73 Brand New Literary Magazines!

A list of lit mags created in 2020 or after

This week I put out a call for information on new lit mags, created in 2020-21. I expected to learn of about ten or so lit mags. Ha! In just two days, dozens upon dozens of names came flooding in.

I was moved to see people advertising not only their own journals, but also celebrating the newly launched journals of others. It was also thrilling to discover the variety of new magazines coming out—journals for flash fiction, for women, for horror writers, for Persian writers, journals from Ireland and London and Hong Kong, as well as more than a few journals dedicated to breaking down hierarchies and elitism in the literary world.

It was also great to see how sleek so many of these magazines look. With online journals, presentation is key. No one wants to see their poems bleed into google ads, or to find navigation impossible. What a joy to find all these new editors who really know what they’re doing, presenting work in beautiful and often innovative ways.

If you’re a writer looking for homes for your work, new lit mags can be a great place to begin. They are often hungry for submissions. Response time is typically quicker than with long-standing magazines flooded daily with submissions. Eager to promote their new projects, editors are also more than likely to boost your work once it appears in their pages. And the connections forged through working with new editors can span an entire career.

The journals listed below were all created no earlier than 2020. Information is taken from their websites. The journals are listed alphabetically.

To all the editors of these newly launched magazines, congratulations!

Now writers, get reading and submitting!

The Augment Review. We are a student-run literary magazine working to uplift youth voices and experiences, in addition to providing a space for constructive feedback and growth.

Bright Flash Literary Review is a home for flash and short fiction. We’re here to provide a space for all voices, the heard and unheard. There is nothing more beautiful than a perfect collection of words.

Burning Jade Magazine is a multifaceted, interdisciplinary arts organization dedicated to finding the humanity in suffering and interrogating the world’s injustices using art and logic. We believe in radical truth and aspire to uncover reality in a way that engages and mobilizes the younger generations to enact social change and delight in the multitudes of beauty the world has to offer. We intend on spotlighting underrepresented voices who have unconventional perspectives that can cultivate a culture of healing and progress. Art is our way. 

Burnt Breakfast Magazine. Founded by two postgraduates without a purpose during a worldwide pandemic, Burnt Breakfast is an online literary magazine. We publish works of flash fiction and poetry, alongside photography and artwork.

Cheap Imitation. We started Cheap Imitation because we wanted to throw a launch party in a rented art gallery. We started Cheap Imitation because our parents gave us too much encouragement. We started Cheap Imitation because we were bored. We started Cheap Imitation to give the art world a shot in the arm.

Chaotic Merge Magazine is a literary magazine that is home to obscure and honest work from the new and rising artists around the world. When choosing the name of this magazine, we wanted to find a name that included the diverse voice we search for and capture the beauty of an artist’s thought process. We thought these two went hand in hand. When an artist’s mind is clouded with so many thoughts, they might want to capture it. At first, it might seem messy, even chaotic, but when playing with structure and balance, it can become something beautiful. We believe this idea with the community too. If we put all our diverse and different stories, we can create a knowledgeable and authentic portrayal of our world, creating a beautiful Chaotic Merge.

Cicada is a literary journal with a focus on writing that is generative, nuanced, experimental, and inclusive. We encourage submissions from anyone, anywhere, and are especially drawn to transnational perspectives, traditionally marginalized voices, and the global narrative.

Couplet Poetry is a literary journal dedicated to publishing two poems (a couplet) by one author that rhyme (thematically or sonically), pair, complement, juxtapose, hold hands, translate or otherwise couple with one another. Send us two poems that can’t live without each other.

Dead Fern Press publishes flash fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and artwork.

Epoch Press is a publishing platform for original, creative nonfiction. We want to hear every voice. Epoch enthusiastically encourages submissions from marginalised voices, BIPOC, POC, LGBT+ folks, emerging writers and people outside of academia. We hope you’ll trust us with your stories.

Flash Frog is the newest online flash fiction magazine featuring stories under 1,000 words. We like our stories like we like our dart frogs: small, brightly colored, and deadly to the touch.

FERAL. We want your brave, your pain, your love, your teeth, your howling beast. All styles, forms and schools of poetry & art are welcome.

Fractured Lit works with all writers, established as well as emerging. We want to find Flash with emotional resonance and characters we care about, who come to life through their actions and responses to the world around them. We’re searching for Flash that investigates the mysteries of being human, the sorrow and the joy of connecting to the diverse population around us. Flash Fiction is published on Mondays. Throughout the week, we publish other content that explores the roots and the future of the flash form and genre, including essays, interviews and more.

