These literary magazines and outlets publish creative nonfiction of various kinds. Most of them also accept other genres, like fiction and poetry. Most, but not all, of them are open for submissions now. Many of them pay writers. A few of the calls are themed. The magazines are not listed in any particular order.
The Linden Review
They publish writing on “bodily, emotional, spiritual, social, and environmental well-being”. They are affiliated with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “The journal’s mission is to publish high-quality creative nonfiction that investigates the complexities of the word health. We define health broadly and are interested in work that explores a deeper understanding and appreciation of bodily, emotional, spiritual, social, and environmental well-being.” You can read more about their mission here. They want essays, memoir, flash, experimental, lyric, immersion reportage, graphic medicine, and other nonfiction about personal, public, and environmental health and medicine, up to 5,000 words. The deadline for Issue 5 is 31 March 2024. Details here and here.
Matter Press: The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
They publish fiction and creative nonfiction, as well as fiction and creative nonfiction prose poetry, as long as it is compressed in some way. Pay is $50 for works up to 600 words. The deadline is 15 June 2024. Details here and here.
Twenty-two twenty-eight
Their tagline is, ‘For people who watch the world’. They accept nonfiction (500-2,000 words), fiction, poetry, visual art, music, and videos. Pay is $30. Details here.
The Stinging Fly
This respected Irish print journal publishes nonfiction, short fiction, novel extracts, and poetry. They pay €45 per magazine page, with a minimum/maximum payment of €300/€1200 for nonfiction and fiction, €150 for shorter essays/flash fiction (1 – 2 pages), and €40-60/poem. Their next submission period is May 15th-May 29th for the Winter 2024 issue. Their submission portal will open during the reading period. Details here.
Lunch Ticket
They publish work for the print magazine, and also for Amuse Bouche, their online section, submissions for which are open now. Send prose of up to 3,500 words. They are also currently open for translations and writing for young people. Details here and here.
(Lunch Ticket also offers two fee-free prizes, for creative nonfiction and translation – see guidelines for submission periods and how to submit.)
Salamander Magazine
Salamander, affiliated with Suffolk University, publishes nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, and they pay. The deadline is 1 April 2024. Details here; you can submit by post, or via their online manager here.
Coin-Operated Press: Gardening Zine
They publish zines on a different theme every month; you can see all their 2024 themes here. This month, they want submissions on the Gardening theme. “Gardening is a radical act in this world of overconsumption, environment-ravaging, and harmful-productivity. Take a moment to share your garden with us in this ode to the gardener zine. We want to see your tips and tricks for growing vegetables, botanical illustrations, an essay on how to encourage pollinators to visit your garden, a story about the faeries that live at the bottom of your garden, a journal entry from your visit to a botanical garden, care-sheets for your favourite plants, guerrilla gardening infographics, seed library adverts, photography of gardens you have visited, how-to create a garden when you don’t have much space, a poetical ode to the creatures that visit your garden, and so much more!! If it will fit on the pages of a zine, we want to see it!! … This zine will be A5 in size and printed in full-colour.” The deadline is 31 March 2024. Details here and here.
The Threepenny Review
This well-regarded quarterly journal accepts nonfiction (up to 4,000 words for memoir; 1,200-2,500 words for critical articles), fiction, poetry, and submissions for their ‘Table Talk’ column. Pay is $400 per story or article, and $200 per poem or Table Talk piece. The deadline is 15 April 2024. Details here and here.
The Garlic Press
“The Garlic Press publishes poetry and prose pieces that are “extra pungent.” We are looking for writing with the character of garlic: fresh, raw, sticky, wild, and/or strong to the senses.” Send prose of up to 10 pages. They read throughout the year, with cut-off dates for issues. The deadline for the Spring issue is 31 March 2024. Details here.
Menagerie
They accept nonfiction (up to 5,000 words), fiction, and poetry. “We believe in sentences so sharp they draw blood, the strange and inexplicable, the wild and weird and uncanny, words in thickets, clusters, and flocks, pieces that move us beyond caring what others think about said pieces.” You can read about them and the kind of work they like here. They pay $50. Details here and here.
