The 25 magazines listed here are open for literary fiction submissions; a few accept genre fiction/blended-genre work as well, and all of them also publish work in other formats, like nonfiction and poetry. Many of the outlets pay writers. The magazines are listed here in no particular order, and some of the deadlines are approaching quickly.
Meetinghouse
This is a new literary journal by Dartmouth College. They publish prose (of up to 7,500 words), poetry, and translations. At the time of writing, they had no submission deadline listed. They pay $40 for digital content and $100 for work published in the print magazine. Details here.
The Avenue: Freedom
This is a print, Mid-Atlantic-based literary journal open to all things literary. They publish fiction (of up to 5,000 words), nonfiction, poetry, and comic strips. Their website says, “We are committed to the quirky, the dark, the artistic, the tortured, the beautiful, the disenfranchised.” They are reading work on the ‘Freedom’ theme: “What does it mean to you? What are you free from? We are open to your interpretation.” The deadline is 1 July 2021. Details here.
Harper’s
This prestigious magazine accepts unsolicited fiction submissions. Writers can query for nonfiction; they do not accept poetry. Fiction submissions, as well as queries for nonfiction, have to be mailed. Ideas for the Readings column, however, can be emailed. Details here.
Goats Milk Magazine
They publish fiction, nonfiction (memoirs and personal essays), and poetry. Send prose up to 15 pages. Their fiction guidelines say, “We love stories that move with purpose. There should be a reason why the piece starts and ends where it does. We look for characters that are well developed and strong enough to exist beyond the confines of the story.” Their website also says, they want “work that’s hard to let go of. Work that’s messy, or left you messy after writing it. We want your visual art that physically hurt to make. If you have both, even better. We want the pieces that are wonderfully odd, tragically beautiful, delightfully morbid.” They are always open for submissions. Details here.
Vesper: Night Sky
Vesper is “an aperiodical literary zine born to delve deep into the many different aspects of the mystery that is night.” It is published by Sadwrn, a slow publishing house specializing in literary zines. They accept poetic prose (up to 1,500 words) and poetry. Their guidelines say, “This summer, Vesper I will focus its gaze on the night sky. This neverending source of beauty speaks to us about truths at the same time inmense, collective and intimate, even if we forget them in our daily lives. Vesper I will gather short radiant pieces about or inspired by it: naked-eye visible objects such as constellations, individual stars or planets, stargazing, cyclical & linear time reflected on the heavens, mythology, mortality,… We are looking for resonant, complex and wonderful texts that reconnect us with this eternal nightscape.” Pay is €40/piece. The deadline for this theme is 5 July, 2021. Details here.
Invisible City
This is an online publication of the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco; they publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. “Submit work that encourages us to see the world from new perspectives and different angles, ones that we may not have previously considered or imagined.” The deadline is 26 June 2021. Details here.
Electric Literature: The Commuter
Electric Lit’s ‘The Commuter’ is a space for poetry, flash, graphic, and experimental narratives. It publishes weekly and they have a brief submission period for prose (up to 1,500 words – one standalone or up to three interconnected), poetry, and graphic narrative. They pay $100, and they have a short reading period, 21-27 June 2021. Details here.
echo verse: Time Capsule
This is a digital anthology of writing about the environment and climate change. They are now reading for Volume 2, and the theme is ‘Time Capsule’. Their guidelines say, “submit work to a digital time capsule that will offer the world to come a record of the place and time we live in now.” For prose (up to 2,500 words), they want fiction, essays, lyric nonfiction, excerpts of longer work, and hybrid work. They also accept poetry, and other formats. The deadline is 30 June 2021. Details here.
Jaggery: South Asian Literature
They publish fiction (up to 5,000 words), essays & interviews, poetry, and reviews. The magazine “connects South Asian diasporic writers and homeland writers; we also welcome non-South Asians with a deep and thoughtful connection to South Asian countries, who bring their own intersecting perspectives to the conversation. (By South Asia we mean Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.) Our hope with Jaggery is to create a journal that offers the best writing by and about South Asians and their diaspora”, according to their guidelines. They pay $100 for fiction and $25 for other genres. The deadline is 15 July 2021. Details here.
Black Shuck Books: It was all a dream
This is an independent publisher of horror fiction. They are publishing an anthology of fiction (up to 7,500 words) and poetry that focus on clichés (they have several clichés listed, including: it was just a dream; it was a dark and stormy night; and the psychic split – the good guy is actually the bad guy). Their guidelines say, “We’re inviting submissions that use clichés to do something interesting, that invert or recreate the cliché or catch us by surprise. … Submissions MUST use the central idea of the cliché as a central theme, but we encourage you think creatively about the best way to do that.” The deadline is 30 June 2021. Details here.
