The 2020 Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes were announced today and were given to three magazines and two digital publications. The awards were established in 2018 "to acknowledge, reward, and encourage the publications that are actively nurturing the writers who tell us, through their art, what is important," according to the organization. "The purpose of the prizes is first and foremost to recognize excellence, and also to help outstanding magazines reach new audiences, find new sources of revenue, and travel the path to sustainability and growth.

The five 2020 winners were chosen from more than 100 applicants from 37 states through a two-round process. The money awarded in the first year, is repeated as a matching grant in the second and third year, provided the magazines can raise equal funds.

This year's winners are, with citations:

One Story (Brooklyn, NY), which has made its mark publishing only one short story per issue in a small-format, easily shareable booklet, helping to launch authors’ reputations–but never publishing the same writer twice.

  • Print Prize Winner ($150,000-$500,000 budget)
  • Total prize: $60,000

Conjunctions (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), a magazine on the verge of its fortieth anniversary that weaves work from emerging and established writers into a book-length exploration of a resonant theme like “sanctuaries” or “exile.”

  • Print Prize Winner (under $150,000 budget)
  • Total prize: $30,000

Foglifter (San Francisco, CA), an adventurous journal that celebrates queer and trans writing, embracing literary experimentation to call accepted truths into question.

  • Print Development Grantee
  • Total prize: $15,000

And the 2020 digital winners are:

Kweli (New York, NY), which features the astounding and wide-ranging work of emerging writers of color, primarily women, and invests deeply in writers’ careers to expand the literary world of the future.

  • Digital Prize Winner
  • Total prize: $30,000

Nat. Brut Magazine (Burlington, NC), which pairs word and image to explore unexpected and overlooked corners of contemporary culture, fostering an online home for the quirky, subversive, sublime, and human.

  • Digital Development Grantee
  • Total prize: $9,000

Applications for next year's awards are open now until November 30.