Freelance Writer Resource: 10 Print Publications that Publish Creative Nonfiction, Fiction and Poetry
If you are ready for your creative writing to move from the computer screen to the page, consider submitting your short stories, essays, interviews and poetry to a literary journal or magazine. Publications with wider circulation often favor published authors, but literary journals based on college and university campuses are often a great place for both emerging and veteran writers to submit.
As most journals can take months to get back to authors with a decision, some literary journals accept simultaneous submissions. This means that you submit the same piece of writing to more than one publication. As soon as your piece is accepted for publishing with one literary journal, you should withdraw the submission from other journals you’ve submitted to. Some publications do not accept simultaneous submissions.
Basic submission information is listed for each print publication along with links so you can learn more about submission guidelines. The Alexa Ranking (at the time of writing) of each publication’s website is also listed so that you can get an idea of how much traffic the website garners. The lower the number, the higher the web traffic. For example, the day that I am writing this article the New York Times has an Alexa ranking of 91 and my personal blog ExpatHeather.com has an Alexa ranking of 550,529.
Booth
Base: Butler University
Fiction: 7,500 words max
Nonfiction: 7,500 words max
Poetry: 5 poems max
Medium: Print/Online
Frequency: Monthly
Payment: ?
Reading Period: September – May
Notification: By email or SASE
Submission Info: http://www.thesosagroup.com/BOOTH/ButlerBooth/Booth_Submit.html
Submit By: Email or snail mail
Simultaneous Submissions: No
Previously Published: No
Alexa Traffic Rank: 9,825,822
Note: Also accepts literary comics
Colere
Base: Coe College
Fiction: 16 pages double spaced
Nonfiction: ——–
Poetry: 6 poems max
Medium: Print
Frequency: Once a year in April
Payment: 2 copies of journal
Reading Period: All year, deadline for April issue is mid January
Notification: April
Submission Info: http://www.public.coe.edu/wac/colere/
Submit By: Snail mail w/ $5 reading fee
Note: Focused on cultural exploration
Etchings
Base: Australia
Fiction: 5000 words max
Nonfiction: 5000 words max
Poetry: 6 poems max
Medium: Print
Frequency: ?
Payment: $75 Australian ($68 USD) via PayPal for international contributors
Reading Period: All year
Notification: By email
Submission Info: http://www.ilurapress.com/index.php?pid=3#etchings_submissions
Submit By: Snail mail or email
Simultaneous Submissions: ?
Previously Published: No
Alexa Traffic Rank: 19,102,476
Note: Founded in 2006, each issue is themed
Georgia Review
Base: University of Georgia
Fiction: Short stories
Nonfiction: Essays, creative nonfiction, book reviews
Poetry: 3-5 poems max
Medium: Print
Frequency: Quarterly
Payment: $50 per printed page / $4 per line of poetry
Reading Period: Aug 16 – May 14, will NOT anything received between May 15 and Aug 15
Notification: By snail mail
Submission Info: http://www.uga.edu/garev/submit.html
Submit By: Snail mail with SASE for notification
Simultaneous Submissions: No
Previously Published: No
Alexa Traffic Rank: 8, 628
Note: Book reviews and essays also accepted
Lumina
Base: Sarah Lawrence College
Fiction: 5000 words max
Nonfiction: 5000 words max
Poetry: 3 poems max
Medium: Print
Frequency: Once a year in April
Payment: 1 copy of journal + invitation to poetry festival
Reading Period: Sep 1 – Nov 15
Notification: By email
Submission Info: http://pages.slc.edu/~lumina/submissions/
Submit By: Email only
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes
Previously Published: No
Alexa Traffic Rank: No Data
Note: Also runs an annual contest with cash prize
New Letters
Base: University of Missouri-Kansas City
Fiction: 3000-5000 words
Nonfiction: 3000-5000 words
Poetry: 6 poems max
Medium: Print
Frequency: 3 – 4 times per year
Payment: $45-$100 for prose, $15 + for poetry + 2 copies of journal
Reading Period: Oct 2 through April 30 – will NOT read submissions received between May 1 and Oct 1
Notification: After 5 months by snail mail
Submission Info: http://www.newletters.org/submissions.asp
Submit By: Snail mail with SASE for notification
Alexa Traffic Rank: 7, 364, 590
Note: No poetry about poetry, personal essays considered but nothing with scholarly footnotes
Silk Road
Base: Pacific University in Oregon
Fiction: 20 pages double spaced max
Nonfiction: 20 pages double spaced max
Poetry: 5 poems max
Medium: Print
Frequency: Twice a year in Spring and Fall
Payment: 2 copies of journal
Reading Period: Aug 1 – May 1
Notification: After 2 months, don’t query until 6 months have gone by
Submission Info: http://silkroad.pacificu.edu/Page3.html
