Can you believe this month is already just about over? Where did November go? I certainly have no idea, other than to say it is about to be devoured by winter. Here on the east coast, that means blustery wind, eyelashes dripping with icicles and five layers of pants just to go outside.
Or, of course, it could mean temperatures in the seventies, balmy air, and a season as mild as a passing breeze.
Who even knows what to expect anywhere anymore?
Except, you can count on this: It’s the last weekend of the month, and this time is all about you.
Tell us, pals, in what lit mags have you had work published recently?
Share the links!
And tell us, how long was the piece on submission? How did you find the lit mag that accepted the work?
Did you revise it as you went along or did you stick to one version and send it everywhere you could? What kept your faith up through the rejections?
I was happy to suggest an essay by Mexican writer Mónica Lavín on food in Coyoacán to World Literature Today and to have it not only accepted for the 95th Anniversary issue of the magazine, but to inspire editor Michelle Johnson to interview Mónica for an accompanying interview with Lavín. Working with WLT is an ongoing pleasure for me as a translator and writer because their process is transparent, they pay a respectable amount which always comes on time (via the University of Oklahoma), the editors are smart and responsive, and it's a huge pleasure to be on the pages of a beautiful paper magazine. Read "Coyoacán a la carte" here: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2022/november/coyoacan-la-carte-monica-lavin
In early October I decided to enter my first short story contest, this one held by The Dillydoun Review. I entered a piece titled "The East Bay Hills", which I wasn't feeling all that confident about. I found out a couple of weeks ago it was longlisted along with about 25 other stories. I'm not sure how many submissions they received, but they said they had to delay the announcement due to the quality and quantity of the submissions. I found out this morning I was not among the winners, but I'll take it anyway!
Even my ego (that untamed little beast!) is amazed that in my 8th decade I've been not only creative enough to write a few hundred poems but that I've been fortunate enough to get many of them published in over 120 lit mags. But what thrills me most is that as of this month my work has been published online/in print in 11 countries, with the last 2 being Sweden ['The Stockholm Review of Literature' ] and Turkey ['The Bosphorus Review of Books']. I spent 1/2 my 20's living in Europe and Asia and so like the idea of folks from very different cultures reading poems and essays I somehow managed to create. My system is simple: after I write the poems (or more like they write themselves) I kick them out of the house into the cruel cold world. And I do this with the 'shotgun' approach, sending out scores every week and seeing what sticks. It takes a lot of time [unlike writing them which takes surprisingly little it seems] but I'm long retired and it's the only job I could get at my age. And no, it doesn't pay much, except in happy dances for that little beast, my ego.
Thanks as always, Becky, for providing this platform. And no, I cannot believe the month, and the year, are nearly over! What happened?!
I feel like I'm winning at some sort of irreverent lit mag bingo of late (hear that, Taco Bell Quarterly? Fingers crossed...). This month, I have five poems in Bullshit Lit, two poems in Rejection Letters, and a story and a poem in HORNS, Bullshit Lit's new NSFW imprint (for sale in PDF and print formats). I had a good experience working with all of them. In a lit mag-scape that can sometimes take itself *very* seriously, these publications provide a nice counterbalance.
I started writing early 2021 and have been submitting for about a year. I’ve had work published now in Fatal Flaw, Gasher, Longleaf and Hippocampus AND out of those, two BOTN nominations. I have two more pieces being published in 2023 - in Cutleaf and Peatsmoke.
-I’ve worked with some lovely journals and editors and had some really great experiences.
-I started a writing group with people I met in a Grubstreet class. We meet via zoom every month and have become good friends, despite not meeting in person!
-I’ve helped edit another friend’s work, pieces that have been published in the Washington Post and Capsule Stories.
-I’ve taken advantage of low cost and free workshops and talks to learn more about craft, basically trying to do a DIY MFA in creative writing.
-Thanks for reading my giant self-pat on the back, lol. I’m so proud of how much I’ve achieved this year- even after having a baby in July (we already have a 4 yo). Can’t wait to see what I will accomplish this time next year.
I have a piece of flash fiction by French author Monique Debruxelles in the latest issue of Firmament, the quarterly "magazine of considered miscellany" from the Seattle-based small press Sublunary Editions (https://sublunaryeditions.com/products/firmament-vol-2-no-4-various).
The press publishes short books (generally under 100 pages), and Firmament is dedicated to very short prose and poetry; in both cases, there's a pretty even split between writers working in English and works in translation. The new issue of Firmament is currently available only in print, but you can get a sense of their aesthetic by browsing the magazine archive online.
Had a poem published this month in a beautiful British journal called MONO. The poem was an old one, written over ten years ago when I was about to become an empty-nester (more focused on being a Grandad these days...). It had collected ten rejections throughout the years, but I never gave up on it because it always rang true to me.
I was drawn to the journal in part because of the two editors and their focus on publishing a spread across the generations. Old farts like me are sometimes given short shrift by all the young whippersnappers populating the industry. I believe I may have first found mention of MONO in New Pages. The experience working with them was caring and excellent, and I highly recommend the journal for both readers and writers.
The poem, "Later", can be found in the journal here:
I had my translation of a radio play published last week, "Jonah's Whale" by Claude Aveline. It's the first thing I've had published in 12 months. Delos Journal at the University of Florida kindly accepted it in January this year, so it's been a 10-month wait. Six times I was asked to expand the accompanying 3,000-word commentary, or to adjust the spelling, punctuation and layout according to American needs. In the editor's intro, he reports that many contributors withdrew their submissions because of the long commentary requested after acceptance, and perhaps because no payment was offered for it all. Anyhow, I gave them what they wanted and my work is now available online and in print, but only to paying subscribers: https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/delos/article/view/2001/2357
Good afternoon. I have a poem out this month in The Healing Muse, which is an annual print publication with some samples online: https://www.upstate.edu/bioethics/thehealingmuse/ The journal publishes "fiction, poetry, narratives, essays, memoirs and visual art, particularly but not exclusively focusing on themes of medicine, illness, disability and healing." Contributors receive two copies. The zoom launch party was well-attended and entertaining (the first person to read was a doctor in scrubs who then dashed off, presumably to save a life), and the editors seem very invested in the journal. It took a little under three months to receive the acceptance. I recommend submitting if you have something on theme--the finished product is attractive and there are some excellent pieces.
