Torontoist favourites Emily Schultz and Brian Joseph Davis have launched a new web portal for original short fiction, hoping to thwart the idea that short stories are a dead scene by giving them a new venue for distribution. Dubbed Joyland, after Schultz's 2006 novel of the same name (but mostly because she already owned the sweet domain name and decided to double-dip), the site combines "a strict mandate (only short stories) to some principles of social networking sites."

It currently has four portals—Toronto, Vancouver, New York, and Los Angeles—each edited by a local scene-y litster type, each only publishing work from their respective city. As master and creator of the site, Schultz was obviously a shoo-in for Toronto editor (and for added hometown cred, New York editor Janine Armin was co-editor of the recently released Toronto Noir).

While there's not much to flip through yet, and it doesn't look like the site is currently accepting unsolicited stories (each city's editor sets his/her submission guidelines), with a Creative Commons License slapped on the front page and some good folks already involved, it has the potential to be a rad li'l space.

Photo by Laineys Repertoire from Flickr.