The Best of the Web anthology series has a new Series Editor as of the 2010 edition, and that will be Matt Bell. The Guest Editor for 2010 will be Kathy Fish, a writer and promoter of online publishing and journals that we're really excited to join forces with for next year's anthology.
Matt has recently sent out the solicitation to the editor's of all of the online journals in our database. We've set up a special page as of today, for the Best of the Web, and it includes a special nomination form for editors of online journals.
If you're the publisher/editor of an exclusively online literary journal, and you did not receive the following letter via email, please go on to the site and nominate three works anyway - it just means we either did not have you in the database, or had an outdated email address.
Here is the letter as Matt sent it out today:
Dzanc Books' Best of the Web series is a yearly anthology compiling the best fiction, poetry, and non-fiction published in online literary journals. Now beginning its third year, the mission of the Best of the Web series is to promote and expand the reach and prestige of online literature by offering this annual glimpse into the best writing the internet has to offer.
The 2008 and 2009 editions of Best of the Web were guest-edited by Steve Almond and Lee K. Abbott, respectively, and collectively published over one hundred established and emerging fiction writers, poets, and essayists. Continuing in this tradition, Best of the Web 2010, guest edited by Kathy Fish with Matt Bell as series editor, will include interviews with contributors, a list of the year's other Notable Stories, and a comprehensive index of over 330 online journals considered for inclusion in the anthology, including information on how to submit to each journal. This additional content will offer an added value above and beyond the already worthy writing by providing new opportunities for readers and writers alike.
Writing in Best of the Web 2010 will be selected by Ms. Fish and Mr. Bell along with in-house Dzanc editors. All editors of online literary journals are also invited to submit their nominations for this year's edition. Please see the guidelines below for further information, as well as the Best of the Web website. You'll also find blurbs from reviews of the previous volumes at the bottom of this e-mail.
Feel free to pass this call for nominations along to other editors or to post it online at your journal's blog, as our e-mail list—while extensive—is certainly not complete, and there may be journals we have not yet reached who would be interested in submitting nominations and in being a part of our index.
Thank you so much for your time and for all the hard work you do with your own publication and as part of the online literary community. We're very excited to once again read for this yearly celebration of your own efforts and those of your fellow editors and writers.
Sincerely,
Matt Bell
Kathy Fish
Steve Gillis
Dan Wickett
Best of the Web Series
Dzanc Books
NOMINATION GUIDELINES
Nomination for Best of the Web 2010 will be accepted from August 5, 2009 until October 31st, 2009. Each online literary journal is allowed to nominate up to three works they've published, in any combination of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.
To be eligible, works must have been published exclusively online between November 1st, 2008 and October 31st, 2009.
To nominate your three choices, please use the web form found at the Best of the Web website (http://dzancbooks.org/BestOfTheWeb/index.html), being sure to fill out the required fields completely. Not only will this ensure that we receive your nomination, it will also help us include your journal in our index of online literary magazines that will appear in the 2010 book and on the website.
Our judging process will be complete by early January, after which we will send e-mail notifications to those editors whose works have been selected for inclusion in this year's anthology, as well as requests for reprint rights from the writers selected.
Thank you very much for your interest in Best of the Web, and for the impressive work you do at your individual journal. It's our deep belief that the internet publishing scene produces much of the most innovative and interesting work being printed anywhere, and it is our great honor to read your nominations in the hopes of spreading the very best of that work to new audiences.
PRAISE FOR THE
2008 AND 2009 EDITIONS OF BEST OF THE WEB
"The book is heartily significant, featuring work that is sometimes surprising...and sometimes exhilarating--not unlike the Web itself." –Los Angeles Times
"The book both recognizes a wide range of quality online writing, and gives its readers a comprehensive look at the field from which its contents come – two characteristics of a good anthology... Such a development could not have come at a better time for online literary publishing." –NewPages
" in addition to the work itself, the open structure of this collection also encourages an interesting conversation about style and aesthetics. Between these covers poetry bumps up against fiction; longer work is juxtaposed to shorter; traditional narrative meets the absurd; and canonical authors like Stephen Dixon share equal page space with writers who’d probably never identify themselves by that title." –Fiction Writer's Review
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