Spring Short Story Panel discussion

I have noticed that there are fewer places to send short stories for legitimate print than ever before, even though there are web centers dedicated to them. I have perused the websites and find the selections so uneven, and many are glib in hipness to the point they all sound so alike. The format seems always First Person Narrator who relies heavily on passive voice verbs, a quick intro that's followed by long exposition of back story, which shoots into a quasi present dilemma that resolves in a flippant and/or quirky dissolution of a usually self-righteous but spurned lover and her ex. Any thoughts?

I disagree wholeheartedly, though maybe I just frequent different places than you do.
Though as your point about printing... I think that now ereading is coming up we will see a lot more short stories published through different formats, though not necessarily printing. I have seen more epublishers offering to publish shorter work. I think for printing publishers there might not be enough profit to publish all sorts of short stories unless you're an established name.

I have read quite a lot of short stories all sorts and I think that it fully depends on where you frequent for what sort of stories you will find. In my writing group (mainly 30 + ) I have found really strong works when it comes to good ideas, though when I go to places some other places I have found weaker works and even encouragement for writing it as there is a group of people who like works like that.

In my opinion, there are a lot of great online short story magazines out there. From a writer's perspective, the nice thing about the online magazines is that they are more accessible to the public. Print magazines are still wonderful, but if you get a story into one of them your fans may not be able to get hold of it. If you get a story into an online magazine, all of your readers can access it.

My creative writing instructor told me about a magazine called One Story that sends out a single short story in the mail every three weeks. I think it's worth checking out. We read a story from it for the same class and the story itself was good enough for me to consider signing up for it. Here's the website:
http://www.one-story.com/

One Story is the greatest! I was never so distressed as the day, two weeks ago, I realized I'd let my subscription lapse. I was wondering why no issues had been showing up in my mailbox. I love the concept of the publication and the editorial decisions are nearly always spot-on.

I'd also put in a pitch for other print (and web-based) publications like Narrative (http://www.narrativemagazine.com), Fugue, Ecotone, Glimmer Train Stories, Tin House, Gulf Coast, and probably another dozen I could mention. The short story is far from having its obituary written.

Is Narrative still requiring payment to submit? If so, what do you think of this model?

Kathy,
Yes, I think they are still asking for a $20 submission fee. When I submitted my story to them last year, I just tried to think of it as another contest entry fee, so it didn't sting quite as bad. Fortunately, it turned out well for me in the end. But I can understand how some people might be a little reluctant to pay the fee.