Resources - Winning Writers

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Founded in 2011 by Christine Redman-Waldeyer, Adanna accepts unpublished poetry, short stories, essays, and reviews of books and visual arts.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."

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.

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.

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.

Balloons Lit. Journal

Balloons Lit. Journal is an English-language online journal based in Hong Kong that publishes creative writing and art for readers aged 12-16. BLJ particularly invites submissions from schoolteachers familiar with this age group. Editors say, "We prefer something that is surprising, explosive, unforgettable, extraordinary, mind-blowing, humorous, bold, unique, layered, witty, educational, original." Read back issues on the website to see their taste.

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).

Belmont Story Review

Belmont Story Review, the literary journal of Belmont University in Nashville, TN, publishes emerging and established writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and narrative journalism in the areas of music, publishing, creativity and collaboration, and faith and culture. Payment for accepted work is $25 per poem or flash fiction, $50 per prose piece. (Note to international contributors: the journal can only pay with a check in US dollars.)

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.

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.

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."

ctrl + v

Named for the keyboard command for "paste", ctrl + v is a biannual online journal that publishes artistic collages of words and images. Editors say, "All forms of collage—digital, scissor-and-glue, mixed media, fabric, sound—are encouraged + adored. We are particularly interested in what happens when fragments of language move through the space of other materials."

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.

Delacorte Review

Launched in 2019, the Delacorte Review is a long-form narrative nonfiction magazine published by Columbia University School of Journalism. They accept completed stories of 3,500-50,000 words (no pitches). "We focus exclusively on original works of narrative nonfiction—think nonfiction short stories or 'novellas'—stories driven by plot, drama, and character. Much as we admire exposes, essays, criticism, and investigative work, that is not what we publish."

Doubleback Review

Doubleback Review is a project of Sundress Publications, the literary press that sponsors the annual Best of the Net Awards. Doubleback Review specializes in pieces of any genre that were published by a journal that subsequently became defunct. Entries are accepted year-round for two issues to be published in April and October. Submissions are free. Writers from traditionally marginalized communities are particularly encouraged to submit their work. Managing Editor Krista Cox says, "In a churn and burn culture, to revisit and reflect is a luxury. Doubleback Review wants to hit the pause button on art that may slip from the public's eye (and therefore lose its potential for connection). It wants to resurrect your retired darlings, your dead art, your beautiful zombies—pieces that, like rare and precious artifacts, are worth dusting off, airing out, and putting out on display. Let Doubleback's talented team of editors help you recirculate your valuable relics, and offer them one more triumphant day in the sun."

Élan

Élan is an international print and online literary magazine that publishes original fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, plays, and all kinds of art by creators aged 14-18. Their site design is very artistic.

F(r)iction

A publication of Brink Literacy Project, F(r)iction is a triannual literary journal with a contemporary design and a strong personality. They accept short fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, comics, and poetry, illustrated with custom artwork. See their "What We Look For" page for editorial preferences and sample published work in each genre. They also offer contests judged by prominent authors. Editors say, "We embrace the new, the weird, and the unconventional."

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.

Fictional Café

The Fictional Café is a virtual coffee shop and literary magazine created especially for writers and artists. They publish short stories, novel excerpts, poetry, visual art, podcasts and audio dramas on their website. Other occasional features include interviews and links to literary news. All accepted submissions are automatically considered for inclusion in their print "best of" anthology. No simultaneous submissions.

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.

Gaze Journal

Based in Portland, OR, Gaze is an online literary journal that is "interested in the intersection between seeing and being seen; an attempt to incite a looking inward/outward at once; a multidirectional kind of love." It was founded in 2018 by Darla Mottram. Gaze sponsors an annual poetry prize for women and nonbinary writers.

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

Global City Press and Review seek to embody New York City's diversity and dynamism, with an international reach. "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.

Graphic Policy

Graphic Policy is an online journal featuring news and reviews for comics fans, with an emphasis on mainstream properties. The site includes TV episode recaps, movie reviews, creator interviews, podcasts, and reviews of comics in various genres (manga, indie, webcomics, action/superhero, and more).

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!"