These literary magazines/anthologies/outlets publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in print format. Most also publish online. Some have limited print runs, and a few are themed. Many are paying markets. Most, not all, of these are open for submissions now.
Cream City Review
This journal, housed at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, publishes “memorable and energetic fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid texts, and artwork” from both emerging and established writers. Please see their guidelines for each genre, to see what kind of work the editors are looking for. Send up to 5 poems, or up to 20 pages of prose. The deadline is 1 April 2022. Details here.
Masks Literary Magazine
They publish poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, photography, and audio/film. They publish 2 print and online magazines each year. Send up to 3 poems, or prose up to 3,000 words. Payment is $25-$35 for prose, $20 per poem, $25 per piece for audio/film, and $100 for the featured artist. The deadline is 15 April 2022. Details here.
Infinite Worlds and Infinite Horror magazines
Infinite Worlds publishes science fiction, as well as artwork and comics. They’re also accepting submissions for Infinite Horror, a new horror fiction magazine which is a spinoff of Infinite Worlds, which will debut in late March 2022. Both magazines are 60+ pages, and they have a direct edition, bought from their website, as well as copies that can be bought at retailers’. Send stories of 1,500-5,000 words. Pay is $0.08/word for fiction. Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis. Details here.
West Branch
This respected literary magazine is published thrice per year, and they accept fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and translations. It is published from Bucknell University. Length is up to 30 pages of prose, and up to six poems. Pay is $0.05/word for prose up to $100, and $50 for poetry. The deadline is 1 April 2022. Details here.
Blue Cubicle Press: The First Line; The Last Line; Overtime
They have a two journals and a chapbook series that are in print and also online:
— The First Line (a quarterly, where they want submissions of fiction and poetry with a pre-set first line, and non-fiction discussing the first line from your favourite literary work, pays $5-50);
— The Last Line (an annual, fiction with a pre-set last line, pays $20-40); and
— Overtime (individual chapbook-length fiction about workers which is too long for their ‘Workers Write!’ series, pays $40-60 – they’ll also consider serializing novels about the workplace, but please query first).
Hermine
This is a print-only annual of fiction. They want stories of up to 4,000 words, and pay CAD50-200. Submissions are scheduled to reopen on 1 May 2022. Details here.
Split Lip Magazine
They favor interesting, literary narratives with a modern, pop culture appeal. They publish online monthly and in print annually – flash fiction, short stories, memoir, poetry, and art, as well as interviews and reviews (for interviews and reviews, query first via webform – see guidelines). Fee-free submissions for all writers are in March, May, August, September, and November; for Black writers, these are open till end-June. Please note, fee-free submissions are sometimes closed earlier than the deadline, if their Submittable cap is reached. Send up to 3,000 words for fiction, up to 2,000 words for memoir, or one poem. Pay is $50 for web contributions, $5/page for print, $25 for reviews and interviews. Details here and here (scroll down).
(To view more magazines/anthologies/presses/opportunities which are open for underrepresented writers, please see this list by Emily Harstone and S. Kalekar – there are some print magazines there as well, including Snarl, Room Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, and Midnight & Indigo.)
Southword Literary Journal
This well-regarded literary journal, from the Munster Literature Centre, publishes poetry and fiction. The deadline is 31 March 2022 for fiction (up to 5,000 words); the deadline for poetry submissions has passed. Pay is €40 per poem, and €250 for fiction. Details here.
Bourbon Penn
This is an online and print magazine and they want “highly imaginative stories with a healthy dose of the odd. Odd characters, odd experiences, odd realities. We’re looking for genre / speculative stories and are quite partial to slipstream, cross-genre, magic realism, absurdist, and the surreal.” Pay is $0.03/word for stories of 2,000-7,500 words. They have ongoing submissions. Details here.
One Story
This well-regarded magazine publishes one short story (3,000-8,000 words) per issue. They are looking for literary fiction. “We are looking for stories that leave readers feeling satisfied and are strong enough to stand alone.” They accept translations, as well. Regarding reprints, they say if a story has been published in print outside of North America, it will be considered; they will not consider stories published online. Apart from cash payment of $500, authors also get 25 contributor copies. The deadline is 31 May 2022. Details here and here.
(Please also see Emily Harstone’s 49 Literary Journals That Pay, many of which are print publications, including, but not limited to, The Sun, Poetry, Clarkesworld, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Thema, AGNI, Bennington Review, and Gettysburg Review.)
Red Rock Review
This magazine publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Send up to 5,000 words of prose or poetry (including translations) up to 80 lines. The journal is housed by The College of Southern Nevada. The deadline is 30 April 2022. Details here and here.
London Review of Books
This well-regarded UK-based magazine is open to both pitches and submissions. “We look at unsolicited submissions as well as proposals. The best guide to what we might like is what we usually publish, including poems, reviews, reportage, memoir, articles for our Short Cuts and Diary slots, and blogposts.” Details here.
Weird Horror Magazine
They publish horror and weird fiction (500-6,000 words). Their reading periods are March and September. Writers get cash payment and two contributor copies. Pay is 1.5c/word. The deadline is 31 March 2022. Details here.
