Update: BarrelHouse Just closed to submissions. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Barrelhouse is a respected and prestigious literary journal that accepts very few of the submissions it receives. They are primarily a biannual print publication, but they also have an online edition that publishes different work as well.  They publish poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and flash fiction. They like to publish well crafted writing with a sense of humor.

Unlike most literary journals they want to bridge the gap between serious art and mainstream pop culture. In fact the only non-fiction they publish is work that directly interacts with pop culture.

Stories originally published in Barrelhouse have been featured in the Best American Nonrequired Reading, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the Million Writer’s Award.

They pay $50 to each contributor to their print issues, as well as two contributor copies. Online contributors are not currently paid. Not only does Barrelhouse pay their writers, the editors have taken a vocal stand against charging writer’s submission fees, a growing trend that a lot of the more prestigious journals have embraced.

They only accept submissions through the submission manager Submittable. They tend to publish fiction and non-fiction shorter than 8,000 words in length, but they are occasionally publish work that is longer than that.

Poets can submit up to five poems at a time, all other writers must just submit one piece at a time. It takes them about three months to respond to most submissions.

To learn more, or to submit, visit their website here.