These magazines accept micro and flash fiction; many of these outlets also accept longer stories, nonfiction, and poetry. They’re a mix of literary and genre magazines, and listed in no particular order.
Many, but not all, of them are open for submissions now.
While they all publish tiny fictions, their tastes and aesthetics vary widely. Please read their archived stories wherever possible, to see if your work is a good fit.
The Citron Review
This is a journal of brief literature; their tagline is, ‘Short forms that shimmer’. They publish micros (100-word pieces across genres), flash fiction and nonfiction (up to 1,000 words), and poetry. The deadline is 6 December 2024; some categories can close periodically. Details here and here.
Westerly Magazine
This Australian magazine publishes in print and online. They accept microfiction, short stories (up to 3,500 words), poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, artwork, comics, essays and literary criticism. For print, pay is AUD300 for prose, AUD250-300 for poems; and for online publication, pay is AUD180. The deadline is 28 August 2024. Details here and here.
Loft
This literary magazine is “open for submissions for our next issue (Issue VII) on any theme. All work must be completely free of violence in order to be accepted.” There is no deadline listed. They accept flash fiction (up to 500 words), short stories, and poetry. Pay is £30 for flash fiction, £50 for short stories, and £20 for poetry. Details here (scroll down).
Frazzled Lit
This is a new literary magazine. It is a Substack-based project. They’re reading submissions for their first issue. They want flash fiction (up to 500 words), as well as short stories, CNF, and poetry. The deadline is 28 August 2024. Details here.
Flash Frog
They want flash fiction of up to 1,000 words that is “Small. Brightly Colored. Deadly to the Touch.” They accept general submissions year-round, with some exceptions. Pay is $25. Details here.
Flash Fiction Online
They publish flash fiction, 500-1,000 words, literary as well as across many genres. They also accept reprints. Pay is $100 for original stories. They will open on the 1st of September for reprint flash fiction, and on 1st October for original flash stories. They close when they reach their Submittable cap. Details here.
Orion’s Belt
This is a speculative flash fiction magazine, and they have also expanded into speculative poetry. Please see their detailed guidelines, including the kind of work they want, and what they do not want. They accept works up to 1,200 words for fiction, and one poem per submission. They pay $0.08/word. The deadline is 1 September 2024. Details here.
Seaside Gothic
This UK-based magazine publishes fiction (up to 1,000 words), poetry, and nonfiction that meet the criteria of seaside gothic literature (it is led by emotion, not reason, exploring the human experience mentally and spiritually as well as physically; It addresses duality—land and sea, love and hate, the beautiful and the grotesque; It connects to the edge, living on the seaside either literally or figuratively, and has one foot in the water and the other on solid ground). Their next reading period is 7th to 13th October 2024. Pay is £0.01/word. Details here.
10 by 10 Flash
They accept all genres of flash fiction (200-500 words). They also need authors to “Include bio and head & shoulders jpeg photo”. Details here and here.
Factor Four Magazine
They want flash speculative fiction — science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, super hero, or any combination of these, of up to 1,000 words. Pay is $0.11/word. They also accept artwork. Details here.
Bright Flash Literary Review
They publish flash (50-1,500 words), short fiction, creative non-fiction, and memoir. Details here and here.
Shenandoah
This literary magazine is affiliated with Washington and Lee University. They will open for fiction submissions on 10th September, and will stay open until they reach their submission cap. “We’re happy to consider flash fiction–short stories under 1,000 words. You may include up to three pieces of flash in a single submission (all in one document).” They also publish short fiction, novel excerpts, poetry, and creative nonfiction. “We pay all of our contributors as much as our budget allows.” At the time of writing, they were open for CNF and comics submissions. Details here.
ShortStory Substack
They want a story, of 6 words to 10,000 words, in any genre. They publish one story a month. Send a story by the month-end, and the winner is announced on the 15th of the following month. They also accept reprints. Pay is $100, and 50% of subscription revenue. You can read more about their rules and guidelines here, and they also post the previous month’s stats on their website, which includes payout.
Uncanny
This award-winning speculative fiction magazine opens occasional submission periods for flash fiction (750-1,500 words). Currently, they are open for short story submissions of up to 10,000 words, and the deadline for that is 2 September 2024. They pay $0.10/word for fiction, $40/poem, and $100 for nonfiction. Details here.
Nature: Futures
Nature is a weekly international journal publishing research in all fields of science and technology. While this is not a literary magazine, they are on this list because they also publish flash science fiction – “Futures is the award-winning science-fiction section of Nature and it accepts unsolicited articles. Each Futures piece should be an entirely fictional, self-contained story of around 850–950 words in length, and the genre should, broadly speaking, be ‘hard’ (that is, ‘scientific’) SF rather than, say, outright fantasy, slipstream or horror.” They pay £85. See here (scroll down to Futures) and here.