Event
This Canadian magazine is periodically open for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reviews. “We look for compelling characters and voice, fresh plots, and narratives that move us.” At the time of writing, they were open for fiction submissions, and scheduled to close on 31 March 2022, or when filled. Pay is CAD40/page for poetry and CAD35/page for fiction, up to CAD500. Details here and here.
The Threepenny Review
This well-regarded literary magazine is open for submissions during January to April. They publish fiction, nonfiction (including critical articles and memoir), poetry, and Table Talk pieces. They accept submissions through their online submission system and also by mail. Length is 1,200 to 2,500 words for critical articles; up to 1,000 words for Table Talk items; up to 4,000 words for stories and memoir; up to 100 lines for poetry. Pay is $200 per poem or Table Talk piece; $400 for fiction and nonfiction. The deadline is 30 April 2022. Details here and here.
en bloc
They publish fiction, poetry, art, and photography. Submissions are ongoing; for issue 4, the deadline is 1 April 2022 (see ‘Is there a deadline?’ in FAQ). Pay is £35 per side as they appear in the magazine, and the deadline is 1 April 2022 for Issue 4. Details here.
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
They publish mystery fiction. “We publish every kind of mystery short story: the psychological suspense tale, the deductive puzzle, the private eye case—the gamut of crime and detection from the realistic (including the policeman’s lot and stories of police procedure) to the more imaginative (including “locked rooms” and “impossible crimes”). We need hard-boiled stories as well as “cozies,” but we are not interested in explicit sex or violence. … We are especially happy to review first stories by authors who have never before published fiction professionally. First-story submissions should be addressed to EQMM’s Department of First Stories.” They prefer stories in the 2,500-8,000 word range, and occasionally publish novella-length work. Pay is $0.05-0.08/word, and submissions are ongoing. Details here.
Swamp Ape Review
This is a literary journal founded and produced by the MFA in creative writing students at Florida Atlantic University. Their yearly print and online issues feature fiction, nonfiction, poetry, swamp (works that defy genre – “We’re looking for weird work that has intention”), translations, and visual art. They also highlight South Florida writers and artists. Send up to 6,000 words for prose, or up to 5 poems. The deadline is 31 August 2022. Details here.
Pulp Literature
They publish fiction, poems, and comics. For fiction, “We are looking for entertaining, accessible stories. We do appreciate clever and poetic turns of phrase, but first and foremost we want a story readers can sink into late at night before they go to bed.” They want all genres, not just pulp, including fantasy, romance, mystery, literary, etc., and are looking for both serious and light-hearted stories. Submissions may close earlier than the deadline specified if their inbox fills up (see guidelines). They also accept pitches for graphic novels/illustrations, and submissions of poetry. Length is up to 50 pages for fiction (up to 5,000 words have the best chances of publication), and up to three poems. Pay is up to $0.02-0.08/word for fiction (see guidelines), $25-50 for poetry and interior illustrations, and $25-75/page for sequential art (graphic novels and cartoons) and illustrations. The deadline is 31 March 2022 for fiction; they have ongoing submissions for graphic novels/illustration pitches, and poetry. Details here.
The Journal of Undiscovered Poets
This is a poetry journal. Their guidelines say, “While undiscovered does not necessarily mean unpublished, and previously published poems will be considered, the journal is interested in poems by writers striving to enter the world of published poets. All ages, levels of education and life experience are welcome.” Send up to 5 poems in any length or style. Details here.
Fourteen Poems
This UK-based journal publishes LGBTQ+ poets. Each issue publishes 14 queer poems. Send up to 5 poems. Pay is £25/poem. They publish thrice yearly, but take submissions throughout the year. The deadline for submissions for their next issue is 15 June 2022. Details here.
Bullshit Anthology
Bullshit is an online literary magazine that publishes “work that you haven’t sent to other lit mags because you know it’s just not working. Your half-baked prose, fucked-up line breaks, abandoned sketches, nonsensical plots, yadda yadda. Everybody else wants your best—we want your worst. We especially like it when shit gets weird.” Submissions are open for the first Bullshit Anthology – they want “your silly poems, inane stories, funky prose, blatherings, riddles, diss tracks, sketches, word games, and whatever.” Send work up to 2,500 words. Pay is $5, and a copy of the print anthology. The deadline is 1 April 2022. Details here.
Spartan
They publish literary fiction, online quarterly and short-run print issues periodically. Submit one flash or micro fiction, of 1,000 words or fewer. They have four submission windows a year. Their next reading period is April through May. Details here.
Prairie Schooner
They publish short stories, poems, imaginative essays of general interest, and reviews of current books of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The submission period is 1 April to 1 May. Details here.
