Lea's Fictionable fundraiser reaches £10k

Oneworld editor and former Guardian journalist Richard Lea’s new web-based short fiction journal Fictionable has raised more than £10,000 in three weeks. 

As reported last month, the literary quarterly will publish specially commissioned short fiction from all over the globe with five short fiction pieces planned for each issue, one of which will be a story in translation and one graphic short story. 

Overall the magazine start-up hopes to raise £15,000 in total across the next eight days on Kickstarter to ensure it is launched. As of Tuesday morning (1st February) 98 contributors had helped to raise more than two-thirds of this (around £10,600). Supporters of the campaign include author Neil Gaiman, and historian and writer Lucy Worsley.

Organisers have also announced writers for its second issue, due in autumn 2022, with award-winning writers Maaza Mengiste, Samanta Schweblin and Julian Hanshaw already on board. 

Lea (pictured above) told The Bookseller: "We’re very excited to have made such a great connection with readers on Kickstarter, reaching more than 70% of our goal in three weeks. With such an excellent group of contributors lining up for issues one and two, I can’t wait to see the short stories they will come up with.”

Contributors for issue one include Sarah Hall, writer and UCLA professor Alain Mabanckou, as well as New Orleans-based author Ladee Hubbard, Owen Booth and the comics writer and illustrator Isabel Greenberg. 

Alongside the quarterly issues, the site will reach out to new readers with a blog and a podcast featuring in-depth author interviews. A standard subscription will be £20 per year for four issues but on Kickstarter there is an offer for reader pledges of £15 for the first year.