And… We’re Off!

We just lifted the password curtain and made Fictionaut visible to the world. After a year of private testing, we’re delighted to reveal a thriving community along with the terrific writing posted and discussed over the past twelve months.

While still in the beta phase, Fictionaut has been featured in the L.A. Times and VenusZine, and co-founder Jürgen Fauth was interviewed in SmokeLong Quarterly. James Robison had “A Few Grateful Thoughts About Fictionaut.”

Since we began sending invites, Fictionaut has attracted a heady mix of published authors, flash fiction addicts, MFA students, experimental novelists, independent publishers, New Yorker editors, slam poets, bloggers, memoirists, and — most of all — curious and discerning readers.

The site is already bursting with wonderful and surprising short fiction and poetry by emerging and established writers such as Pia Ehrhardt, Matt Bell, Jedediah Berry, Marc Fitten, Mary Miller, Roxane Gay, Maud Casey, Barry Graham, Marcy Dermansky, Ginnah Howard, Kathy Fish, Jim Ruland, Noria Jablonski, James Robison, Kim Chinquee, and Terese Svoboda, and too many promising newcomers to mention. You can follow the constantly updated stream of new and recommended stories on the front page or dig into the archives.

Fictionaut is also quickly become a burgeoning hub for a growing number of diverse literary scenes. Since we introduced groups, magazines and publishers such as Prairie Schooner, Wigleaf,  Matchbook, Keyhole Press, Featherproof Books, Toronto Quarterly, and Mississippi Review have formed their own subcommunties, along with groups dedicated to styles, places, writing programs, and more.

With the help of regular contributors Matt Briggs, Travis Kurowski, and Nicolle Elizabeth, the Fictionaut blog has grown into a destination in its own right, and we’re grateful to everyone who contributed to our ongoing “Writing Spaces” and “Fictionaut Five” series. We’d also like to thank the illustrious Fictionaut Board of Advisors for their ongoing support. Most of all, we’d like to express our gratitude to the Fictionaut community, without whose humbling  passion, patience, generosity, and talent, there’d be no site.

To ensure the community’s ongoing vitality while we work on technical improvements, Fictionaut will remain in the invite-only stage for now. If you’d like to join, you can sign up here to be notified as invites become available. We’ve also added tools for sharing stories to help you spread the word.

As an experiment in community-sourced literary publishing, Fictionaut has come a long way, but we believe that we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible. We’re thrilled about the prospects for growing Fictionaut into an even more rewarding place to discover, share, and discuss great writing. Stay tuned.