Literary Journals, Magazines and Reviews opening for creative writing submissions September 1st, 20192020
September is quickly approaching and that means many college journals (among others) are reopening for submissions. Here is a list of journals that open for submissions on September first unless otherwise noted. If you're not familiar with a journal be sure to read a bunch of it before you decide which pieces to submit, or if it's a good fit for your work at all.
(Updated for 2020)
A couple notes:
A couple notes:
Simultaneous Submissions: Sending the same story or poem to more than one journal for consideration at the same or in overlapping time periods. Most journals/magazines are on board with simultaneous submissions, they realize that there are hundreds and even thousands of venues for your words and with acceptance percentages almost always in the single digits, it makes the most sense to spread your work out a little to publications where you think the pieces will fit and hope someone will snatch it up. Some places emphatically do not accept simultaneous submissions, if that's the case do not, please please don't send them simultaneous submissions.
Snail Mail: Slang for the postal service, as in actually mailing physical pieces of paper with ink on them to the actual office of the magazine with a Self Addressed and Stamped Envelop (SASE) for the journal to return with either an acceptance or a rejection. Not many journals on this list do not accept online submissions, but there are a few, and there are still a good number out there that just don't specify any flash guidelines. Places like Antioch Review, Epoch and Zyzzyva among others still like to have the paper in their hands when they read your writing. I've indicated these journals with the pictured icon:
Useful Resources
The Review Review: The Review Review is a great reading and publishing resource with hundreds and hundreds of reviews, interviews and articles. Highly recommended.
New Pages: New Pages is a great site that has tons of reviews of literary magazines, journals, reviews lit mags, zines etc. They also have lists, articles and are generally a great resource when submitting.
Duotrope: Duotrope costs $5 a month or $50 a year but it is a tremendous service. Even if you just want it for the fall months I'd highly recommend it. Do your research, bookmark/save/list as much as you can then you can supplement with other free sources like The Review Review, New Pages, PW.org, Submission Grinder etc. They do have a tracking system as well that you can use/contribute to the community to give a more accurate picture of response times.
Submission Grinder: This resource is a little more geared to genre fiction, and you'll find a lot more trade magazines and markets that cater to a particular genre as opposed to general literary fiction and poetry. One thing to note is that while many literary journals pay their contributors in a copy of the journal or perhaps just the publishing credit and good will, many trade publications pay for their fiction from $.01-$.10 per word.
Submittable: It goes without saying if you're doing online submissions, at least of literary poetry or prose, you're already using Submittable but if not you will be using this list as the majority of journals only accept their submissions through that portal. The cost depends on the journal, most are either free or $3 which is roughly the cost of a manila envelop with postage and an SASE like you'd use for a snail mail submission so it's not too big of a deal, though it definitely makes you appreciate the journals that can absorb the cost and not pass it along to the writer. They also have a Discovery tab where you can check for upcoming deadlines or search by tag. The search function is still in the works but the discovery tab is good to check around the end of a month for closing submission windows.
About the journals selected:
Onto the list!
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89 Journals Opening for Submissions on September 1st (unless noted)
AGNI
Antioch Review (Only snail mail submissions, but they're a great journal and worth your stamps.)Barnstorm (Now reads all year)
Bellingham Review (September 15 opening)
Birmingham Poetry Review (Snail mail submissions only)Booth
Bryant Literary ReviewThe Common (Place themed journal)
Copper Nickel
Crab Creek Review (Now opens September 15)
Crazyhorse
Cutbank (September 15th opening)
descant (September 15th opening)
Epoch (September 15th opening, no simultaneous submissions and only snail mail but they're one of the best journals out there. COVID has greatly affected the journal, check guidelines before submitting)Evansville Review
Exit 13 (Travel, adventure or geography themed poems)
Faultline
Fiddlehead (September 15th opening, Canadian journal)
Five Points (Now opens 8/15, but has a $4.75 fee {$3 for flash fiction})
Flyway
Fourth Genre (Non fiction only)
Fox Cry Review
Fugue
Gettysburg Review
Grain (September 15th opening, Canadian journal)
Greensboro Review (Now reads 12/15-2/15)
Gulf Coast
Gulf Stream Magazine
Halfway Down the Stairs ("The Calling" themed issue)
Harpur Palate
Hotel Amerika
Hot Metal Bridge (appears to be defunct)
Hudson Review (Fiction submissions open)
Idaho Review (currently closed, no date announced)
Ilanot Review
Indiana Review
Iowa Review
The Literary Review (currently closed, no date announced)
Lost Balloon
Lunch Ticket
The Lyric Review (Snail mail only, also they almost only publish formal or rhymed verse)Madcap Review
Madison Review
Muzzle Magazine (now reads 12/15-2/1)
Nashville Review
New England Review (Closed until later in Fall to catch up on Spring submissions)
New Letters
New Ohio Review (September 15th opening)
New South
Ninth Letter
The Normal School (currently closed, no date announced)
North American Review (Open during the school year)
Notre Dame Review
Passages North
Pembroke Review (September submissions are free, open for paid submissions until April)
Penn Review
Plume (Now starts reading 9/15)
Poet Lore
Poetry Northwest (They accept fiction year-round)
Posit
Prairie Schooner
Redivider (Now reads submissions all year)
RipRap (September 12 opening)
River Teeth (Non fiction only)
Rockhurst Review
Seneca Review
Sewanee Review
Slant: A Journal of Poetry
South Carolina Review (Doesn't mention specific genre guidelines) (currently closed, no date announced)
South Dakota Review
Southern Indiana Review (September 15th opening)
The Southern Review
Southwest Review
Split Rock Review
Spoon River Poetry Review (September 15th opening)
The Stillwater Review
Subtropics
Superstition Review (Now only reads in August)
Sycamore Review
Tampa Review
Tar River Poetry (Now starts reading 10/1)
Third Coast
upstreet (Only fiction and non fiction—no poetry) (currently closed, no date announced)
Willard and Maple (Only reading Champlain students writing until 2021)
Willow Review (Snail mail only)Willow Springs
Zyzzyva (Snail mail only)
*Special note:
Portland Review
Into the Void (Canadian journal with a September 7th deadline)
Grist (September 15th deadline) (currently closed)
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Now you have plenty of reading and research to keep you busy in the time leading up to September. One submission tactic I have is to take some time reading a journal, even if I'm familiar with it, because editorships change, tastes change etc. After that I'll find the poems of mine which seem like they would most fit in at the journal and save the doc file ahead of time. That way when the second or so rolls around you are all set with your literary pise en place and ready to disseminate your writing into the world.
You don't want to carpet bomb all the journals on this list by any means, but if you've done your due diligence sending out a dozen or so submissions is totally understandable as the summer is when poems gather dust. Of course lot of this depends on how many poems, stories and non fiction essays you have that are ready for publishing. Also bear in mind that many of these journals are produced by colleges and might not open their submission portals promptly on September 1st. Don't bug them, do a few writing prompts and just check back in a few days.
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Pathetic plea time. I am a submitting writer as well and will be trying to get my first collection/s published this year which means many submission fees. If you could find it in your heart and wallet to donate a dollar or two it would really go a long way. Every cent donated will go toward submission fees. Hook me up with like $25 and I'll even thank you in my book when it's accepted. Thank you now, however, for your readership and support! Best of luck on your writing journeys, and if you'd like to see anything at Notebooking Daily that you don't see thusfar please let me know! The Fall Writing Exercise Series kicks off on September 1st which will include some new exercise categories and more ekphrastic prompts; and I will be profiling more journals.