The Giving Room Review is dedicated to making space in the world for the voices that deserve it most. Our mission is to create a platform accessible for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and women artists. We look for the most powerful and gripping creative work that demands we think and feel about its content. As editors, we want our readers to feel the strength of our contributors' voices—through vulnerability, through adversity, and through creativity.

The Good Life Review was co-founded in the spring of 2020 by Shyla Shehan and Ed Vogel, both of whom envisioned creating an online literary journal that would be edited and operated by fellow graduates and candidates of the MFA in Writing program at the University of Nebraska. Our group of writers, editors, and designers came together to craft a space intended to shine a light on the diversity that exists in the Midwest.

Heartland Society of Women Writers. Our mission is to create an inclusive writing space for all who identify as women.

Hellhound Magazine is on online magazine, conceived in January 2021 to provide a home to all things horror; original stories, reviews, movies, art and interviews. Opportunities for new writers to have their stories published can be few and far between, with many of those chances being filled by a plethora of established names. This free to access, online publication is designed to give a voice to those who have yet to have their stories told.

Hencroft Hub. We are a new online magazine looking to creatively engage with big ideas. We aim to publish four themed editions a year. We accept short fiction, fiction, non-fiction, drama and poetry. 

Hexagon Magazine is an online magazine created to take our readers to fantastic worlds and to meet incredible characters. We specialize in the weird, the wondrous, and the whimsical!

Honey Literary is a BIPOC-focused literary journal built by women of color. In our founding year of 2020, we denounce the overwhelming homogeneity of the literary landscape as well as Eurocentric traditions of writing. However, we believe in the anti-racist, anticolonial powers of art and literature. We carry the legacy of the many marginalized writers and editors who came before us and will work to foster community, allyship, and professional growth for our artists. 

Humana Obscura is an independent literary magazine that seeks to publish nature-focused poetry, prose, and art by new, emerging, and established writers and artists from around the world.

The Hungry Ghost Project. We are a magazine that publishes flash fiction and creative non-fiction on the topics of food, hauntings, memory and consumption, together or separately, in whatever form they may take.

Hyades Magazine seeks to publish the best poetry and short fiction we get. We don’t have any one aesthetic, so send us your finest work!

Indigo Lit. We are dedicated to unpublished or infrequently published writers and poets with original and creative ideas to display.  We also look for artists and photographers with unique art and pictures to showcase.  We will get back to you within the month, and appreciate all submissions.

just femme & dandy is a biannual literary & arts magazine for and by the LGBTQIA+ community on fashion. We offer a space in the literary & arts world that has yet to exist, and hope to celebrate the queer, trans, non-binary, and intersex community, who have long since coded ourselves with how we adorn and dress our bodies when it has been dangerous to identify solely with words.

Juven Press is The Young Writers Initiative's complimentary publishing press. We publish magazines and anthologies, but  in the future, we plan on  publishing chapbooks, novels, collections, and more. We love everything that shines light on something we've never noticed, gives a voice to those who've yet to be heard, and dare to question why we think the way we do. We want work that attempts to change who we are, and love work that does.

The Liminal Review was founded in December 2020 by Alix Berber and Shauna Smullen. Two queer artists looking to carve out a new space for marginalised voices in Ireland and beyond. The project emerged from a curiosity for the concept of liminal spaces, transition and temporality. Liminality is familiar to everyone, even if the word might not be. Liminality is the experience of transition, metamorphosis, of crossing the small and momentous thresholds of life and death.

Lockdown Baby Babble. This website aims to comfort and encourage not only people, like myself, who have become new parents during this period of lockdown, but everyone who has struggled and fought to overcome the challenges of care-giving of any kind…Whatever your situation, we want to hear anything and everything about care-giving in lockdown – stories, poems, real-life musings, fears, advice and observations. Or just send us a photo and some details to be included in our Lockdown Baby Board!

Lumiere Review. At The Lumiere Review, a nonprofit literary magazine, we strongly believe that all creative voices should be heard through a platform to shine light on every story, idea, and experience. We are intrigued by the inextinguishable sparks of truth and connection, the effervescent meddling of narrative, and the luminous creations that expand on perceptions of genre, language, and form. After all, we aspire to be the brightest magazine around.

Miramichi Flash, a monthly column of The Miramichi Reader, showcases literary flash fiction from writers across the globe. The column curates work that has already been published in the finest journals, magazines, collections and anthologies —work that represents the best that the flash fiction genre has to offer today. Our emphasis is on featuring work with a Canadian bent (sensibility), originating both nationally and internationally.

The Moderate. Established in 2020, The Moderate is a lynx eye dedicated to discovering and promoting new voices in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art in all its forms. We aim to generate conversation within a broad and diverse coalition of readers, writers, and creators. What we’re for: underdogs, self-sufficiency, cafés, chiaroscuro, intellectual integrity, worn leather, artistic tenacity.

