Most literary journals are open to submissions for a window of time each year. Sometimes it is a very long window. Sometimes it is more than one window. But it can be frustrating to visit their website and realize that they just closed to submissions. It is particularly hard during the summer, when the majority of journals are closed to submissions.
This list features only literary journals that are always open to submissions. All reviews contain links to the literary journal. The journals are listed in no particular order.
This established literary journal with great distribution is always open to submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction
An online literary journal based out of Singapore that publishes only English language poetry. They publish work by three poets every month. SOFTBLOW usually publishes 3-5 poems per poet, and they are placed on the same page, underneath the author’s biography.
Maudlin House is an e-journal that publishes one new issue every month. They publish flash fiction, fiction, videos, art, and poems. They are not averse to publishing genre work. They are particularly interested in publishing work that explores the human condition.
They publish each issue on the electronic magazine site Issuu. They publish poetry, flash fiction, and visual art.
Founded over six years ago, Haiku Journal publishes traditional haiku poetry. Because they want every poem to “appear clean” in honor of the tradition, poems are published with an emphasis on minimalism. This means that published poems will remain untitled, though appropriately attributed to the poets.
They are always open to submissions in most of the categories that they publish (although they never accept direct non-fiction submissions), but they sometimes close one down to general submissions for a few months at a time.
This approachable poetry journal has a high acceptance rates but strict guidelines in terms of what they are interested in.
Blue Earth Review is published by Minnesota State University. They are a print publication and generally have excellent covers. They are highly selective and publish very little of what is submitted to them.
DIAGRAM is an online literary journal that has over a million visitors per month. They have a reputation for publishing unusual and new work. They publish flash fiction, poetry, essays, and short stories. They also publish visual art.
Carve publishes honest fiction online and hosts the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. While formally based in Dallas, Texas, the staff and volunteers who help the magazine thrive are from all over the world. They are open to fee free submissions by post.
Directed by students at Claremont Graduate University, Foothill: A Journal of Poetry is a print and online poetry journal that features the work of emerging poets enrolled in graduate programs around the world. You must be a graduate student to submit to them.
The Fictional Café is an online magazine and forum for authors and artists, publishing new poetry, fiction, novel excerpts, podcasts, and artwork of all genres each month. Like a virtual coffee shop, The Fictional Café is a meeting place for authors and artists to read, share, and discuss great writing and artwork.
jmww is a literary journal publishing fiction, flash, poetry, essays, interviews, book reviews, and other miscellany on a weekly basis.
An online literary journal that publishes poetry and prose.
This beautiful literary journal is aimed at children. If accepted your work will be paired with an artists work.
This UK based publisher publishes a wide variety of writing.
They have wonderful distribution and are the most established and well funded literary journal in the world. It is very difficult to get your work published here.
Barnstorm publishes nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.
This wonderful Poetry only online journal responds to all submissions very quickly, but they have a very low acceptance rate.
An online journal that publishes poetry, short fiction, short scripts, visual art (of any kind – photography, collage, traditional art etc.) experimental/mixed media, essays and reviews.
Bio: Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser and spends much of her time researching manuscript publishers. You can follow her on Facebook here.
