January 22, 2026
Root Smoke is a new online journal of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork. They also sometimes publish other literary offerings like book reviews, interviews, and hybrid writing. Their mission is to bridge divides within the literary world: “Root Smoke brings together genre writers, literary writers, visual artists and more within a single threaded and…
This monthly column is published on the fourth Thursday of every month, and is a space to share information that doesn’t fit anywhere else in our publication. This includes a wide range of opportunities for writers, news and information, and subscribers’ recent success stories. Opportunities: Poemancer: A Poetry Journey is a new card game “that…
By Adesuwa Egbon In today’s world, writing a great book often isn’t enough. To find your readers, you have to promote it, a daunting task for the introverted author who finds self-promotion to be an exhausting performance. The good news is that you can market your work effectively without resorting to extroversion. Reframe Your Goal:…
January 19, 2026
Researching agents can be a time-consuming process, but you should never submit to an agent without first doing significant research. This is true of submitting to publishers as well. To me, research is the most important step of the submission process. It is vital because there is no point going through all the work of…
January 15, 2026
This list of publishers meet our guiding principles, but are only open to free submissions from historically underrepresented writers or focus on publishing content produced by historically underrepresented writers. Some of these publications are open to a wide range of writers including writers of color, gender non-conforming and LGBTQ+ writers, and those living with disabilities….
Zine Machine is an online lit mag and real-life zine vending machine. The quarterly lit mag features selections from five zines and is available to read for free online. The full-length zines are also available for purchase; they are created by paid artists and folded by hand. The zine vending machine is a pop-up installation…
By Jean Burgess I recently presented a conference workshop entitled “Creative Approaches to Direct Marketing Events.” The workshop’s first step asked participants to think about themes from their book that would appeal to their target audiences. Once the foundation was in place, the plan was to brainstorm ideas for events, organizations, interest groups, venues, etc….
January 12, 2026
Most traditional poetry manuscript publishers charge their readers a fee to submit. You can read about why that is the case here. This article focuses on a number of poetry manuscript publishers who do not charge submission fees to writers, which is good news for poets. This is the longest and most accurate list of…
January 8, 2026
These magazines pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are a mix of literary and genre magazines. They’re open now, or will soon open for submissions. Three-Lobed Burning EyeThey publish speculative fiction: including horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction. They want works “across the speculative genres, including all the shadows between and fluid mixtures thereof….
Baubles from Bones is a fantasy and sci-fi magazine based in Pittsburgh. They publish stories that give readers a sense of “the small lives we lead and the dreams we glean from them.” They also aim to help authors by connecting them with eager audiences. Baubles from Bones launched its first issue in the summer…
Ratika Deshpande “Write what you know” is common advice, but sometimes, we need to know more about the things we’re using in our stories, and that requires research. The illusion of research as productive work But research is a double-edged sword: it is as distracting as it is useful. As you click on yet another…
January 5, 2026
These are themed calls and contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from 51 outlets that are open for submissions now; a couple of the outlets are open for more than one call. Some of the themed calls are: Cupid’s misfire; metamorphosis; solarpunk horror; endings; miracles, messages from heaven & angels; immortality; climate crisis (and climate…
January 2, 2026
This list focuses on ten publishers that we are excited about that are open to submissions this month. Some are only open for a short period of time, others will be open the whole month and beyond. At least four of these are presses we have not covered previously. Please note that if a publisher…
The Dilettante zine is an online and print publication founded in 2018. They accept submissions on a rolling basis for their website. They also have an email list that alerts readers of when submissions are open for their print issue, which you can sign up for here. You can see the digital version of the…
There’s this weird blink in time — that hiccup between something happening and your brain sending out the official memo that says “Hey champ, you’re about to feel things.” Fiction lives there. Camps there. Probably steals cable from the neighbor there. That micro-instant is where your characters actually become human instead of cardboard standees with…