Submit By: Email only
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes
Previously Published: No
Alexa Traffic Rank: 198,745
Note: Focus on particular time and place, translations and interviews considered
The Sun Magazine
Base: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Fiction: Varies
Nonfiction: Varies
Poetry: Varies
Medium: Print / Online
Frequency: Monthly
Payment: $300 – $2000 for essays & interviews, $300 – $1500 for fiction, $100 – $500 for poetry + a yearly subscription to the magazine
Reading Period: Rolling
Notification: 3 – 6 months or longer
Submission Info: http://www.thesunmagazine.org/about/submission_guidelines/writing
Submit By: Snail mail
Simultaneous Submissions: Discouraged
Previously Published: Yes – half the regular pay
Alexa Traffic Rank: 270,240
Whitefish Review
Base: Whitefish, Montana
Fiction: 5000 max
Nonfiction: 5000 max
Poetry: 3 poems
Medium: Print
Frequency: Twice a year
Payment: $10 per printed page + 2 copies / $25 min / $50 max
Reading Period: Jan 1 – Mar 15, Aug 15 – Oct 15
Notification: May 15, Nov 15
Submission Info: http://www.whitefishreview.com/submit.htm
Submit By: Email
Simultaneous Submissions: ?
Previously Published: No
Alexa Traffic Rank: 13,877,091
Witness
Base: University of Nevada Las Vegas
Fiction: No max
Nonfiction: No max
Poetry: No max
Medium: Print / Online
Frequency: Once a year in January
Payment: $10 per printed page
Reading Period: Sep 1 – Apr 1
Notification: 8 – 12 weeks
Submission Info: http://witness.blackmountaininstitute.org/submit/
Submit By: Email only after Sep 1, 2010
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes
Previously Published: No
Alexa Traffic Rank: 10,196,503
Note: issues are themed, prefers work that is not limited to an American context
This is a great list, Heather. Since I’ve been trying my hand at travel writing, I’ve thought a lot about other forms too. Maybe I’ll give one of these a try.
I’ve got all the deadlines listed in my calendar, but I’ve been so busy with other writing that I haven’t submitted anything for these publications yet. If you have any successes, let me know! Silk Roads would probably be a good one to try.
ooh, Ethchings sounds like a good one to try and they’re in my state too!
I submitted a poem to a University publication once. It didn’t get accepted. I should have tried again at another one or tried a different peice of writing, but I got on to other projects. Maybe I should look into trying again.
I submitted several pieces to my university’s publication – all were rejected. After reading through this year’s journal I realized that my writing just isn’t their style, and I found that I didn’t even want to read the published pieces. This made me realize that if a certain publication doesn’t appeal to me as a reader, my writing isn’t that likely to appeal to that publication either. Now I think the best thing to do is browse several college publications until you find ones that you enjoy reading – then submit to those ones instead.
This is a very interesting point of view. Your blog is refreshing, but I wish one could find more content, though. I am looking forward to reading more from you. Keep up the good work. thanks.
This is a cool list! Thanks for taking the time to put it together… ; )
This Life, which seems so fair,
Is like a bubble blown up in the air
By sporting children’s breath,
Who chase it everywhere
Thanks for the poem! Hope this list helps you further your writing career.
Very different list to the usual. Just goes to show there is so many outlets where to publish your writing.
Heather –
Your list is so handy and easy to use. Right away I was able to submit my creative nonfiction piece to The Southeast Review. When I then attempted to do the same with, first, Silk Road Review and, next, Witness, I encountered a problem. After filling all of the required fields and hitting “submit” (“send”), the field with the .doc file for my piece emptied and I was unable to complete the process.
Alan
P.S. I noticed all three publications use the same online submissions form. I thought that maybe the problem was that they had my information and submission recorded from the first time I used this form, but when I tried to login I found my e-mail address wasn’t in their system, so that wasn’t it.
Hi Alan,
I’m glad this list was helpful. I don’t believe any of these publications are connected to each other, so you would have to create a separate login for each submissions. I haven’t submitted to Witness yet myself, so I’m not sure what’s up with the submission form – perhaps it’s a glitch in the system? You could contact witness@unlv.edu (the email listed at the bottom of the submissions page) to find out what’s up.
Hope your work finds a home, and preferably a paid one!
Heather