my short stories booklist. La. 🙂
I racked my brains, and I’m not having any luck. I know several good collections of short stories (Connie Willis comes to mind) but I don’t know of any regular source of fresh short fiction. Lots of YA’s write short stories, and publish them in their own school’s literary magazines, or online at a fan fiction site. Do you think that satisfies the need?
There are some really great YA short story anthologies coming out — I think of 21 Proms or The Jealousy Book and a couple of others — but there doesn’t seem to be anything else going in terms of a regular feature in a popular magazine that features actual short fiction.
Just knowing, Sara, how hard it is for authors who aren’t yet established to pull together short story collections (they’re the Picture Books of the YA world; agents recoil in horror. “No, wait! You’re not known enough, it will never sell!”), I wondered if the people who write short fiction are plying their trade elsewhere that I haven’t discovered. It may be that it has turned into an online thing entirely. Which would also be worth knowing.