Etherea Magazine
This journal publishes fantasy and science fiction flash (500-1,000 words) and longer stories. Although they are not too interested in horror or grimdark in general, for flash, they will accept horror submissions also, provided it has an element of the supernatural. Also, “We are an Australian publication, and have dedicated ourselves to publishing a minimum of 25% Australian content.” Pay is AUD25 for flash fiction, AUD100 for short fiction, and AUD200 for novelettes. Details here.
The First Line Journal
They want fiction (300-5,000 words) and poetry that begins with pre-set first lines, one for each quarterly issue. For nonfiction, they want critical articles about your favorite first line from a literary work. For fiction and poetry, the first line for the next issue is: ‘The parking lot was empty.’ The deadline is 1 November 2024. Pay is $25-50 for fiction, $25 for nonfiction, $5-10 for poetry (less postage fee for international writers, should they want a print contributor copy – see guidelines). Details here.
The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
They publish fiction, nonfiction, and prose poetry, as long as it is compressed in some way. They accept submissions of up to 600 words, and pay $50. Their next submission period (for fee-free submissions) is 15 September to 15 December 2024. Details here.
Blink-Ink
This is a print magazine of microfiction; they publish 50-word stories, which are usually set around a theme. They will announce their next call, and will reopen for submissions, on 1 September 2024. Details here and here.
The Cincinnati Review
They accept fiction, fiction translations, nonfiction, and poetry for the print magazine. They publish works (including hybrids) for their online feature, miCRo, for most of the year, and for their print magazine thrice a year – September, December, and May. There is a cap on print submissions; submissions open on the 1st of these months, and close when a cap is reached. For miCRo, pay is $25 for pieces up to 500 words. For print, they pay $25/page for prose and $30/page for poetry. Details here (general guidelines), here (what the editors look for), and here (submission manager).
101 Words
They want stories of exactly 101 words. Stories selected for Flash Fiction Magazine anthologies get $10; there is no payment for stories on the website. Details here.
The Molotov Cocktail
This magazine wants “volatile flash fiction, the kind of prose you cook up in a bathtub and handle with rubber gloves.” They accept both literary and genre fiction. They have detailed guidelines, including about the kind of stories they do not want, please read them carefully. They accept works up to 1,000 words; the average length of accepted pieces is 300-600 words. Details here and here.
100-Foot Crow
This weekly magazine wants science fiction and fantasy stories of exactly 100 words. They’re reading ‘Run!’ themed, as well as unthemed stories, during this submission period. The deadline is 15 September 2024. Details here.
Paper Butterfly Flash Fiction
They publish flash fiction, of up to 1,000 words. They accept science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, humour, western, mystery, literary, and any variation or combination thereof. Pay is CAD15. They will reopen for submissions in late summer or early autumn. Details here.
matchbook
They want fiction, creative nonfiction, and “indeterminate prose”. “Like our name suggests, we are interested in literary art that manages brevity without sacrificing fullness. We like narrative, but we also like work that uses form to express something about the time in which we live. … We are most interested in works fewer than 1,000 words, but we will publish those with higher word counts if they are exceptional.
If we fancy your submission, you’ll be asked to submit a companion piece to be included as an Author’s Note, postings of which appear below the published piece.” This magazine was on a hiatus, but started publishing again in 2024. They also published special calls in the past, which you can read about here. Submissions are closed now, and will reopen in late summer or in the fall. They pay $50. Details here.
365tomorrows
They publish science fiction and speculative fiction of up to 600 words. “We like science fiction in all its incarnations, from hard sci-fi to cyberpunk and beyond.” Details here and here (scroll down).
Spark Flash Fiction
“Spark provides flash fiction romance and women’s fiction stories under 1,000 words. We want stories that will grab the reader and put a lil’ spark in their day.” They want stories of 700-1,000 words. They accept contemporary romance, historical romance, romantic suspense, rom-com, and fantasy/sci-fi romance. YA in these genres is also accepted. Stories have to be PG13. See their upcoming themes. Please send work only during the submission period. Details here.
SmokeLong Quarterly
They publish flash narratives–fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid–up to 1,000 words. “We now pay $100/story or $150/story with audio”. They also publish reviews and craft essays. Details here.
A-Minor Magazine
At the time of writing, they were reading flash fiction (50-1,000 words), flash nonfiction, and poetry for their September issue. They want works with an experimental bent. Details here.
Small Wonders
This is a monthly magazine for speculative flash fiction and poetry. They want original flash fiction (up to 1,000 words), and reprint flash fiction (up to 1,100 words); poetry is currently closed. “We’re looking for speculative fiction with elements not of this world: fantasy, science fiction, horror. Our very favorite stories are those that don’t rely on a twist or gotcha ending. We love stories with big feelings, and don’t necessarily mind set pieces with very little plot.” Pay is $0.10/word for originals, $0.01/word or $10, whichever is more for reprints, and $60 for poems. Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
