Resources
From Category: Magazines and Literary Journals
A Quiet Courage
A Quiet Courage is a journal of microfiction and poetry in 100 words or fewer. Submissions are also accepted in Spanish with exact English translations. Contributors have included James Penha, Adrian S. Potter, and Patrick Williams.
A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine
Their annual Summer Reading Issues have featured cover story interviews with Tony Kushner, Gore Vidal, E. Lynn Harris, and others. Each month, they publish work by established and emerging writers including Emanuel Xavier, Patrick Donnelly, and Julie E. Bloemeke. See website for their Christopher Hewitt Literary Award, a free contest with small prizes for fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction.
Adanna Literary Journal
Founded in 2011 by Christine Redman-Waldeyer, Adanna accepts unpublished poetry, short stories, essays, and reviews of books and visual arts. Enter by email. Editors say, “Adanna, a name of Nigerian origin, pronounced a-DAN-a, is defined as 'her father's daughter.' This literary journal is titled Adanna because women over the centuries have been defined by men in politics, through marriage, and, most importantly, by the men who fathered them. Today women are still bound by complex roles in society, often needing to wear more than one hat or sacrifice one role so another may flourish. While this journal is dedicated to women, it is not exclusive, and it welcomes our counterparts and their thoughts about women today. Submissions to Adanna must reflect women's issues or topics, celebrate womanhood, and shout out in passion.”
Adrienne: A Poetry Journal of Queer Women
Named for iconic lesbian-feminist writer Adrienne Rich, this journal features poetry by emerging and established women writers who identify as queer, lesbian, bisexual, or trans*. Submissions may be on any theme. Sibling Rivalry Press is a well-regarded small press with an interest in LGBTQ literature. Check website before sending work, because submission deadlines are irregular.
Aethlon
This print journal is sponsored by the Sport Literature Association. Aethlon publishes poetry, fiction, juried scholarly and critical essays, and book reviews. Online entries preferred. No simultaneous submissions. See website for their editorial preferences.
Alien Pub
Founded in 2018, Alien Pub is an online literary and art journal edited by Queen's University (Ontario) students, with a special interest in politically transformative work. Submissions are open year-round via email. Editors say, “Alien Pub is an independent space for creative activism and transgressive media. We look for work that includes themes of justice, resistance, identity, and autonomy. We want to celebrate voices of those who have been and continue to be marginalized, and make their stories front and centre. We want work that subverts social norms and challenges existing power structures. Experiment with us; push every creative boundary you can imagine.” They describe themselves further as “trans-positive and anti-oppressive.”
Amazon’s Magazine Store
“The Magazine Subscription Manager gives you complete control of your magazine subscriptions online. You can change your address, cancel for a pro-rated refund, report a problem to the publisher, send a gift notification, and keep track of your expiration dates. Amazon makes managing all of your magazine subscriptions easy. You can also use the Magazine Subscription Manager to manage magazines that you didn't purchase on Amazon. Just go to Magazine Subscription Manager and click on 'add a new magazine' to start the process.”
Anglican Theological Review
No simultaneous submissions. Poetry editor is prizewinning author Sofia M. Starnes.
Argot Magazine
Argot Magazine is an online publication dedicated to creative writing, smart analysis, and art across mediums. They publish journalistic essays, cultural commentary, short stories, poetry, satire, comics, illustrations, and photo essays, with a special preference for work by queer creators. This is a paying market. Editors say, “We aspire to be a safe space that centers the feminine narrative—especially the experiences of those at the margins—and to foster community through storytelling and discussion of current events. We're interested in writing and visual art that spans the worlds of queer culture, the feminine narrative, marginalized communities, and politics and culture.”
Armchair/Shotgun
Unlike many journals, Armchair/Shotgun reads all submissions anonymously, without seeing the author's name or bio until the piece is accepted, in order to give newcomers an equal chance. Editors say, “We feel that good writing does not know one MFA program from another. It does not know a PhD from a high school drop-out. Good writing does not know your interstate exit or your subway stop, and it does not care what you've written before. Good writing knows only story.” Visit their blog for lively reflections on the current publishing scene.
Asian American Literary Review
In showcasing the work of established and emerging writers, AALR aims to incubate dialogues and, just as importantly, open those dialogues to regional, national, and international audiences of all constituencies. They select work that is, as Marianne Moore once put it, “an expression of our needs…[and] feeling, modified by the writer's moral and technical insights.” Published biannually, AALR features fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, comic art, interviews, and book reviews.
