Resources
From Category: Magazines and Literary Journals
Mount Island
Mount Island, a print and digital annual journal, accepts creative writing and art from authors who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or POC and who currently live in or hail from a rural area.
Smoke and Mold
Founded by Callum Angus (author of the story collection A Natural History of Transition), Smoke and Mold is a literary journal publishing transgender and Two-Spirit writers on themes of nature, the environment, and the climate crisis.
Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts
Founded in 2020, Pensive is a literary journal sponsored by the Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. They are currently open to submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, cross-genre, photography, visual art, and translations, from writers of all spiritual and philosophical perspectives. Editors say, "Pensive publishes work that deepens the inward life; expresses a range of religious/spiritual/humanist experiences and perspectives; envisions a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world; advances dialogue across difference; and challenges structural oppression in all its forms."
Misfit Magazine
Edited by poet Alan Catlin, Misfit Magazine is an online poetry journal that publishes gritty and energetic free verse. They value authentic narrative poetry inspired by "down in the dirt, real life experience". Submission periods are Jan. 2-Feb. 28 for Spring Issue, April 1-May 31 for Summer Issue, Sept. 1-Oct. 30 for Fall/Winter Issue.
Journal of the Month
Journal of the Month is a curated subscription service that sends a different literary journal each time, giving subscribers an overview of the contemporary creative writing market. "Decide how often you want to receive magazines—every month, every other month, or once every three months—and during that period of time, you will receive a brand new literary magazine by the 10th of the month. Exactly which literary magazine you'll get is a tantalizing surprise that changes every month. And you'll never receive the same literary magazine twice." Participating journals include Creative Nonfiction, Ecotone, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, December, and many more.
The Curator Magazine
The Curator is a literary journal that explores the meaning and matters of the heart and spirit reflected in cultural objects, experiences, and the arts. Their site publishes at least one piece of prose (including creative nonfiction essays, reviews and interviews) and one poem each week. Editors say, "We curate writing about art intersecting with humanity. Aesthetically, we desire to showcase a diverse range of voices, artforms, and styles, but we do not accept academic essays. We do publish personal essays, interviews, reviews, reported stories, and memoir with a tie to an artwork, piece of music, or an everyday object." Submit 1-3 poems, or an essay pitch of 150-250 words, via their online form.
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.
The Weight Journal
Launched in 2020, The Weight Journal is an online literary space for the best poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by high school students. Editor Matthew Henry ("MEH") is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet and the author of Teaching While Black (Main Street Rag, 2020). Read an interview with him about The Weight Journal in Frontier Poetry.
The Blue Mountain Review
Published by the Southern Collective, the Blue Mountain Review is a quarterly journal of arts and culture. They publish interviews with writers, lit mag editors, artists, and musicians, plus original poetry, fiction, and essays. See their website for the current theme for their annual poetry chapbook contest.
The Racket Journal
The Racket is a reading series and weekly online literary journal based in San Francisco. They accept poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork. Written submissions should be 750 words maximum. Browse their archive to get a sense of their aesthetic.
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."
Voyage: A Young Adult Literary Journal
Launched in 2020, Voyage is an online literary journal dedicated to young adult literature. They publish new essays and stories weekly, and also host a first chapter contest with a cash prize and literary agent review.
Poems for Ephesians
Poems for Ephesians is an online journal of poetry that leaps out of the images, ideas and inspirations of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament. It is edited by D.S. Martin, Poet-in-Residence of McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario.
Parks & Points
Handsomely illustrated with nature photography, Parks & Points is an online journal of personal essays and poetry about national parks and other public lands. See website for annual writing contests.
RHINO Poetry
RHINO is a well-regarded poetry journal established in the 1970s. Their handsomely designed online archive features selections from back issues up to 2015, with more to come.
Wrath-Bearing Tree
Established by combat veterans and maintained by a diverse board of veterans, military spouses, and writers compelled by themes of social justice and human resilience, The Wrath-Bearing Tree publishes essays, reviews, fiction, and poetry on military, economic, and social violence written by those who have experienced military, economic, and social violence or their consequences.
Plenitude Magazine
Based in Canada, Plenitude Magazine is an online literary journal publishing poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, graphic narrative, and short film by queer creators. No submission fees. Editors say, "We define queer literature and film as that which is created by LGBTQ2S+ people, rather than that which features queer content alone...Plenitude aims to complicate expressions of queerness through the publication of diverse, sophisticated literary writing, art and film, from the very subtle to the brash and unrelenting."
peculiar: a queer literary journal
peculiar is a bi-annual queer literary journal publishing poetry, fiction, essays, art, and photography. Co-editor Jack Garcia says, "Based in Provo, Utah, the title is a nod to the Mormon claim of being a 'peculiar people' because, let's face it, being queer is far more peculiar!" Read an interview with him at Trish Hopkinson's writing resources blog.
Waxwing
Waxwing is a thrice-yearly online literary journal promoting the tremendous cultural diversity of contemporary American literature, alongside international voices in translation. They seek to include American writers from all cultural identities alongside international voices published bilingually. Waxwing currently accepts submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translations. Authors published in Waxwing include Cortney Lamar Charleston, Amy Dryansky, Jeannine Hall Gailey, and Oliver de la Paz.
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.)
