Literary magazines are wonderful. They often publish new and established writers, are increasingly become more mobile, and for the motivated, are fairly easy to publish.
For readers, there are a number of great literary journals out there. Some examples include Glimmer Train, Narrative, and Strand Mag. (Also magazines that take submissions, for writers looking to get published.) There is also Literary Hub, a site which, according to the Washington Post, “attempts to bring together everything literary on the Internet.”
For writers, there are some comprehensive databases with links to literary magazines, submission guidelines, and what they pay (if anything):
Lastly, for anyone thinking about starting their own literary magazine, here are some hopefully useful tools:
- NewPages (to help you find MFA programs where you can reach out to directors and ask to spread the word about your new magazine, as well as how students can submit work)
- Submittable (to easily keep track of submissions and determine which ones are a good fit
If you ever start your own literary magazine, please let me know! I would love to hear about your experiences. Also, for those interested in other forms of literature, check out my articles, “All About Chapbooks” and “A to Zine: A Guide to Understanding Zines.”