Night Sky Press is a biannual, same-world anthology series. Every issue features a different unique and original world to inspire our writers, curating collaboration and pushing same-world speculative fiction into an accessible, modern spotlight.

No Contact Magazine is an online literary magazine that publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art. Founded in 2020 by quarantined Columbia University MFA writers, we strive to put our inside voices on the page, and write what’s integral to our daily experience.

Non.Plus Lit We want poems that enter that search fearlessly, or full of fear, or without recognition, and pull us along until we end up where we never could have imagined— realizing there was never another possible destination. We’re fans of the surreal, the bizarre, the funny-tragic, the surprisingly heartbreaking, the where-the-hell-did-this-come-from and I-never-knew-I-needed-this, type of poems. Any topic, any form, any voice: we just want you to take us somewhere we’ve never been, to leave us nonplussed with nothing left to say.

Not Deer Magazine. Constructed in 2021 by Editor-in-Chief Rowan Bagley, Not Deer Magazine was envisioned as an arts magazine by and for marginalized creators specializing in horror. Longtime readers and writers of the scary and surreal, we saw the need for more platforms within the horror community that elevate marginalized voices.

NOVUS Literary and Arts Journal is a literary journal created and run by undergraduate students attending Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. NOVUS succeeds Cumberland University’s previous literary journal, Lyre of the Phoenix. As a journal, NOVUS strives to spark inspiration in those who are hesitant to share their work and encourages both new and established writers to experiment with language.

Nowruz Journal. We hold space for Persian voices in literature and art, showcasing talent from all over the globe. The authors and artists are the sole owner of their individual works. All the other content found on the site are credited to the publication. Written permission is needed in using these materials elsewhere, like reprints, etc.

Ogma Magazine is a dreamland, a diary, a bedroom full of souvenirs, a well-used notebook, a space for you to empty your thoughts. What do we do? We stay here for you. We're a community, a magazine, a blog--we're whatever you want us to be.

Opia, founded in 2020, is an independent, quarterly magazine publishing prose, poetry, and visual art. We are committed to elevating marginalised and underrepresented voices, including (but not limited to) BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women, immigrant, disabled, neurodiverse, and working-class writers, artists, and creators. 

Paper Crane Journal seeks to display a new form of artistic expression that celebrates the nuance in life: the joyful, the twisted, and the bittersweet.We urge young creatives to never surrender their passions. We offer a quiet island of this passion here, to any reader, writer, or artist that may come our way.

perhappened is an online literary journal & press, founded by editor-in-chief isaura ren in 2020 & 2021, respectively. perhappened is a portmanteau of the words perhaps & happened, which highlights its focus on those peculiar experiences that make you wonder: "did that really happen, or did i just imagine it?" perhappened lives for your uncertain & surreal. we crave the frayed edge of memory. we embrace all styles & genres of writing & have no word limits or submission fees.

Portmanteau was founded on a desire for a fairer and more equal publishing industry. Portmanteau Ldn is an independent literary magazine based in London, UK dedicated to publishing unique and wonderful writing. At the very core of Portmanteau Ldn is the ideology of being a platform that brings equal opportunity, no matter where you live, or what socio-economic background you come from.

Quarantine Magazine. Founded in 2020, Quarantine Magazine is an Iowa City-based, online, literary magazine published bi-yearly. It is a publication of all forms of art, such as poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic art, and drawings, edited by Emily Engwall, Rebekah Hallman, & Emma Scintu. We aim to find breathing work that is thought-provoking and achingly real. Our name suggests work that is an escape from the uncontrollable forces imprisoning our reality and to liberate our minds from the physical. We strive to be at the forefront of genre-breaking literature, which is why we welcome any and all forms of art with open arms.

Reckon Review. Inspired by dirt roads, switchbacks, wildflowers, porch sitting, cicada songs, and the scent of something good cooking in the kitchen; The Reckon Review is a journal of prose that publishes one incredible story, per week, on Mondays.

Rejection Letters was founded in April 2020 by D.T. Robbins. It was kind of a joke at first. “Let’s publish fictional rejection letters!” Of course, this was after getting, like, four or five rejection letters in one day. Because rejection letters suck, even if they’re warranted. We all cope in our own weird ways. But then it became something else, something I’m not too sure how to describe, to be honest. We like the absurd, the heartbreaking, the hysterical. We like rejection letters, fiction, poetry, CNF, hybrid, whatever. We are what we are, and we do what we want.

Riverbed Review. Hello. My name is Gigi. I’m the Editor of Riverbed Review. Having studied Geography in college and worked as a writer after graduation, I’ve always wanted to combine the two into a single entity. Now, with Riverbed Review, I hope to curate my dream into a journal that is as much about the serenity of the natural world as it is about the dangers that lurk in the wild. I started the journal from a bunker under the Liffey in Dublin, and am currently operating it from a river-submarine inside the Yamuna in Delhi.

