These 37 Lit Mags Want Your Work
Whether you've created a short story, poem, or art, it needs to be seen by the world. What better spot to showcase it than a literary magazine? Here, you'll find 37 magazines that are open for submissions right now. While I do my best to vet all these publications, please do your own research before submitting. Good luck!
Want this list in your inbox every week?
1. Underbelly Press
Underbelly Press is open in July for its very first issue! You can send in poetry, flash fiction, and art. The word limit is 1,000 for flash fiction and 30 lines of poetry. The editor is looking for, "gritty, raw, and unfiltered pieces. Think dirty realism. Works that explore human existence and everyday life." There is no fee to submit. Writers are encouraged to submit to underbellypress@gmail.com.
2. Anti-Heroin Chic
This magazine is open until July 25th for poetry, fiction, CNF/essays, art, and photography. There is no fee to submit. Learn more about the magazine and what the editors are looking for here.
3. Wildness Journal
Wildness Journal is open for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction submissions. There is no submission fee and the magazine nominates for major prizes like the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. View the submission guidelines here.
4. Magma Poetry
Magma Poetry is open for submission to its "In the Flesh" issue until July 31st. The editors are open to interpretation on what "In the Flesh" means, but do have some helpful guidelines on the website. There is no submission fee.
5. Micromance Magazine
Micromance accepts submissions year-round and is completely dedicated to the romance genre. You can submit stories ranging from 75-1,200 words and poetry of any length. There is no submission fee. View the submission guidelines here.
6. The Offing
The Offing is open for its "Back of the Envelope" issue until August 1. You may submit writing of any length and genre which relates to, or draws on, the natural world. The submission guidelines note, "Sharing its wonder or its horrors, relating the untold stories of discovery, or toying with everyday curiosities, we're interested in hearing from those inside and outside the scientific community." There is no submission fee and the magazine pays $25-100. View the submission guidelines here.
7. The Echo
The Echo accepts submissions year-round from authors 13-19 years old. The magazine is open for submissions for its "Mysteries and Magic" issue until September 2. View the submission guidelines here.
8. Okay Donkey
Okay Donkey publishes one new piece every Friday, alternating between flash fiction and poetry. The magazine opens for submissions on the first of every month and stays open until it hits the submission cap. If the submission cap is reached early, regular submissions will close and reopen on the first of the next month. However, tip jar and expedited response submissions stay open until the end of the month. View the submission guidelines here.
9. Bluestem
Bluestem is a national literary magazine that's been publishing since 1966. Until August 15, you can submit the following fee-free: five poems, one short story, or one creative nonfiction essay. View the submission guidelines here.
10. Moss Puppy Magazine
Moss Puppy is open for its "The Boneyard" issue until October 1. You may submit poetry, prose, or visual art. View the submission guidelines here.
11. Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine
Gooseberry Pie publishes stories with exactly six sentences and less than 400 words. View the submission guidelines here.
12. Bleating Thing Magazine
Bleating Thing is open until July 31 for its fall edition. You can submit poetry, essays, printable hybrid work, and visual art. View the submission guidelines here.
13. Eucalyptus Lit
This magazine is open year-round to poetry, prose, hybrid, and/or experimental genres, and artwork. View the submissions guidelines here.
14. Spellbinder
Spellbinder is open for poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, stage and screenplays, and photography and art until August 1. The magazine pays a £3 honorarium to each accepted contributor after print publication. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
15. Small Wonders Magazine
Small Wonders is open for flash fiction, art, and poetry. The magazine is looking for speculative fiction with elements not of this world — fantasy, science fiction, and horror. The website notes, "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." The magazine pays for published work. Get all the submission details here.
16. Pepper Coast Lit
This magazine accepts submissions from Africans, people of color, those in the diaspora, descendants, and affiliates of the aforementioned. Pepper Coast lit is open for prose and poetry, with no restriction on theme, genre, style, or form. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
17. The Hooghly Review
This magazine has a "weekly features" section, dedicated to the "liveliest writings from across categories that do not often find a place in the somewhat rigid lit mag issue model with its constraints of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, etc." The magazine is looking for humor, culture essays, travelogues/travel writing, photo essays, craft essays, translations, and reviews. There is no fee to submit. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
18. Agape Review
This Christian-themed magazine is looking for poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. There is no submission fee. Learn more about the magazine here.
19. The Other Side of Hope
This magazine is open for its "other tongue, mother tongue" issue until August 15th. For this contest, the editors will consider only poetry in any language, apart from English, by refugees and immigrants. All contributors are paid upon publication. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
20. Only Poems
Only Poems is open all year to prose poems, traditional forms, love poems, sex poems, speculative poems, and experimental questionnaires, but the editor is not married to one style or genre. Contributors receive $55 upon publication. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
21. Identity Theory
This magazine has published original literature—fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, and more—online since 2000. The editors welcome poetry, nonfiction, and mixed genre work. While Identity Theory doesn't officially pay for stories, it does nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and Best of the Net Awards. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
22. Fractured Literary
Fractured Lit is open year-round and available to all writers. The magazine publishes microfiction (up to 400 words) and flash fiction (401-1,000 words). It's looking for stories with emotional resonance, with characters who come to life through their actions and responses to the world around them. The magazine is searching for flash that investigates the mysteries of being human; the sorrow and the joy of connecting to the diverse population. Currently, there are multiple calls for submission on the site, including a contest with a grand prize of $3,000. Contests do carry a submission fee, but general submissions do not. The magazine pays for published work that come from general submissions. Find out more here.
