Best Literary Magazines and Journals to Read and Submit your Work
There are so many notable literary magazines and journals out there, but it could get overwhelming to find the best among them. I made a list of my personal favorites in hopes of helping you find the most well-suited ones concretely for you.
Photo: Literary Hub
1. The Stinging Fly Magazine
“The Stinging Fly magazine was established in 1997 to seek out, publish and promote the very best new Irish and international writing. We believe that there is a need for a magazine that, first and foremost, gives new and emerging writers an opportunity to get their work out into the world. We are particularly concerned to provide an outlet for short story writers.”
What they publish: “We publish new, previously unpublished work by Irish and international writers. We have a particular interest in promoting the short story. Each issue includes a mix of poetry and fiction, alongside our Featured Poets and Comhchealg sections, commissioned essays, occasional author interviews, and novel extracts. We also welcome submissions of poetry and prose in translation.”
Payment rates: Fiction and nonfiction: €30 per magazine page. Poetry: €50 per poem. Featured Poet: €250.
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
2. The White Review
https://www.thewhitereview.org/
“THE WHITE REVIEW is an arts and literature magazine, with triannual print and monthly online editions. The magazine launched in February 2011 to provide ‘a space for a new generation to express itself unconstrained by form, subject or genre’, and publishes fiction, essays, interviews with writers and artists, poetry, and series of artworks.
The journal was conceived as an arts and literary journal specialising in artistically or educationally meritorious works of new or emerging artists and writers. Its aim is the promotion of the arts and literature and of advancing education in arts and literature.”
“We are open to publishing work unconstrained by form, subject or genre with the proviso that it be seriously minded and accessible to a non-specialised readership, with an emphasis on contemporary arts and literature. We are an arts and literature magazine but are interested in all the various fields of human endeavour: law, finance, architecture, music, science, sociology etc. Academic submissions are not encouraged.”
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
3. Sand Journal
“Founded in 2009, SAND looks for submissions that push the boundaries of form, message, and voice in fresh and unpredictable ways—work that is haunting for its soul, edge, and truth. SAND is made by a diverse international team in Berlin, and we welcome writers and artists from a range of perspectives to submit, including those who are women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, people of color, working-class, and/or geographically underrepresented. Most of us editors are also writers, and we know how it goes. That’s why we consider every submission, why we welcome emerging writers and artists, and why we will never charge you fees for submitting.”
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
4. The Sun magazine
https://www.thesunmagazine.org/
“The Sun is an independent, ad-free magazine that for more than forty years has used words and photographs to evoke the splendor and heartache of being human. Each monthly issue celebrates life, but not in a way that ignores its complexity. The personal essays, short stories, interviews, poetry, and photographs that appear in The Sun’s pages explore the challenges we face and the moments when we rise to meet them.”
Payment rates: Personal Essays - $300 to $2,000; Interviews - $1,000 to $2,000;
Fiction - $300 to $2,000; Poetry - $100 to $250
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
5. Carve Magazine
https://www.carvezine.com/home
"Carve was founded in 2000 to publish short stories online and has hosted the annual Raymond Carver Short Story Contest since 2001. Print and digital quarterly issues began in 2012 and feature our signature HONEST FICTION, poetry, nonfiction, interviews, illustrations, and more. The editors, staff, and volunteers who help the magazine thrive are based all over the world. We accept short story, poetry, and nonfiction submissions year-round from anywhere in the world. We also pay the writers we publish. Send us your best work; we'd love to read it."
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
6. Granta Magazine
"Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated: "In its blend of memoirs and photojournalism, and in its championing of contemporary realist fiction, Granta has its face pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world." Granta has published twenty-seven laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature."
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
7. Creative Nonfiction Magazine + True Story
https://www.creativenonfiction...
"Creative Nonfiction is the voice of the genre. Every issue is packed with new, long-form essays that blend style with substance; writing that pushes the traditional boundaries of the genre; notes on craft; micro-essays; conversations with writers and editors;
True Story is a home for longform nonfiction narratives. Published monthly, each pocket-size issue showcases one exceptional essay by one exceptional writer. From issue to issue, this new mini-magazine features the widest possible variety of voices and styles and subjects."
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
8. One Story
"ONE STORY is an award-winning literary magazine that publishes one story at a time. Subscribers receive one curated and edited work of short fiction each month in the mail or on their digital devices."
Payment rates: One Story pays $500.
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
9. The Paris Review
https://www.theparisreview.org...
"The Paris Review accepts unsolicited submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for the print quarterly via Submittable during the months of March and September and throughout the year through the post (see below for the separate submission guidelines for our online publication, The Daily)."
10. The Common
https://www.thecommononline.or...
"The Common is a literary organization whose mission is to deepen our individual and collective sense of place. Based at Amherst College, we aim to serve as a vibrant common space for the global exchange of ideas and experiences through three main areas of activity: publishing, public programming, and mentorship and education. We publish works that embody particular times and places—literature and art powerful enough to reach from there to here—and feature new and underrepresented voices from around the world."
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
11. Popshot Quarterly
https://www.popshotpopshot.com...
"In June 2008, the idea for a poetry and illustration magazine materialised as a result of picking through the literary shelves of the now deceased Borders. There was a feeling that the world of poetry was driving itself into an elitist and fusty no-through road, and we wanted to do something about it. Combining illustration with poetry in a neat and beautifully designed format, in April 2009 the first issue of Popshot launched, thumping its chest and quoting Adrian Mitchell’s ‘Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people’. With black pages, a sans serif typeface, and filled with vibrant illustration work, the magazine didn’t look like a poetry magazine and we were thrilled with it.
Some favourable press swiftly followed with the magazine being picked up by Dazed & Confused, placed on The Observer’s Cool List and named as one of ‘the fresh breed of literary magazines’ by The Independent. Shortly afterwards, Prospect named Popshot as ‘the new face of British poetry’ after it became the first British poetry magazine to achieve major international distribution into 18 countries. With the launch of Issue 7, we started talking about the introduction of short stories and flash fiction into the magazine, as well as poetry. In October 2012, with the arrival of our eighth issue, Popshot relaunched as ‘The Illustrated Magazine of New Writing’ firmly positioning itself as a literary magazine that champions new writing across the globe."
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
12. N+1
https://nplusonemag.com/
"n+1 is a print and digital magazine of literature, culture, and politics published three times a year. We also post new online-only work several times each week and publish books expanding on the interests of the magazine.
n+1 was founded in New York City in 2004 by six young writers and editors who wanted to revive the American tradition of politically engaged literary magazines. At the time, the intellectual scene felt disturbingly fragmented and drained of vitality: political magazines didn’t care about literature, literary magazines didn’t discuss politics, and big ideas had to be buried in tiny book reviews. The founding editors wanted to make a magazine that could encompass all the subjects they cared about—one that didn’t shy away from difficult and ambitious writing, and that saw literature, politics, and culture as aspects of the same project."
Please click here to view their open calls and submission guidelines.
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