The Gravity of the Thing
They publish prose – fiction (including micros; up to 3,000 words) creative nonfiction, poetry, and other formats. Their current reading period is until 31 July 2021. Details here.
The Boiler
They publish fiction (up to 3,500 words), nonfiction, and poetry. Their guidelines say, “We seek fiction submissions that display commonalities in the human spirit which derive from an American ideal. Whether those commonalities display loss, defeat, triumph, humor, abandonment, fortitude, etc. We want to showcase honesty within that human spirit. We admire duality of character, conflict and unique personality.” The deadline is 15 August 2021. Details here.
The CHILLFILTR Review
They publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They welcome submissions from all walks of life, and from all perspectives. Writers receive $20 and may be featured on their podcast. Details here.
Voyage
This is a young adult magazine – they publish fiction and creative nonfiction, of up to 6,000 words. They pay $200, and read submissions year-round. Details here.
No Tokens
This literary journal is reading submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for its 10th issue. Writers can send three pieces of fiction, of any length. The deadline is 1 July 2021 for this issue. They’re also reading work for a Young Writers’ Prize, with prizes of $100-300 for writers of fiction and nonfiction under 18 years. Details here.
The Berkley Fiction Review
This is a UC Berkeley undergraduate, student-run publication. They want “innovative short fiction that plays with form and content, as well as traditionally constructed stories with fresh voices and original ideas.” They also publish comics. Pay is $25. The deadline is 30 June 2021 for fiction. Details here and here.
Sweet Tree Review
This is “a quarterly online literary and arts publication obsessed with ineffable connectivity”, according to their website. They are reading for their Summer 2021 issue – fiction (up to 7,500 words), nonfiction, and poetry. The deadline is 4 July 2021. Details here.
Heavy Feather Review: The Zachary Doss Friends in Letters Memorial Fellowship
This online and print literary magazine is accepting submissions of collaborative work for their fellowship. Their guidelines say, “The portfolio should consist of no more than 10 pages of work (in any genre combination) and must include a 1 page introduction speaking, in any way you see fit, to your friendship with your collaborator and how it has influenced your writing or this portfolio.” Previous entries to the fellowship have included a 10-page comic made by a writer and artist; an eight-minute short-film collaboration between a dancer and a filmmaker; a 10-page portfolio of flash fictions alternating between the authors; a 10-page interview by two mutual friends about a friend and artist who has passed; a 10-page visual nonfiction essay between two student peers. Winning pairs will receive $50; the deadline is 30 June 2021 for portfolios. They’re also accepting submissions for the online magazine currently. Details here and here.
The Gasher
They publish fiction (500-3,000 words), nonfiction, and poetry. They read year-round; the deadline for their Summer issue is 17 July 2021. They’re also accepting applications for scholarships for US-based writers’ first books in poetry and prose; winners will get $250 each. Details here.
Masque & Spectacle
This is a bi-annual arts and literary journal. They publish fiction (up to 8,000 words), nonfiction, poetry, drama, reviews, and other formats. The deadline is 31 July 2021. Details here.
Pleiades
They publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and book reviews. For fiction they want work “with a focus on well-developed characters, memorable language, provocatively-wrought subject matter, and immersive settings. While there are no length requirements, our journal has limited space, and manuscripts over 12,000 words will especially need to impress.” Past contributors include winners of prestigious literary prizes. The deadline is 1 July 2021. Details here.
Nonbinary Review: Prohibition; Person of Interest
They publish fiction (up to 3,000 words), nonfiction, and poetry. They’re reading on two themes currently – Prohibition (deadline 31 July), and Person of Interest (deadline 31 October 2021). They have extensive guidelines on each theme. Pay is $0.01/word for prose, and $10 for poetry. Details here.
Every Day Fiction
They want fiction of up to 1,000 words. All fiction genres are acceptable, as well as stories that don’t fit into a genre. Apart from general submissions, they need stories on various specific themes, with deadlines each month. Pay is $3. Details here.
(mac)ro(mic)
They publish flash fiction and creative nonfiction, of up to 1,000 words. “We want your heart, your soul, the pieces that are a part of you. We want stories that are worlds in words, pieces that tell a (mac)ro story in a (mic)ro word count. We want works that focus on expressing, not impressing. Above all else, we want stories that connect.” They pay $15. Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.
