Short Lit Bits March

• Short-stories-on-film #1: Electric Literature has released a new video, for Matt Sumell’s story, Little Things, animated by Vance Reeser. Sumell is the first "emerging" writer to feature in EL alongside the big names.

• Congratulations #1: to Comma Press and to Short Review author Hassan Blassim, whose collection, The Madman of Freedom Square, is longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction prize.

• Going the self-publishing route #1: "Two-time PEN/Faulkner winner and National Book Award finalist ...John Edgar Wideman will be releasing his latest collection of short stories via Lulu, a self-publishing company that releases submitted work either as an e-book or printed-on-demand. Briefs: Stories for the Palm of the Mind, available starting March 14, will be one of few works from an already established author to bypass the mainstream industry entirely..." says The New Podler Review of Books.

• Congratulations #2: to Short Review author Stefanie Freele whose collection, Feeding Strays, is longlisted for the ForeWord Review's Book of the Year award in the Short Fiction category.

• Couldn't-they-find-real-short-story-writers? #1: "Leading British novelists have created short stories to accompany portraits of unidentified Elizabethan courtiers, musicians, soldiers and writers for a new exhibition at Montacute House nr Yeovil in Somerset for the National Portrait Gallery" says the Telegraph.

• Good news for short stories#1: "The Atlantic Renews Commitment to Short Stories...  The Atlantic is going to start publishing fiction again. So no more of those newstand-only summer fiction issues (which were good, though, especially the 2008 one that highlighted emerging authors). Instead, a supplement will accompany the May issue that will include half a dozen short stories and -- obligatory for all American magazines, for every single issue -- an essay from the ubiquitous Joyce Carol Oates." More here from BookFox.
  
  Congratulations #3: To Alberta author Stuart Ross, whose short story collection, Buying Cigarettes for the Dog, is shortlisted for the Alberta Readers' Choice awards, says the Northumberland News.