Avocet, A Journal of Nature Poems
Editors say, “We prefer nature poetry that has vivid, concrete imagery, insight and interconnectedness with nature. We avoid poems that have rhyme or metrical schemes, cliche, abstraction, and sexual overtones.” Authors they admire include Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, and Wallace Stevens. Previously published poems accepted, but no simultaneous submissions.
Awful Library Books
Michigan librarians Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner created this humorous blog to defend the necessary but controversial process of culling the library's collection to make room for new titles. Their motto: “Hoarding is not collection development.” Some classics destined for the pulp mill include God, the Rod, and Your Child's Bod: The Art of Loving Correction for Christian Parents; Nazis in the Woodpile; Children's Head Injury: Who Cares?; and Eat Your Troubles Away.
Badlands
They accept submissions of original and translated poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction in English and Spanish, as well as artwork. In addition to general-interest submissions, the journal is currently seeking work by combat veterans of the US Armed Forces, for inclusion in several upcoming feature sections showcasing work by veterans. Include cover page with contact info, word and page count, title and genre of work, and brief bio (50 words). Do not include name in actual submission as works are read blind. Files should be in doc, docx or pdf format. See website for online submissions form.
Banipal: Magazine of Modern Arab Literature
Founded in 1998 in the UK, Banipal is a thrice-yearly magazine featuring English translations of poems, short stories, and novel excerpts by established and emerging Arab writers worldwide. Banipal also publishes book reviews and interviews with authors, publishers, and translators.
Barking Sycamores
Launched in 2014, the online literary journal Barking Sycamores publishes poetry by writers on the autism spectrum, and essays on autism's interplay with the creative process. Editors say, “Barking Sycamores supports the concept of neurodiversity: in short, the idea that autism and related conditions are valid neurological ways of being that are the result of normal variations in the human genome as opposed to pathologies which need to be cured.” No simultaneous submissions or previously published work. See submissions guidelines page to learn about their philosophy before entering.
Barrelhouse
Launched in 2004, Barrelhouse is a print and online journal that bridges pop culture and literary writing. Fans of McSweeney's and George Saunders will appreciate Barrelhouse's offbeat recombination of cultural “flotsam and jetsam”. Affiliated ventures include publishing imprint Barrelhouse Books and the Barrelhouse Amplifier, a $1,500 award for independent literary magazines/websites and small presses (no application fee).
Big Fiction
Big Fiction is a twice-yearly journal specializing in long-form literary fiction: novelettes (7,500-15,000 words) and novellas (15,000-30,000 words). This is a paying market. Submissions must be previously unpublished. No genre fiction (sci-fi, horror, fantasy, romance) or works for children. See website for reading periods and contests.
Biographile
Biographile, a project of the Penguin Random House publishing conglomerate, is a website dedicated to biography, memoir, and truth in fiction. The site features author interviews, book reviews, and craft essays from notable authors. Sign up for their free email newsletter to be notified of new posts and writing contests.
Blanket Sea
Blanket Sea is an online arts and literary journal that showcases creators with mental illness, chronic illness, and disability. The journal is free to read and submit. The editors accept prose submissions up to 2,000 words, but prefer pieces between 500-1,000 words. Creative nonfiction writers may send essays, memoirs, and book reviews in keeping with the themes of chronic physical and mental illness and disability. For fiction submissions, editors gravitate toward contemporary realistic stories about living with illness or disability. The poetry editors look for short, non-rhyming poems with either a narrative angle or a strong message. All submissions must include positive, respectful syntax (see their guide to avoiding ableism and other prejudices). Blanket Sea was the subject of an August 2018 Literary Spotlight feature in The Writer magazine.
Blue Collar Review
Published by Partisan Press, Blue Collar Review is a quarterly journal of poetry and prose whose mission is “to expand and promote a progressive working class vision of culture that inspires us and that moves us forward as a class.” Read sample poems on their website. There is an annual poetry contest with a $100 prize.
