A few Million Writers Award stats

Here are a few stats on this year's list of Million Writers Award notable stories. Thanks to Robert Laughlin for pointing out the first two.

  • Roxane Gay is this year's Tom Hanks of the online writing world for landing so many nominations. As people may remember, I granted Kyle Minor that title last year when he landed four stories on the notable list (and I should note Kyle returns this year with the story "Ill Nature" from Plots With Guns). Well, Roxane does two up on Kyle, having six stories picked for this year's list. These are "Gravity at the End of the World" from Knee-Jerk Magazine, "Things I Know About Fairy Tales" from Necessary Fiction, "The Mark of Cain" fron Night Train, "Between Things" from Pindeldyboz, "This Program Contains Actual Surgical Procedures" from Twelve Stories, and "Bone Density" from Word Riot. Considering that Roxane published all these stories with different magazines, and they were picked by different judges (with some landing nominations from more than one judge), this is an amazing accomplishment. Check out her fiction. And if I was an agent or publisher, I'd consider snapping up this hot young writer.
     
  • There are 190 stories on this year's notable list, making it the longest in Million Writers Award history. It's worth noting that there are also more online magazines publishing quality fiction than ever before. Among the impressive new magazines starting up last year were Kill Author, Cerise Press, Knee Jerk Magazine, and Slush Pile.
     
  • Among the previously honored magazines which stopped publishing last year were Baen's Universe, Lone Star Stories, and Farrago's Wainscot. I was sorry to see all of these magazines go, but Farrago's Wainscot was a true loss. As people may remember, Farrago's Wainscot won our best new magazine award a few year's back.