For young writers looking to start attempting to get published outside of campus publications — like many English majors and creative writers on campus, or recent alumni who completed creative writing comps — it can be difficult to know where to start looking for places to submit your work. Not all magazines welcome submissions from emerging writers, and while most only ask for a small fee of two to five dollars per submission, those payments can quickly add up for a broke college student or recent graduate.
The standard advice most young writers receive is to look through online databases such as Writers Digest, Poets & Writers, or Writer’s Chronicle for places to submit their work. But since combing through these databases for literary magazines that will accept your writing for free is daunting at best, I’ve done the work for you.
For flash fiction:
- Flash Fiction Magazine
- CRAFT
- Maudlin House
- Buckshot Magazine
- Cleaver Magazine
- Every Day Fiction
- Flash Fiction Online
- Augur (reading period: ends 9/30)
- LampLight Magazine (reading periods: 3/15-5/15, 10/15-12/15)
- The Southampton Review (reading periods: 8/1-9/1, 1/1-2/1)
For longer fiction and creative nonfiction:
- The Threepenny Review (reading period: 1/1-6/30)
- Cleaver Magazine
- Maudlin House
- Fiction International (reading period: 9/30-2/4)
- A Public Space
- Red Bridge Press
- Utterance Journal
- AGNI
- The Cincinnati Review
- The Foundationalist (only for college students)
- Windmill (reading period: 1/1-4/1)
- Salmagundi (reading period: begins 1/1; only accepts snail mail submissions)
- Augur (reading period: ends 9/30)
- Virginia Quarterly Review
- Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern
- Post Road Magazine (reading periods: 10/1-11/30, 3/1-4/30)
- Tin House Online (reading period: ends 8/21)
- The Southampton Review (reading periods: 8/1-9/1, 1/1-2/1)
- Waxwing (reading period: 9/1-4/30)
- Rivet Journal (reading periods: 4/1-4/31, 7/1-7/31, 11/1-11/30)
- LampLight Magazine (reading periods: 3/15-5/15, 10/15-12/15)
- The Sun
For poetry:
- The Threepenny Review (reading period: 1/1-6/30)
- Pedestal (reading period: 10/28-11/24)
- Cleaver Magazine
- Maudlin House
- The Foundationalist (only for college students)
- Windmill (reading period: 1/1-4/1)
- Utterance Journal
- Virginia Quarterly Review
- Tin House Online (reading period: ends 8/21)
- Post Road Magazine (reading periods: 10/1-11/30, 3/1-4/30)
- Waxwing (reading periods: 8/1-9/30, 11/1-11/30, 1/1-1/31, 3/1-3/31)
- The Sun
- The Southampton Review (reading periods: 8/1-9/1, 1/1-2/1)
For full-length books:
- Kore Press (reading period: 7/9-10/31)
- Tor/Forge Books
- Red Bridge Press
For other (graphics, plays, translations, etc.):
- Augur (reading period: ends 9/30)
- Waxwing (submissions open monthly, capped at 300)
- Post Road Magazine (reading periods: 10/1-11/30, 3/1-4/30)
- Cleaver Magazine
- Rivet Journal
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but if you’re interested in submitting work in any of these categories, it’s a start.
A word of warning: although none of these free-to-submit publications explicitly discourage debut writers from submitting work, some will be less likely to accept a piece written by an author without previous publications listed in their cover letter. There are, however, some magazines that encourage emerging writers to submit, though not necessarily for free; see this pretty good (although slightly outdated) list of literary magazines for new and unpublished writers.
Additionally, if you’re interested in looking into a career in editing for a literary magazine, many of these magazines also offer remote internships; for example, Cleaver offers remote editorial internships on a rolling basis, which you can apply for by visiting their submissions portal.