Last year, at least five new prizes were initiated for short fiction. The short story used to be regarded as a poor step child to the novel, but a well made short story is worth any number of bad novels.
Quality is more important than quantity.
Carver first started publishing his short stories twenty years ago in little magazines introduced to him in a writing course given by the late John Gardner. I didn't have an agent. Editor Gordon Lish, who was then at Esquire, gave Carver his first national exposure. Many short story writers are getting serious attention. I think immediately of Tobias Wolff, Bobbie Ann Mason, Mary Robison and Barry Hannah.