Literary Magazines and Journals We Love (All Genre)

gettingby

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I asked this question a while ago and didn't really get good responses or that many suggestions, but I thought I would try again. Maybe some new people here will have something to say or other literary people have changed their reading habits. Anyway, which journals are worth subscribing to? A lot of my subscriptions have run out and I am thinking of trying some new places. So what are your favorite journals to read?

The Gettysburg Review is my favorite so I will renew that one. I enjoyed the work put out by One Story. I wasn't in love with The Missouri Review, but if some of you like that one and can say why, I would think about ordering it again. I also used to get The Paris Review and Ploughshares. The Paris Review is always good. I haven't decided if I should keep that one going or not. Ploughshares has never been my favorite, but sometimes they do put out a killer issue.

I know there are many many more and I kind of want to try out some new ones but would love recommendations. I hope to hear from you guys which ones excite you and you look forward to reading.
 

lacygnette

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One Story is my favorite. I didn't like Missouri review much either. I'm thinking of trying Mid American Review and ZYZZYVA. I'm not a fan of Glimmertrain usually.

I will be interested to hear from others because it's time for me to sign up for some new ones too.
 

Fruitbat

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Well, I like flash fiction and I prefer the ones I can read for free online. A few of my favorites (mostly "literary") are Word Riot, Smokelong Quarterly, PANK, Frigg, JMWW, Monkeybicycle, NANO, Juked, Hobart, Fwriction, Spartan, Wigleaf, Tinhouse Flash Fridays, Literary Orphans, Stupefying Stories, Fiction Southeast, Flash Fiction Online, Bartleby Snopes, Corium, Whiskeypaper, Molotov Cocktail, and oh my gosh I could go on all day. Now each and every story in them won't be my cup of tea but then I do feel exactly the same way about the ones I've read that have either a wider commercial audience or are more prestigious. Thems my two coppers, anyway. :)
 

gettingby

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I just wanted to pump this up again. How do you guys find out about good literary journals to read? In the past, I've pretty much subscribed based on a deal that was being offered or the cover looked cool in the bookstore. I feel that it is important to support some of the smaller publications and I want to be reading them. What makes a journal worth subscribing to for you?
 

Chris P

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I don't subscribe to any journals, but there are a few anthologies that I buy every year, such as The Best American Short Stories for 20xx and The Best American Non-required Reading for 20xx. Certain journals, such as Ploughshares and Zoetrope All Story often have several stories in each edition, but the obscure journals (many of then nonpaying markets) also make appearances.

I also pick up The Year's Best Science Writing, but of course that's not literary. I'm just a nerd :-D

ETA: The Pushcart Prize is given to stories from small presses and has a yearly anthology, and the Caine Prize is one I follow for African short fiction.
 
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Jack Asher

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I don't subscribe to any literary journals, but I can't recomend Heavy Metal more highly.
 

Chris P

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I don't subscribe to any literary journals, but I can't recomend Heavy Metal more highly.

You know, I keep forgetting that graphic journals have great stories and great storytelling in them. I subscribed to Heavy Metal for about 20 years, and at one time had every single issue. I somewhat lost my taste for SFF, though, and sold the whole lot for a nice bit o' cash.
 

gettingby

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I'm curious about n+1. Has anyone read it or know about it?
 

GingerGunlock

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I like The Sun quite a lot. It actually prints a lot of non fiction and interviews in addition to fiction, though it's the kind of nonfiction which makes you wonder whether it's a short story or not (or maybe I'm the only one who wonders). I also like One Story, and have gotten the occasional sample issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, which has a super high production quality so the issues themselves are on decadent paper with excellent covers.

ETA: I have not read n+1, so can't comment on it, unfortunately.
 

lacygnette

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The only thing I know about n+1 is that several agents said in interviews that they trolled it for new talent. And the journal has chosen NOT to be listed on Duotrope. Guess they got a lot of submissions based on what the agents said.
 

gettingby

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Well, that convinced me. If agents are reading it, it must be good. I am going to subscribe and see what all the hype is about. Why wouldn't they want to list on Duotrope? There submission guidelines are easy to find so it doesn't seem like they are trying to discourage submissions. If anyone is interested, I can post what I think of the journal after I read it.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Every agent I've known who handles literary fiction reads as many of these fifty magazines as possible. So should anyone who wants to write contemporary literary fiction. http://www.everywritersresource.com/topliterarymagazines.html

I subscribe to roughly a dozen different ones each year, and read the rest at the local library, or at the university library nearby.
 

gettingby

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Every agent I've known who handles literary fiction reads as many of these fifty magazines as possible. So should anyone who wants to write contemporary literary fiction. http://www.everywritersresource.com/topliterarymagazines.html

I subscribe to roughly a dozen different ones each year, and read the rest at the local library, or at the university library nearby.

James -- I know you have been on AW for a long time, and you have a lot of insight into the literary world. I would love to hear what your favorite journals are. I hope you see this.
 

Jamesaritchie

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James -- I know you have been on AW for a long time, and you have a lot of insight into the literary world. I would love to hear what your favorite journals are. I hope you see this.

That list pretty much covers my favorite journals. Every journal on there is, I think, spectacular.

I really believe every writer should read The New Yorker, Atlantic, and Harper's, but I don't consider any of them journals. Read all three, but also read soem true journals.

I f I had to choose only three literary journals to read, ones where I love the stories and the writing, I think I'd pick The Southern Review, The Paris Review, and Glimmer Train.

These three always give me a lot of reading pleasure. I certainly don't like every story or article in any of them, but this is true with all magazines. I do, however, find far more than enough enjoyment on a regular basis to justify subscribing to these three.
 

Joseph Schmol

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Well, that convinced me. If agents are reading it, it must be good. I am going to subscribe and see what all the hype is about. Why wouldn't they want to list on Duotrope? There submission guidelines are easy to find so it doesn't seem like they are trying to discourage submissions. If anyone is interested, I can post what I think of the journal after I read it.

I'm interested.
 

Ari Meermans

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Last month, I posted a link to the May 2017 issue of a new favorite e-mag, Words Without Borders: The Online Magazine for International Literature, in our "Bookity Book & Tall Grass Salon" thread (formerly known as "Sloppy Joe's Bar"). That was a great issue and you can check out some of the nonfiction, fiction, and poetry offerings in that issue by visiting the link above to "Bookity Book".

The June 2017 issue is their eighth annual "The Queer Issue VIII". I received the link today and I've only begun to scan this month's issue, but there's so much in there that's fascinating and timely, I'm sure I'll be devouring it this evening. The poems I've read so far are stunning and the article, "And What If Love Is Stronger?" is well worth the read:

Our eighth annual queer issue launches in the wake of several notable international LGBT literary successes. Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You, a smash in the US last year, was awarded the British Book Award for a Debut Novel and will be translated into a dozen languages. Édouard Louis’s autobiographical End of Eddy promises to be only the beginning of a major career, selling a remarkable 300,000 copies in the original French and arriving to acclaim in English. And Qiu Miaojin's Notes of a Crocodile was praised for its depiction of teenage alienation in mid-1990s Taiwan. Yet these welcome literary occasions occur in the shadows cast not only by events in areas associated with oppression, but also by regression and erosion of rights . . .
 

ancon

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the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
 
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