Body Without Organs
Launched in 2017, Body Without Organs is an international English-language online literary journal for teen writers. They publish poetry, literary fiction, essays, and artwork, and are also looking for teen editors. “Pieces that are character-driven and/or emotion-focused have a higher chance of acceptance. Genre fiction including science fiction, fantasy, and romance is almost never accepted, and we strongly prefer free verse poems over those that rhyme, but feel free to challenge or change this.” The journal's name comes from a term coined by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and he used it to reference this essential question: if you stripped an object of every physical trait it uses to define and communicate itself, what would be left? What is the “real” truth at the object’s core?
Brilliant Flash Fiction
Based in Ireland, the online journal Brilliant Flash Fiction is published quarterly and accepts submissions of unpublished short stories under 1,000 words. See website for rules for their quarterly free contests with prizes up to 50 euros. No simultaneous submissions.
Broken Pencil
Broken Pencil reviews the best zines, books, websites, videos, and artworks from the underground and reprints the best articles from the alternative press. They also publish original fiction and interviews.
Cabinet
Like the 17th-century cabinet of curiosities to which its name alludes, Cabinet is as interested in the margins of culture as its center. Articles have included the history of failure in American culture; recipes for cooking imaginary animals; the fear of eating (and being eaten by) octopus; philosopher Slavoj Zizek's analysis of capitalism's current fascination with Buddhism; and the invention and artistic uses of the balloon. Cabinet is a print journal but sample articles are available online. Sold-out issues can also be downloaded from their website as a PDF (free for subscribers).
Cider Press Review
CPR also offers a poetry manuscript contest which accepts online entries.
Civil War Navy Magazine
CWNM is also looking for poetry written in fresh, original language.
Consequence Magazine
Consequence is a Massachusetts-based literary magazine, published annually, focusing on the culture of war in America. They accept short fiction, poetry, nonfiction, interviews, and artwork, and offer an annual poetry prize.
Copper Nickel: A Journal of Art and Literature
Their submission period is August 15-April 15. They also offer an annual fiction and poetry contest. Recent contributors include Sandra Beasley, Noah Eli Gordon, Bob Hicok, Wayne Miller, Margot Schilpp, and G.C. Waldrep. This market seems most appropriate for intermediate to advanced writers.
Cosmonauts Avenue
Summer Literary Seminars is a prestigious writing workshop with study-abroad programs in Russia, Lithuania, Kenya, and Montreal. In 2014, SLS launched the monthly online journal Cosmonauts Avenue, to extend their mission as a movable cultural platform where the North American and international literary scenes meet. The journal aims to publish an international selection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as reviews, interviews, and correspondence, in English and in translation.
Crab Fat Magazine
Founded in 2014 by poet Caseyrenée Lopez, Crab Fat Magazine seeks to amplify marginalized writers. They publish online monthly issues and an annual print “best-of” issue. Damaged Goods Press is their book publishing imprint. In a 2018 interview with Lambda Literary, Lopez says: “The mission is simple: to provide space for people of color, queer and trans people, disabled people, women, femmes, nonbinary people, neurodivergent people, trauma survivors, undocumented people, and non-Christian people. I want to live in a world that values everyone, not just white cis men, and Crab Fat Magazine is my way of making that happen, even if it’s a small thing.”
CRAFT Literary Magazine
CRAFT is an online literary journal exploring the art of fiction. They publish contemporary short stories accompanied by the author's notes on technique. Other features include book reviews, writing exercises, and a summer conference. CRAFT is open to submissions of flash fiction (1,000 words maximum) and short fiction (7,000 words maximum) year-round, and also offers contests on occasion.
Cricket
“Publishes only the highest quality fiction and classic literature and nonfiction stories on culture, history, science, and the arts. Each 48-page issue includes a story, poetry, or art contest, as well as the signature cast of rambunctious bug characters who offer humorous commentary on the stories.”
Cultured Vultures
Cultured Vultures is an online journal of contemporary writing, literary and entertainment reviews, and articles on politics and culture. Their free poetry contest offers web publication to the top three unpublished poems submitted each week.
december Magazine
Founded in Iowa City in 1958, and now published in St. Louis, MO, december Magazine was a pioneer in the little magazine and small press movement. december accepts submissions October 1-May 1, and pays $10 per page (minimum $40-maximum $200). No simultaneous submissions. There are also annual poetry and prose contests with prizes up to $1,500. The journal has published early-career work by notable writers such as Joyce Carol Oates, Donald Barthelme, Marge Piercy, and Rita Mae Brown, and was Raymond Carver's first professional short story publication.
