Another Year of Reading Lit Mags! 2024-2025
Welcome to The Club!
It’s time to kick off this year’s Lit Mag Reading Club!
For those unfamiliar, The Lit Mag Reading Club is all about, well, reading lit mags. We read one journal each month, then get together via zoom to discuss what we read.
At the end of the month, editors are also invited to zoom with us so we can pick their brains about how the issue came together, why certain works were chosen, as well as what the editors look for in submissions generally.
This is the third year of our Lit Mag Reading Club. So far it’s been a blast! We’ve spoken with the Editors of Zoetrope, One Story, Story, Pleaides, Harvard Review, Florida Review, Conjunctions, and many more. You can view all past interviews here.
For those thinking about joining, here’s more information:
What on Earth is this Reading Club thing?
The Lit Mag Reading Club is a fun and laid-back space for each of us to engage with more literary magazines by, you know, actually reading them. We read some of today’s most competitive lit mags, with an eye toward what we love as readers and trying to understand how certain pieces were selected for publication.
Who can join?
Everyone, everywhere, is invited to join The Club. Whether you are a poet, a memoirist, a fiction writer, or all of the above, whether you’re brand new to submitting or you’ve been sending out your work for decades, whether you have dozens of manuscripts on your desk or you’ve hardly written a word in your life…you are welcome here.
The only rule is that you must be a paying subscriber to Lit Mag News.
What do I get with my subscription?
Each month, we will meet over zoom to talk candidly about the lit mags we read. These discussions have been such fun! I’ve learned so much, and I’m pretty sure past participants have too.
In this space we will talk about what stood out for us in the journals, what excited us, overarching themes we noticed, as well as what baffled us, inspired us, or just sent our minds in a million directions at once. These discussions are not recorded and are meant for us all to chat openly about our reading experience.
In addition, subscribers get access to the interviews with editors from The Club. You can either attend the zoom session live or view the recorded video at your leisure.
Plus, subscriptions allow you to access other Lit Mag News offerings such as monthly info sessions, study halls, additional interviews, and subscriber-only posts.
How much do the lit mags cost?
Most participating lit mags have provided discounts on issues. That means, as a member of the Club, you also qualify for regular discounts on single issues and subscriptions to journals.
Typically, there is also content online that can be accessed for free.
I want to do this. But I’m really busy. How can I swing it?
Totally fine. You are welcome here!
The aim of the Reading Club is not to add more stress or guilt-tripping to anyone’s life. Rather, I hope we can find natural ways to incorporate a bit more lit-mag reading into all the other stuff going on.
If you read the issue cover to cover, if you skim for just the poetry, if you only get to one short story, or if you miss reading the issue entirely—not a problem. Come, listen, talk about what you did read. That’s all that will be expected!
Which lit mags are on the line-up for this year?
Here is what we have so far:
September: Terrain.org
October: Alaska Quarterly Review
November: Copper Nickel
December: Five Points
January: Hunger Mountain
February: Post Road
March: Ploughshares
April: The Pinch
May: Massachusetts Review
June: Sewanee Review
July: Clarksworld
August: TBD
I will update this page with the rest of this year’s schedule as soon as it’s all sorted. And I will be sure to let you know once everything is official.
If you’ve got any questions, ask away!
Otherwise, I hope to see you soon, in The Club.
Discounts below: