Short Fiction Competition
Many thanks to all who entered the 2020 Short Fiction Competition. We appreciate the opportunity to read such bright and brilliant new work. From more than 2,200 submissions, guest judge Téa Obreht has announced results.
Many thanks to all who entered the 2020 Short Fiction Competition. We appreciate the opportunity to read such bright and brilliant new work. From more than 2,200 submissions, guest judge Téa Obreht has announced results.
The editors are thrilled to announce the release of the Spring 2021 Edition, designed by the acclaimed artist Jeffrey Gibson, with contributions from Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Millhauser, PEN/Hemingway Award-winner Tommy Orange, and 2020 Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Competition-winner Deborah Forbes, among others.
Why did you accept the invitation to design the Spring 2021 edition of All-Story?
It was an opportunity that I’ve not had previously, and I’m working on a book project for which I’ll be the editor. So I’ve been paying a lot of attention to print material lately, and I thought this would be a perfect chance to have some fun with the format of a publication.
By the time I read Jack London’s story “All Gold Canyon,” I was nearly done with shooting the Coen brothers’ film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Like most youngsters, the first book I read by London was The Call of the Wild. Required reading. I was swept away by the drama and adventure that came sailing off the page. Next time I encountered London was a memoir called The Road. I was a teenager and had become transfixed by the Beats and especially their bible, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.
London’s book—which chronicles his years as a hobo riding the rails and trying to get food and money and stay out of jail—predated Kerouac’s by fifty years, and it inspired the Lee Marvin film Emperor of the North. It’s rich with jargon, slogan, and the secret language of those on the outside of life during one of the country’s worst depressions.