Publishing your work is wonderful. Even though my work has been published hundreds of times, I still get excited every time a new publication containing my work gets released.
However, once you have published a short story or a poem, most literary journals are not interested in publishing it again. After all, it has already been published elsewhere. That is fine because most manuscript publishers want poems and short stories that have been published before. It gives your work more credibility.
Still, the more a poem or short story is published, the more exposure it gets. A number of my poems have been published three times. This is because I often will submit to journals that accept reprints. I particularly like to do this if my poem was initially published in print. Print journals are not read as often and it is harder to share your work in them with others.
The following literary journals accept reprints. The list is in no particular order. Not all of these journals are open to submissions at this time, but most are.
Cleaver: They publish a wide variety of literary work. Previously published work is generally not accepted but they will occasionally consider work shared on personal blogs/websites or work previously published in a limited print-only edition. They now charge a submission fee, but lift this periodically through the year.
Luna Station Quarterly: They publish speculative fiction written by women.
Neon: This wonderful print and e-journal based out of the UK has been featured by us before, and for good reason. They publish great short stories and poems.
Empty House Press: They bill themselves as “looking for writing that addresses the way narrative and presence adhere to place and the way they vanish. We encourage broad interpretations of what the idea or image of an empty house might evoke. This includes but is not limited to writing about home, landscape, place, memory, and of course, the atmosphere of previously inhabited spaces.” They are open to publishing work that appeared on an author’s personal site or blog or at an online venue that has closed, as long as that the work is otherwise no longer available and appropriate acknowledgements are included.
Avatar Review: Avatar Review is an electronic journal that publishes poetry, essays, and fiction. They have a fairly high acceptance rate.
Glint: Glint Literary Journal, a publication of the Department of English at Fayetteville State University, celebrates innovation in style and voice. They welcome submissions in poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual art from persons of diverse cultures, nationalities, and religions.
Geist: Geist is a Canadian literary journal and all submissions must be made by authors who have some connection to Canada. Their findings section focuses on reprinting excerpts from published work and works-in-progress. They do not accept reprints outside of this.
Hedgerow: A Journal of Small Poems: They are open to publishing poems that have previously been published on social media. They are not interested in reprinting work that has been published in other journals.
Ginosko Literary Journal: They publish short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, social justice, and literary insights.
The Lake: This is an online poetry journal. They are open to previously published poems as long as the author retains copyright and that they were published at least one year prior to submitting.
Defuncted: This isn’t a traditional literary journal, rather it is a collection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that was published in literary journals that is now defunct and so readers can no longer read your work online.
Zooscape: Zooscape is a magazine that publishes stories that prominently feature an anthropomorphic animal figure (or figures). They pay $20 for reprints.
Craft: They publish literary fiction and essays. Pay is $100-200 for original fiction and creative nonfiction. They consider reprint fiction, but they do not pay for reprints.
Doubleback Review: They “only publish previously-published work from journals that no longer exist; we do not publish previously unpublished work nor previously published work that is still available online or in active print circulation.”
Lotus Eater Magazine: They publish reprints as long as they were originally published at least three years ago.
Radon Journal: Radon welcomes short story and poetry submissions containing elements of anarchism, transhumanism, dystopia, and/or science fiction. They pay for reprints, as well as previously unpublished work.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.
She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