Reckoning
They want creative writing, including translations, and art about environmental justice. “The fiction we publish is mostly, but not exclusively, speculative; the nonfiction is more creative than journalistic, the poetry tends towards the narrative, preferably with some thematic heft, the visual art leans away from the pulpy towards the surreal, subversive, political. But the heart of what we want is your searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be, as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth.” See the editors’ preferences for Issue 7. Send 3-5 poems, and up to 20,000 words of prose. Pay is $0.08/word for prose and $30/page for poetry. The deadline is 22 September 2022. Details here.
Verse of April: Hymn for the Living Poet, Volume II
This journal publishes poetry and art. They want work for their digital anthology (suitable for digital medium), as well as work that can be reprinted in their print anthology, Hymn for the Living Poet – “-for, -to, or -after poems and visual pieces”. It aims to celebrate the work of contemporary poets. Submitters should include a “Statement of Homage,” which explains why the particular living poet and/or particular poem by a living poet is important to them, and a short biography of the living poet. The deadline is 1 April 2022. Details here.
Bull City Press: Inch
They publish 4 micro chapbooks a year – one each in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and a fourth collection by a North Carolina writer. Send a minimum of three stories or essays, or a set of poems. Submissions have to be 10-16 pages. Up to 75 percent of the pieces can be previously published, but at least 25 percent of the pieces have to be unpublished at the time of acceptance. They have one reading period per year, 15 March to 15 April. Details here.
The Atlantic
Apart from journalism, The Atlantic also publishes fiction and poetry. Submissions are ongoing. Details here.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
They publish anthologies of true stories and poetry, of up to 1,200 words. They’re usually open for several themed calls, with various deadlines; currently, they’re looking for submissions on Angels; Cats; Crazy, eccentric, wacky, lovable, fun families; Dogs; How stepping outside my comfort zone changed me; Messages from heaven; Miracles; Preteens; Teenagers; Thanksgiving, Xmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa & New Year’s; The advice that changed my life; and The power of positive thinking. Pay is $200, and 10 contributor copies. Further details are here (general submission guidelines) and here (submission portal).
Star*Line
This is the official print journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, established in 1978. It is a literary venue for speculative (including science-fiction, fantasy, and horror) poets and poetry enthusiasts, and also accepts short articles on topics related to science-fiction, fantasy, and horror speculative poetry. Send up to 5 poems. Pay is $0.03/word for poetry and $0.01/word for articles. They also accept reviews, and art. They accept submissions on an ongoing basis. Details here.
Brick
This premier literary magazine is based in Canada and they accept only nonfiction submissions. They tend to publish work of 1,000-5,000 words. Pay is $55-660. The deadline is 30 April 2022. Details here (scroll down to Submissions) and here (Submittable).
Rain Taxi Review of Books
This quarterly print and online magazine “focuses on reviews of current releases (generally those published within the last calendar year), it also devotes space to interviews, essays, and reflections on older works that continue to resonate.” Submissions are accepted year-round, except for June and December. Details here.
Aquila
This is a UK-based children’s magazine. They publish stories and features for children aged 8-13 years, with the majority being in the 9-12-year range. They want stories of 1,000-1,300 words per double-spread stories, or 1,050-1,200 words per instalment for two-instalment stories. The content is designed to appeal to bright children who are confident and independent readers. The work should have not been published before in Great Britain. Pay is £105 per short story, or per instalment for a two-part story. Details here (click on Authors Guidelines on top right).
Contemporary Verse 2
This quarterly literary journal publishes poetry (up to 6 pages) and critical writing about poetry, including interviews, articles, essays, and reviews. They also welcome poetry submissions in French, as well as translation projects, including both French to English and English to French. Pay is $30/poem, $50-$100 for interviews and articles, $40-$150 for essays, and $50-$80 for reviews. The deadline is 31 May 2022. Details here.
The Dark City Mystery Magazine
The Dark City is dedicated to “the love of story, and in particular, the rough and tumble of the world of crime and violence. We are fans of story that has roots in reality but we do consider humorous situations and characters to be part of reality. We hope to acquire stories that leave readers thinking about the characters and their dilemma.” They want stories of 1,000-7,500 words. Pay is $25. Details here.
Acumen
This is an award-winning poetry journal. They publish new poetry and poetry translations, alongside articles, debate, comment and reviews of recent poetry publications. Send up to 6 poems, or an essay. Details here.
Griffith Review: Real Cool World
This premier Australia-based journal publishes work online and in print. They want submissions for their Real Cool World issue, which will “explore Antarctica as a place and as a canvas for imagination. This vast, dry continent drives much of the Earth’s weather, part litmus test for change at the world’s extremities and part canary in the coalmine. If stories about Antarctica illuminate much of the rest of the planet’s past and future, they also create a space to play out human ideas of exploration, investigation and fantasy. … From glaciology and marine biology to geopolitics, international law, fiction, big ships and more, this collection will showcase subjects and stories from the planet’s deepest south. We’re looking for new work that responds to the theme in the form of essays, reportage, creative non-fiction, fiction, memoir and visual essays. A separate poetry call-out for this edition will open in April.” The deadline is 8 April 2022 for all genres except poetry; poetry submissions will open on 18 April for this theme. Details here (general guidelines) and here (theme details).
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