Empath
Empath is an online literary project by and for people who have been victimized, abused, or silenced. The site is curated by Alexandra Naughton and D. Dragonetti, writers who have been critical of sexism, trans-misogyny, rape culture, and other kinds of prejudice in the “Alt Lit” community. They publish poetry, fiction, memoirs, reviews, and journalistic articles.
Expost Magazine
Expost Magazine is an online journal of stories, series, longform, short-films and graphic novels. Their tagline is “Stories of the future present”. Recent features include new fiction by Cory Doctorow and an interview with acclaimed science fiction author and cyberspace theorist Bruce Sterling.
Feminist Studies
This scholarly journal published by the University of Maryland also accepts submissions of poetry, short fiction, personal essays and artwork, with deadlines of May 1 and December 1 annually. No simultaneous submissions. “Whether work is drawn from the complex past or the shifting present, the pieces that appear in Feminist Studies address social and political issues that intimately and significantly affect women and men in the United States and around the world.” Authors published in Feminist Studies since its inception in 1972 include Meena Alexander, Nicole Brossard, Jayne Cortez, Toi Derricotte, Diane Glancy, Marilyn Hacker, Lyn Hejinian, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Sharon Olds, Grace Paley, Ruth Stone, and Mitsuye Yamada.
Fiction Southeast
Fiction Southeast is an online journal of short fiction (particularly flash), craft essays, literary criticism, and reviews of short story collections. They sponsor the Hell’s Belles Short Fiction Prize for stories by women, and the Ernest Hemingway Flash Fiction Prize. Services offered include web design, critiques, editing, and online workshops.
FLARE: The Flagler Review
Based in historic St. Augustine, Florida, FLARE: The Flagler Review is an annual print and online literary journal published by students through the Flagler College English Department. They accept poetry, fiction, nonfiction, screenplays and dramatic scripts, and artwork by emerging and established writers and artists. FLARE has won awards from the College Media Association.
Flash Fiction Magazine
Founded in 2014, Flash Fiction Magazine posts a new short-short story online every day. Contributors whose stories are selected for the annual print anthology receive payment. There is also a monthly $100 prize for the best story. Submissions should be 300-1,000 words and be a complete story (no vignettes or prose-poems) with conflict, character development, and resolution.
Fogged Clarity: An Arts Review
Fogged Clarity is a Chicago-based print and online journal that has published original work by Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and Guggenheim fellows, as well as emerging writers. They accept submissions of literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and music. The online edition comes out quarterly, the print edition every two years. Submit online.
Foothill: A Journal of Poetry
Foothills, a publication of Claremont Graduate University, accepts unpublished poetry by graduate students enrolled anywhere in the world. Submit 1-5 poems by email. CGU administers the prestigious Kingsley Tufts and Kate Tufts Awards for poetry books.
Fulcrum: An Annual of Poetry & Aesthetics
Edited by prizewinning poets Philip Nikolayev and Katia Kapovich, aims at furthering communication between poets, critics and philosophers from different cultures and literary traditions.
Ghost Town
They are looking for fearless and inventive fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction. Prose should be 7,500 words maximum. They are also interested in translations, letters, cryptic found writings, illustrations, and other oddments. Reading period is September 1-February 1.
Global City Review
“Edited and produced by writers, it celebrates the difficulties and possibilities of the 'global city' and other constructions of community…while honoring the subversiveness and originality of ordinary lives.” Past contributors include Marilyn French, Robin Blair, Wayne Koestenbaum, and Cornelius Eady.
Gutter Eloquence Magazine
The magazine is published bimonthly online and there is also an annual print edition in the fall. Editors say, “This zine seeks high-quality, but gutsy writing: two-fisted free verse that pulls no punches!”
H.O.W. Journal
For each submission, they request a $5 donation that they will send to a relevant charity. H.O.W. stands for “Helping Orphans Worldwide”.
Half Mystic
Half Mystic is a semi-annual print and online literary arts journal dedicated to the celebration of music in all its forms. They publish poetry, fiction, interviews, artwork, essays on music and the arts, and original songs. Diverse voices welcomed.
Hanging Loose
Important influences include the New York School and the “New American Poetry” defined by the Donald Allen anthology of that name, but the magazine is open to a wide variety of styles and themes. Star find: Sherman Alexie. Read an interview with co-editor Mark Pawlak here.
