It is good to start out by submitting your work to literary journals that have fast response times. It is rewarding to hear back from journals within a month, rather than a year later, when you have forgotten all about them.
Submitting to journals with fast response times helps keep you motivated.
All of these journals respond to submissions within a month. The response time data is based on information from Duotrope and The (Submission) Grinder.
Most, but not all, of them are open for submissions now.
An electronic magazine that publishes dark fantasy and horror short stories. They respond within four days.
The Eunoia Review describes themselves as a publisher of “beautiful thinking”. They respond in three days or less.
This flash fiction publisher responds to all submissions within two weeks.
A long running e-magizine that publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. They respond within a week.
The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues. Because of the nature of what they publish, they respond within two weeks.
Radar Poetry is a wonderful electronic poetry journal that responds within three weeks to submissions. They have a cap for free submissions
A new fast-responding flash journal that pays.
An ePublisher of beautifully weird flash fiction.
They publish science fiction and literary fiction with science fiction elements. They allow some reprints.
An established publisher of flash fiction.
A speculative fiction magazine that responds within two weeks.
A poetry journal that strives to respond to submissions within a week.
They largely publish work with ambiguity so that the reader can play a role in the poem.
Radon welcomes short story and poetry submissions containing elements of anarchism, transhumanism, dystopia, and/or science fiction. They pay all contributors and try to respond to all submissions within two to four weeks.
The official journal of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, responds to most submissions within two weeks.
This literary journal publishes a wide range of creative poetics.
An online journal that publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. They have a monthly submission cap.
They publish five fiction pieces a month, and are open to genre work.
A speculative fiction journal that publishes work in audio format, in print, and electronically.
They publish fantasy, sci-fi, and horror themed humor. The work they publish includes flash (under 1000 words) and short fiction (up to 7500 words), as well as hi art, lampoon classifieds and ads. They pay a token amount.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2022 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.