In Short
This is a journal of short-shorts (up to 100 words), micro (up to 400 words), flash (up to 1,000 words) nonfiction. “We love memoir, hermit crabs, lyric essays, experimental pieces, straightforward narratives, and everything in between. If it’s short and beautiful and true, we want it.” Do not send fiction or poetry. The deadline is 31 March 2024, or until filled. Details here and here.
West Branch
They accept creative nonfiction (up to 30 pages), fiction, poetry, and translation. West Branch is affiliated with Bucknell University. Pay is $100 per submission of poetry, $.10/word for prose up to $200. The deadline is 1 April 2024. Details here.
TOLKA Journal
Their website says, “Tolka is a biannual literary journal of non-fiction: publishing essays, reportage, travel writing, auto-fiction, individual stories and the writing that flows in between.
We are a journal for writers to express themselves beyond the limits of fixed genres, forms or subjects. … We encourage writers to test the creative boundaries of non-fiction.” They publish work by Irish and international writers, of 2,000-4,000 words. Pay is €500. Watch for their next submission period. Details here.
New York Times: Modern Love
Modern Love is a nonfiction column. They want “honest personal essays about contemporary relationships. We seek true stories on finding love, losing love and trying to keep love alive. We welcome essays that explore subjects such as adoption, polyamory, technology, race and friendship — anything that could reasonably fit under the heading “Modern Love.” Ideally, essays should spring from some central dilemma you have faced. It is helpful, but not essential, for the situation to reflect what is happening in the world now.” Also, “Love may be universal, but individual experiences can differ immensely and be informed by factors including race, socio-economic status, gender, disability status, nationality, sexuality, age, religion and culture.” Send essays of 1,500-1,700 words. Modern Love has two submission periods, March through June, and September through December. Writers are paid. Send submissions to modernlove (at) nytimes.com. They especially welcome work from historically underrepresented writers, and from those outside the US. Details here.
(Also see their Tiny Love Stories column; these are also personal essays similar in theme to Modern Love, but much shorter, of 100 words.)
Lowestoft Chronicle
They publish nonfiction, fiction, and poetry; preference will be given to humorous submissions with an emphasis on travel. For nonfiction (up to 3,000 words), they say, “Narrative non-fiction, commentary, slice of life and memoirs are welcome.” The deadline is 15 May 2024 for issue 58. Details here.
Banshee
This journal, from Banshee Press, welcomes nonfiction (up to 5,000 words), fiction (including flash), and poetry from Irish and international writers. They are reading submissions for their 18th issue (autumn/winter 2024). Pay is €250 for a story/essay; €75 for flash fiction; and €50/poem. The deadline is 31 March 2024. Details here (also click on ‘We believe in paying writers’ for rates.)
Wordpeace
This magazine wants submissions on War & Peace. Submissions on other social justice issues are also welcome. They want personal or lyrical essays, reviews or interviews of up to 3,000 words, as well as fiction, poetry, and art. The deadline is 31 March 2024. Details here.
Astrolabe
They want “work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection. Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another. And then, once we find one other, the myths we make.
We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky. We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit.” And, “We’ll happily consider fiction and CNF in all prose forms—prose poetry, micro, flash, and beyond—but we’re not considering lineated poetry at the moment.” Prose can be up to 3,000 words. Payment is $50. They usually charge for submissions, and have some fee-free submission periods. The next upcoming free submission period is 20st March to 20th April 2024. Details here.
Aurelia
Aurelia publishes the work of marginalised genders: women, non-binary people and trans men. “Aurelia is a publication dedicated to personal thoughts, feelings and experiences. The things you think and the way you feel must be at the centre of your piece. All article submissions must be written in the first-person (“I think, I feel, I want…”)” Please send them pitches only, not unsolicited submissions. They pay £50. Details on how to pitch are here.
Paperbark
This is an interdisciplinary print and digital magazine affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They only consider work which engages with environmental themes. They are accepting submissions of poetry, prose, including translations, and art for their online spring issue. For prose, they want fiction, creative nonfiction, journalism, and science communication, up to 5,000 words. The deadline is 1 May 2024. Details here and here.
