In my experience, there are many reasons to seek publication in journals that have been around for less than a year. When a literary journal is new, the editors tend to be a lot more passionate. I have gotten handwritten thank you cards from editors of new publications, something that has never happened when my work was published by a more established journal.

Editors of new journals tend to be more generous with their time, energy, and enthusiasm. Plus, they are genuinely grateful that you trusted their new and untested journal with your work. Several of the journals that published my work in their first issue have gone on to permanently feature my poems on their website as their ‘sample poem’, so that other submitters get a feel for the kind of work they like to read.

New journals have recorded podcasts about my work. My work ended up getting promoted a lot more than if it had been accepted by an older, more established journal.

With a new journal, the odds that work will be nominated for a literary prize increase as well. I have been publishing in new journals for over a decade now, and some of the journals that published my work when I was a new writer are now established and several now have a less than 1% acceptance rate. However, when I originally submitted, they were far less competitive.

During that decade, a number of those new journals went under, which is one of the major pitfalls to submitting to new journals. The other major pitfall is that you don’t know what you are getting into, particularly if your work is published in the first issue. You can’t look at past issues, online and in print, because they have none. In a way it is stepping into the unknown. In my experience though, the risk is always worth it because the reward can be much greater.

Some of these journals are currently closed but the majority are open to submissions.

Doric Literary
This new Canadian literary journal is open to international submissions, and has a clear focus, publishing “Classically inspired short stories”. This is how they define classically inspired: “We mean that the more it reads like something from Flannery O’Connor or Katherine Mansfield, the better. Contemporary settings are fine: think of stories like “Peach Cobbler” by Deesha Philyaw or “Sexy Motherfucker’s Mom” by Maureen Langloss.” I really appreciate their clear focus. They offer an honorarium via PayPal to every author that is published on the site. They allow reprints as well as novel excerpts as long as they can stand on their own. You can get a good feel for what they have published so far by reading their first issue here.

shoegaze literary
This new magazine publishes poetry and fiction. They borrow their name and aesthetics from the eponymous musical genre. I really like how their website looks and their first themed submission call really stood out to me. It’s called “In Translation (Lost)“. They go into a lot more details about it, and also share playlists and a colour palette for the theme.

Incensepunk
This Substack had my interest right from the start with their unusual name. They say they want “Sci-fi worlds that embrace the breadth of human religion” and they aren’t looking for “Apologetics or sermonizing on any particular faith”. They publish fiction. They pay $100. 

Harrow House
As they make it clear on their about page, Harrow House “was born of a desire to create a healing space for poets to share works centered on trauma and loss. It is intended to be a safe, inclusive space where pain is valid, and words are used to connect and heal.” It is an important and meaningful theme. 

SpecPoVerse
Founded in December 2024 their focus is on creating an international space for speculative poetry. They haven’t published their first issue yet, but their vision for what it will look like seems clear, based on this page. They will be trying to publish an equal number of poems per region, which seems like a really interesting and new approach. They will close to submissions on March 31st (today!) and reopen on May 1st.

Cold Caller
This new Substack-based lit journal focuses on publishing crime and mystery fiction, which they define broadly. They list a number of wonderful books as their favorites/inspiration including Fargo, Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh and Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead.

To Write A Refuge
This new poetry journal has a clear mission and exists for two reasons: “to provide a place for joy and victory and love to be cataloged for those who come after, and to give moments of joy to those who are beleaguered, tired, distraught, and anxious.” You can learn more about the journal here. They have only published three poems so far, but it’s still easy to get a sense of what they are interested in.

West Coast Review
This new literary journal based out of San Diego State University, publishes in print and electronic formats. They only publish fiction, art, and flash fiction. They are currently considering submissions for their second issue. They close to submissions on the 15th of April. They have a pretty established masthead.

House of Long Shadows (HLS)
HLS is a multi-genre magazine of Gothic fiction that is published on Substack. They publish one issue per week which consists of one short story by a contemporary author along with one piece of new or classic art.