I’m proud to announce that I have three (!) stories forthcoming at Great Jones Street. Great Jones Street is more than a literary journal…I’ll let founder Kelly Abbott explain:
We want to popularize the short story. We want to bring new stories and new Writers to new Readers. There are literary journals. There are genre rags. And “serious” readers of each will seek them out. There are gems in both. As curators we know how to find them and bring them to a brand new, uninitiated audience…
Our subscribers get once-a-week introductions to proper indie artists whose craftwork is top shelf. Never a boring story. Never a pulled punch. Never run-of-the-mill. If it’s highbrow, then it better be high-caliber. We find gems you won’t or can’t and we publish them here… And in doing so, we bring the hottest writers working today (tomorrow’s Pulitzer-winners)”
Basically, they’re like the Spotify of literary fiction. They have an app out already for the iPhone, and they already have hundreds of stories (many of them exclusive) in their archives. As a writer, I should also say that GJS pays its contributors well, and that makes a huge difference in my ability to pay my bills and in the quality of work they’re able to publish. I can’t tell you how honored I am to be published there alongside writers like my mentors (Geeta Kothari), the woman who wrote the textbook I’m using in two of my classes (Janet Burroway), and writers I read as a kid (Saki).
My stories aren’t up yet, but if you want to see what they’re all about, I’d recommend this GJS piece by Sarah Harris Wallman. It’s absolutely blistering (the opening is basically a long literary trigger warning), but if you can get past the subject matter, there’s another layer beneath that’s imbued with enough magic and humor to carry you to the end.
Robert Yune 