Motherwell
This is a parenting magazine, and they take personal essays on parenting, as well as work on other themes and genres. For personal essays, “We are looking for evocative first-person narratives that have a unique focus, or take a novel angle, on a slice of the parenting experience. We are open to a range of styles and tones: the only requirement is that the essay works on its own terms—be it lyrical, humorous, research-oriented, etc—and conveys something fundamental about its writer. Up to 1,200 words.“ Some of the work they publish is paid, and some is unpaid (see guidelines). Details here.
Baltimore Review
They publish nonfiction (up to 5,000 words), fiction, and poetry. Some editor preferences are in the bios on their Staff page. Pay is $50 (via a gift certificate or PayPal, if preferred), and the deadline is 30 May 2024. Details here and here.
Mid-Level Management Literary Magazine
They publish poetry, prose, fiction, and essays “that explore the intersection of the professional and personal. In a late stage world where everything is a commodity, the spaces we create to confront that reality are essential. … We want to be the catharsis to the hustle & grind culture, and the decompression when we’re off the clock.” The theme for this reading period is Secret Menu. Send prose of 500-3,500 words. The deadline is 30 April 2024. Details here.
Craft Literary
This magazine publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, essays on writing craft, critical essays, and book annotations. They also accept completed interviews/hybrid interviews, or pitches. Send up to 1,000 words for flash fiction and creative non-fiction, up to 6,000 words for short fiction and creative non-fiction. Pay is $100 for flash, $200 for short fiction and creative non-fiction, and $50-100 for craft essays. Details here.
The Pig’s Back
This Ireland-based journal publishes nonfiction and fiction. They do not publish poetry. Pay is €300 for works of 2,000-5,000 words. Watch for their next submission period. Details here.
Ninth Letter
Ninth Letter is accepting submissions on the Caretaking theme for the web edition. Submissions for the themed web issue are free, and submissions for the print issue are charged. They have detailed guidelines on the theme, including, “To define Caretaking, to our mind, as being separate from but not exclusive to love: sometimes we find our way to it, but other times we are chosen to take it on.
Send us fiction, poems and essays that capture and navigate practices of care for others. This call for submissions is not limited to care for people, but for care of anything other than ourselves. We want pieces that show both caretakers and cared for in a variety of settings and circumstances – through difficulties and successes.” They pay $75 for prose up to 3,500 words, and $25 for poetry. The deadline is 31 March 2024. Details here and here.
The Penmen Review
They are affiliated with Southern New Hampshire University, and publish resource articles, spotlight interviews and writing in all genres; you can read about them here. For the Review, they accept original essays (up to 2,500 words), poetry, book and script excerpts, and short stories. For Writing Resources, they ask writers and industry professionals to share tips, advice and first-person articles. (300-1,500 words). They read throughout the year, with cutoff dates for issues; the upcoming deadline is 31 March 2024. Details here.
Gordon Square Review
Gordon Square Review is a publication of Literary Cleaveland. They publish nonfiction (up to 1,000 words), fiction, and poetry, and pay $15. The deadline is 1 April 2024. They also offer editorial mentorships to emerging writers: “During the selection process, each editor will each choose a piece of writing from the general submission pool and work with the author in revision. Completed drafts resulting from these mentorships will be published in Gordon Square Review and accompanied by micro essays from the respective contributors and editors. These competitive editing mentorships will help guide emerging writers through the revision and publication process. All writers who submit to Gordon Square Review are automatically considered for a mentorship.” Details here and here.
Shooter Literary Magazine
They want submissions – nonfiction (2,000-6,000 words), fiction, poetry, and art – on the Nightlife theme. “We’re looking for stories, essays, memoir and poetry on anything that relates to nocturnal happenings: dating, working the night shift, crime, clubbing, dinner, sex, partying, witchcraft, ghosts, childbirth, insomnia, even nocturnal wildlife.” Pay is £25 for short prose, and £5 for flash prose and poetry. The deadline is 12 May 2024. Details here.
Giant
They publish creative nonfiction (up to 25 pages), short fiction, poetry, and other forms of hybrid writing. “We appreciate lyric essays, prose poems, flash fiction, collaborations, visual poetry, graphic fiction, literary fantasy, and excerpts from verse novellas or verse biographies.” The submission deadline is 30 April 2024. Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