23. Flash Fiction Magazine
Flash Fiction Magazine is always open for general submissions, and hosts a contest with cash prizes every three months. For general submissions, there isn't a submission fee and the magazine pays $40 for stories selected for its anthologies. There is a fee for contest submissions, with prizes totaling up to $500. Send in your fiction stories between 300 and 1,000 words! Get the full submission guidelines here.
24. Flash Fiction Online
Flash Fiction Online is open for submissions with an emphasis on emotion. The magazine is looking for 500 to 1,000 words stories with crisp prose, well-developed characters, compelling plots, and satisfying resolutions. The editors want stories that engage their minds and emotions. They publish across many genres, including speculative (science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and horror) and literary fiction. Additionally, the magazine is open to art submissions. There is no submission fee and the compensation is $100 for each original story. Find the full submission guidelines here.
25. Flash Frog
Flash Frog is open for flash fiction up to 1,000 words. In July, the editors are only accepting ghost story submissions. There is no submission fee and the magazine pays $25 upon publication. Find the full submission guidelines here.
26. Door is A Jar Literary Magazine
This magazine is looking for well-crafted poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, artwork, and book reviews for its print and digital publication. Issues don't have specific themes, and the magazine accepts all genres and literary styles. Find submission details here.
27. Story Literary Magazine
Story considers all short narrative fiction under 25,000 words in length. There are no guidelines with regard to style, content, or length. The magazine's online submission fee is $3 with regular payment rate of $10 per page upon publication. Find more about Story here.
28. ZiN Daily
ZiN Daily accepts submissions year-round. You can submit one story, essay, article, review, or excerpt up to 4,000 words. You can also submit up to five poems, GIF poems, or up to five images. Find submission details here.
29. Forge Lit Mag
Free submissions for Forge open on the first of the month. Once they've reached their quota, the submission fee is $3. The magazine prefers fiction and nonfiction stories under 3,000 words but will consider up to 5,000 words. Upon publication, the magazine pays $100 per piece. Find submission details here.
30. Ruby
This literary magazine is accepting short-form food narratives for its 2024 fall/winter issue until September 1, 2024. Send in your literary, genre-nonconforming, experimental, hybrid, surprising, tender, joy-filled, or painful words. As long as they're food-related! Find submission details here.
31. Typishly Literary Magazine
Typishly responds to submissions in less than 24 hours with a personalized note. The magazine is open for submissions every week from Monday through Wednesday. All categories are open Mondays, flash fiction and poetry on Tuesdays, and short stories on Wednesdays. Find submission details here.
32. The Metaworker Literary Magazine
The Metaworker accepts submissions on a rolling basis and publishes a new piece every Monday at 12PT. You may submit up to two pieces at a time of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or miscellaneous work. Each piece can be up to 3,000 words, though shorter pieces may be preferred. Find submission details here.
33. Empyrean
This magazine is looking for submissions to its "Courage" issue until August 15, 2024. Entries must be in the form of flash fiction, short-shorts, or full-length short stories. They must be within 1,000-6,000 words. You can also submit a poetry portfolio of 3-10 poems or nonfiction journals, articles, or full-length essays. Additionally, the magazine accepts art and photography portfolios of 3-10 pieces. Find submission details here.
34. Wensum
Wensum is open for unpublished short stories or flash fiction that have not appeared in print or online. There is no word limit, although the magazine recommends you don't significantly exceed 4,000 words due to space constraints. Find submission details here.
35. Boulevard
While Boulevard frequently publishes writers with previous credits, the magazine is very interested in less experienced or unpublished writers with exceptional promise. The magazine is running a nonfiction contest for emerging writers until September 30. The entry fee is $18 for each individual essay up to 8,000 words; the contest winner will receive $1,000 and publication in the magazine. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
36. PRISM International
Prism International is open for prose, poetry, visual art, reviews, and interviews. The preferred length for submissions is 4,000 words or less for prose, and up to six pages of poetry. The submission fee is $3 and the magazine pays $40 per printed page for prose. For poetry, the magazine pays $45 per printed page. Additionally, you may receive $300 for the cover of an issue or $50 per interior page for visual art. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
37. Porch Litmag
Porch Litmag is a bimonthly web publication featuring works by Southeast Asia-based writers, and welcoming outside contributors with thematic links to Southeast Asian culture. The magazine accepts submissions of poetry, short stories, and flash fiction without genre restrictions, as long as you're mainstreaming Southeast Asian culture. Porch does not charge a submission fee, but you can get feedback from the editors for a small fee. Prices are $3 for flash fiction and $6 for short stories. Learn more about the submission guidelines here.
Comments