On judging and being judged

This report is an edited transcript of a speech Livi Michael gave as keynote speaker at the European Network for Short Fiction Research (ENSFR) conference in Lisbon 2022. She argues that despite the need to support and promote short fiction, corporate, commercial publishing is not the best way forward. Short fiction needs to retain its links to the independent sector, and to the academy, where different values apply. Corporate publishing necessarily relies on marketing and commercial success, whereas independent publishers, and researchers, continue to value excellence and virtuosity. She also argues that greatness in fiction is mainly to be found in the short form, and that, while it has become a politically compromised, overused term, ‘greatness’ it is still a useful concept for writers and researchers who are driven by what inspires them and it should therefore be reclaimed. Writers and researchers are regularly involved in judging short fiction, and while judgement of any kind should be interrogated, the ideal of greatness is more appropriate as a standard for the short form than commercial success.