Sans. PRESS. We are a collective of friends who are in love with telling stories, and who are passionate about sharing them. We are united in our passion for finding new voices, new narratives, new ways of seeing and sharing the world. And as we progress in this project, this will always be what’s at the core of Sans. PRESS: finding stories that fascinate us.

Slouching Beast Journal was founded in 2021 as a minimalist poetry journal and father/son pandemic venture. Its foundational interest is in how the aesthetics of universal rupture act against the manufactured contentedness of capitalism and empire. Slouching Beast Journal accepts all kinds of work, with some bias toward shorter, vivid pieces. Slouching Beast Journal strives to be a free, artistically anti-hierarchical space. Work from underrepresented, BIPOC, Queer, disabled and working class voices is particularly welcome.

Southchild Lit was created with the homeless and homeward bound in mind. For all the works that just haven't found the right home yet, Southchild wishes to welcome them with open arms, make them a big pot of soup, and listen to them talk about their day - whether it be good, bad, or somewhere in between.

Spelt Magazine is on a mission to celebrate and validate the rural experience. With four seasonal print issues per year, we aim to provide a platform for rural writers and to those creatives exploring nature, landscape, the interconnected nature of creative writing and the natural world and the liminality of natural areas within the urban landscape.

Spoonfeed is an online literary magazine publishing creative and experimental food writing. We have an appetite for food writing in all its forms: poetry, short or flash fiction, nonfiction, essays, and reviews. We aim to publish innovative work which is food-themed or -related (think implements, appetite, absence of food), and which evokes or surprises.

Stanchion Zine. Launched amid the tumultuous summer of '20, Stanchion is a quarterly zine, printed on thick, elegant uncoated paper and featuring short stories, flash fiction, poetry, evocative thoughts, drawings and black & white photography from some of the most talented artists working today.

Subnivean’s editorial mission is to curate and produce bone-deep, high-caliber literary art that speaks urgently to an evermore connected international audience. We will never charge readers to access the full contents of our issues.

Sundamaged is a place for new voices about travelling, celebrating the wonder of nature and cultural discovery, but also exploring the impact of travel. Travelling can be a day trip, it can be a long journey on foot that has no fixed end point, or it can be a destructive force. All these interpretations are welcome here. 

Taco Bell Quarterly is the literary magazine for the Taco Bell Arts and Letters. We’re a reaction against everything. The gatekeepers. The taste-makers. The hipsters. Health food. Artists Who Wear Cute Scarves. Bitch-ass Wendy’s. We seek to demystify what it means to be literary, artistic, important, and elite.

Tether’s End Magazine is an online literary magazine dedicated to publishing prose, poetry, creative non-fiction and art + photography. We want to uplift new and established writers from all backgrounds. Send us your voice-driven, unforgettable work; your stories that get under our skin - visit our submissions page for more guidelines or read our masthead to find out more about what we're looking for.

Thanks Hun Zine. I am a writer, currently working on my debut collection based in co. Galway and wanted to create a safe space for new writers to submit their work to!

Tír na nÓg. We accept a broad range of prose and poetry with a focus on local writers living and/or working in Galway. However, we want these works to enter a dialogue with international perspective and different art forms (for example painting, photography or audio-visual material). Thus, we will also accept individual submissions from poets, writers and artists outside of Galway and Ireland.

Tipping the Scales Literary Journal. We accept work by lesbians only. We want to hear about your life, your feelings, your love and anything else you want to tell us about. We are a feminist journal and we want to see work by, for, and about lesbians.

Trinity House Review seeks the best contemporary poetry written with deliberate style and technique. While we focus on publishing voices from the perspective of Christian faith, we welcome all poets to submit regardless of their religious affiliation.

Versification is a literary zine focusing on micro works. We aren’t big on black tie affairs – we want the grit under your nails. We want to hear about your struggles, your dark, your haunting, or your disturbed.

Walled City Journal. Like the city of Lahore that houses the past and present, indigenous and immigrants, The Walled City Journal is an umbrella beneath which lie its Literary Review, Walled Women Magazine, and an online blog for individuals to raise their voices and express themselves.

Wrongdoing Magazine is a new & online literary magazine. This publication loves artistic merit more than it loves credentials; we want the best you've got, or whatever's still resisting rejection. If you've ever had forced from your fingers something so blatantly wrong for most markets, then pretty please, do try us out.
​We'll take the dark, the sacrilegious, and all of that good stuff that opens mouths and wounds.

Know of others? Please let us know!