Terrain
Founded in 1997, Terrain is an online journal of creative writing and artwork with a sense of place and an ecological consciousness. They accept poetry, essays, fiction, articles, artwork, videos, and hybrid-genre work. Regular submissions are open from early September through April 30, and contest submissions from January 1 through Labor Day. Their ongoing series of "Unsprawl" case studies features locales that embody sustainable urban design. Contributors have included Rick Bass, Wendell Berry, Hannah Fries, Naila Moreira, and Pattiann Rogers.
The Raw Art Review
The Raw Art Review: A Journal of Storm and Urge publishes poetry, flash prose, and artwork that convey passion with strong original imagery. Launched in 2018, the journal publishes quarterly. There are periodic contests for online features, chapbook and full-length poetry manuscripts, and story collections.
Homology Lit
Homology Lit is a Pacific Northwest-based online literary magazine for people of color, queer folks, and people with disabilities, founded by Savannah Slone in July 2018. Contributors have included Dagmawe Berhanu, Donte Collins, Kailah Figueroa, and Danielle Rose.
Queen Mob’s Tea House
Queen Mob's Tea House, affiliated with the respected cultural journal Berfrois, is an international online literary magazine for "weird, serious, gorgeous, cross genre, spell conjuring, rant inducing work." The many genres they accept include poetry, fiction, satire, sex columns, music journalism, queer translations and more.
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."
Public Books
Founded in 2012, Public Books is an online journal that aims to "unite the best of the university with the openness of the internet." Featuring accessible articles by scholars in a variety of disciplines, from anthropology and history to literature and television, the journal brings academic research to a general audience. They have an extensive book review archive.
Tint Journal
Tint is an online literary journal for ESL (English as a second language) writers. They publish poetry, fiction, essays, flash prose, author profiles, and articles with writing advice.
Spine Magazine
Spine is an online journal profiling contemporary authors, illustrators, and book designers. In-depth pieces on great cover designs will be useful to self-published authors in packaging their own work.
The Bookends Review
Founded in 2012 by creative writing and composition professor Jordan Blum, The Bookends Review is an online journal publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, author interviews, essays, book reviews, and visual/musical works from around the world.
Yellow Medicine Review
Founded in 2007, Yellow Medicine Review is a twice-yearly print journal devoted to Indigenous literature, art, and thought. It is named for a river in Minnesota where people of the Dakota tribe would gather healing plants. See website for special themes for each submission period.
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.
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.
The Bare Life Review
Founded in 2017, The Bare Life Review is a literary biannual devoted entirely to work by immigrant and refugee authors. Though the impulse behind its creation was political—to support a population currently under attack—the journal's focus remains wholly artistic, publishing work on a wide variety of themes. Submissions are accepted August 15-November 30. Contributors must be foreign-born writers living in the US, or writers living abroad who hold refugee or asylum-seeker status. Translations are accepted. This is a paying market.
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.
UnLost: A Journal of Found Poetry
UnLost features poetry and artwork made by transformation, erasure, or collage of other texts and images. Unpublished work is preferred.
The Sea Letter
Launched in 2018, The Sea Letter is a print and online journal that publishes poetry, short fiction, chapters of longer works, and original photography and art. Submissions are accepted year-round. Payment is $50 for poetry and short fiction, $25 for art.
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."
Narratively
Founded in 2012, Narratively is an online magazine of journalistic features about "ordinary people with extraordinary stories". They publish longform and shortform articles, short documentary films, photo essays, audio, and comics. Narratively sponsors an annual free writing contest with a large cash prize.
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.
Redheaded Stepchild
The biannual online journal Redheaded Stepchild only accepts poetry that was rejected by other magazines. During the months of February and August, submit 3-5 unpublished poems that have been rejected elsewhere, with the names of the magazines that rejected the poems. They do not want multiple submissions, so please wait for a response to your first submission before you submit again.
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).
Sky Island Journal
Launched in 2017 in Luna County, New Mexico, Sky Island Journal is an online literary quarterly of poetry and flash prose (1,000 words maximum). Each piece opens in a read-only MS Word document, rather than a scroll-through webpage, to encourage readers to focus wholly on one thing at a time. The journal is free to read and has no advertising, but there is a $3 submission fee to keep this business model sustainable. Editors say, "The Florida Mountains Wilderness Study Area is our muse; its landscape is the source of our positive energy, our rugged independence, and our relentless tenacity."
Screen Door Review
Screen Door Review's subtitle is "Literary Voices of the Queer South". Launching in Spring 2018, this quarterly online journal accepts submissions year-round of unpublished poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and comics. Editors say, "The purpose of the magazine is to provide a platform of expression to those whose identities—at least in part—derive from the complicated relationship between queer person and place. Specifically, queer person and the South. The topics of your work do not have to be queer or southern in theme, but we do ask that you as a contributor belong to the queer community and also identify as southern."
Literary Mama
Literary Mama is an online journal publishing poetry, fiction, personal essays, reviews, and articles about the many faces of motherhood.
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.
The Mystic Blue Review
The Mystic Blue Review, founded in 2017, is a bimonthly online global magazine of writing and art, open to both emerging and established writers. It is currently edited by undergraduate creative writing students at the University of California.
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?
The Bind
Founded by award-winning poet Rochelle Hurt, The Bind is an online journal that reviews poetry books by women and nonbinary authors. They review chapbooks, full-length collections, hybrid works, and translations. The Bind is interested in intersectional and feminist writing. Read a 2017 interview with Hurt on Trish Hopkinson's blog. Visit their website for guidelines for pitching articles and requesting reviews.
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.
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.
