These magazines pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are a mix of literary and genre magazines. Not all are open through the month.
Translunar Travelers Lounge
They want fun speculative fiction; stories must have elements of science fiction or fantasy. “A fun story, at its core, is one that works on the premise that things aren’t all bad; that ultimately, good wins out. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your story has to be silly or lighthearted (though it certainly can be). Joy can be made all the more powerful when juxtaposed against tragedy. In the end, though, there should be hope, and we want stories that are truly fun for as many different kinds of people as possible.
Swashbuckling adventure, deadly intrigue, and gleeful romance are some of the most obvious examples of what we’re looking for, but we won’t say no to more subtle or complicated topics, as long as they fit under the wider “fun” umbrella.”
Deadline: 15 April 2026
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.03/word
Details here.
(– Scrying Glass is also reading fiction for their first issue. “We publish sword & sorcery, dark fantasy, and weird fiction — short stories in the tradition of the great pulp fantasists. Think thieves in cursed cities, sorcerers bargaining with eldritch entities better left alone, and warriors facing unreasonable odds.” They pay $20 for stories of 1,500-5,000 words, and the deadline is 15th April 2026; submission is via a form; details here.
— And, Mythaxis publishes “speculative fiction (sf/f/h/weird/slipstream/…), crime (also including police procedural/detective/mystery/cosy/…) and mashups of the same. All genres are equally welcome in each submission window. We don’t receive enough crime fiction, so if that’s your bag we’re always eager!” They accept flash and short fiction. They’ve listed all their submission windows on their website. Their submission form will be active during the reading period, which is 23rd to 30th April 2026. They pay $0.01/word for stories of 500-5,000 words; details here.
— Also Orion’s Belt, a speculative flash fiction and poetry magazine, is open until 15th May 2026. Their website says, “We specialize in the strange and poignant and awe-inspiring, stories that have a cosmic scale and intimate personal stakes.” They have detailed guidelines, including preferences and hard sells. They also accept translations, as well as reviews and art. Pay is $0.08/word for stories up to 1,200 words and $40 per poem; details here.)
The Pig’s Back
This Ireland-based journal publishes fiction and nonfiction from around the world.
Deadline: 15th April 2026
Length: 2,000-5,000 words
Pay: €300
Details here.
Kaleidotrope
Their website says, “Kaleidotrope publishes predominantly speculative fiction and poetry—science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also compelling work that blurs the lines between these and falls outside of neat genre categories. (Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all.)” And, “We have no minimum or maximum word count for fiction but strongly prefer stories over 250 words and under 10,000.
We consider all forms of poetry, but individual haiku, or other very short poems, may be a tougher sell.” They will soon open for a brief submission period.
Reading period: 19th to 25th April 2026
Length: See above
Pay: $0.01/word for fiction, $5 for poetry
Details here.
PodCastle
This online and audio magazine, from the Escape Artists suite, publishes fantasy fiction of various types. They also accept reprints and translations.
Deadline: 1 May 2026 (Midnight BST)
Length: Up to 6,000 words for originals (can accept longer for reprints, but query first)
Pay: $0.08/word for originals, $20-100 for reprints
Details here and here.
Baltimore Review
They publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some editor preferences are in the bios on their Staff page, and some guidelines are on their Submittable page. They are also accepting submissions for contests of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, for which there is a submission fee.
Deadline: 31 May 2026
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose, up to 3 poems
Pay: $50 (via a gift certificate or PayPal, if preferred)
Details here and here.
(– Submissions have also creative nonfiction for Mud Season Review, which pays $50, and also for Cutleaf, which pays $100-300; submissions for both magazines will close by category when filled.)
— And, The Cincinnati Review will open for fiction, fiction translations, literary nonfiction, poetry, poetry translations, and art submissions for the print magazine on 1st May, and will close on the deadline, or when they reach their submission cap, whichever is earlier (they usually reach the cap well before the deadline); they also accept submissions for their online flash feature, miCRo. Pay is $25/page for prose and $30/page for poetry for print, $25 for miCRo contributions; details here – they now accept submissions via Submittable.
— Also, The Bombay Literary Magazine accepts fiction, graphic fiction, translated fiction, poetry, translated poetry, and essays (see guidelines). They will open on 1st May, and have a submission cap for each category, so submissions will close when they hit those caps or on 31st May, whichever is earlier. Their submission form will be active during the reading period. Length guidelines are 2,000-5,000 words for prose, up to 5 poems; pay is INR5,000; details here.)
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