An essay, "Being Human, What do you Know?" was picked up by the lit mag, Months to Years. I don't know what their circulation is, small I imagine. I think their issues are beautifully curated, though, and they've been a pleasure to work with. They responded in under two weeks, and I gratefully accepted, choosing not to wait to see if any of the larger mags I submitted to would pounce. Here's the link: https://www.monthstoyears.org/being-human-what-do-you-know/?fbclid=IwAR2BzEMyVOgewEjX31fhljAyqkvY2DEZL7fziqpui3OT89IUmm7uxkCqe3k
Isele Magazine (https://iselemagazine.com/) had a call for submissions on "Food. Nutrition. Sustenance. Community. Culture." I submitted a creative nonfiction piece titled "Rain-Soaked Banana Plantations, Quetzal Birds, Garifuna Music." It will be published in December. I am quite excited about it. I only submitted that piece to Isele because I wrote specifically to their prompt. I have one more piece out with another magazine that I'm waiting on, and I wrote specifically to their prompt as well. And I'm working on a third essay for submission in January. (Thanks, Becky, for providing this space!)
Hi Audrey--I, too, am responding to prompts. It can be so rewarding since you usually get a quick reply and you have a better chance of finding a fit. Now to find a home for those that were rejected!
No new acceptances this month but my microfiction piece 'Signing Off' has been nominated by The Dribble Drabble Journal for the Best Small Fiction Anthology 2023 and my poem 'Christmas Presence' has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by the delightfully named Rat's Ass Review.
I don't know the publication dates yet, but I had two pieces accepted this month: a long, weird essay with drawings called "The Slump" (Propogule Magazine), and a story with drawings, "Five Stories from the Picture Box" (Sagging Maniscus Journal). (Sagging and Slumping seem to be resonant themes for me)...
I feel like I've got several pieces floating in the purgatory of submission land. It's true that the blue rectangles on Submittable do seem to hang around for quite a while. The majority of the essays I've had published went directly to journal, though one was submitted through Duotrope and two through Sumittable.
I had an acceptance by Bending Genres for a piece that was a kind of thread of micros strung together with mini essay-like-factoid-intros that I'm really proud of and thrilled that they said yes to. I love how quick their turnaround is. They don't take simultaneous submissions, but I find it fair since their turnaround is less than 5 days. I've received (kind) rejections in the past as well.
And I had a couple of visual pieces come out in Streetcake Magazine, too. I love love love them. Only great experiences with them and they're such fun and kind editors. :)
I’ve been fortunate to publish my poetry in JerryJazzMusician, Last Stanza, Adelaide and a few other lit mags. Here’s a couple of links …… For some of my latest work —
This interesting question led to some interesting results via Duotrope. It seems I very, very seldom have work published in ligmags that use Submittable. Most of my acceptances come from litmags that take submission as attachment to an email or in the body of an email. Going back as far as October, 2020, only two submissions via Submittable have been accepted, one by Triggerfish Critical Review, whose editor is a friend of mine with whom I have workshopped in person (https://triggerfishcriticalreview.com/). Editor Dave Mehler is very slow to produce an issue, and very thorough. I recommend his collection titled Roadworthy (Aubade Press). My most recent acceptance is with Wild Roof Journal (https://wildroofjournal.com/), whose editor I first became acquainted with gathering and editing the collected works of the late Alex Leavens, due out with Finishing Line Press next summer. This acceptance took 73 days, compared with a reported average of 33. This poem was submitted to 11 litmags, accepted by 1, withdrawn from 3, and rejected by 7, over a time period of almost exactly 2 years. Five of the rejecting litmags use Submittable, as does Wild Roof; the other two use a different electronic portal. So my work seems to appeal more to litmags that are not academic or top-tier, but rather those that tend to be one-person labors of love, or which have very small and localized staffs. Perhaps there is a lower level of competition, or perhaps the editors that take my work look for transcendence over what's trending in terms of style and content. Readership is my aim always, certainly not money.
Yes, Bruce, I too have had many more accepted via email submission than Submittable--and I refuse to pay a dime in reading fees [a few times I even wrote the lit mags who charge fees ostensibly to 'recover' their costs for using Submittable, asking why not just accept free email/snail mail: guess how many ever responded to my logical query....zilch!]
And don't worry my friend about the 'hoity-toity' lit mags shooting us down-- they mostly publish crap! They share that obfuscating mindset that infects so many academics and the self-styled 'Intelligentsia ': If something does not leave readers scratching their heads, wondering what the hell does that mean? , it can't be very good. But great poetry is as accessible as the Psalms, Shakespeare, Emily...because great writing is , as you say, TRANSCENDENT, appealing to the soul and not the mind. But those minds that cannot sense the soul itself will shrink from the Eternal, and be left hollow, with naked egos and fearful hearts....
Sophie, the editor, was very easy to work with. In terms of turnaround time, I spent a few dollars for an expedited response and heard back the next day. So can't say what typical response time would be.
This is my first time sharing here...I really appreciate the opportunity for all of us to celebrate our wins!
thanks for the reminder, but I am on pause... too much doing this time of year... and I love this holiday distraction from 'all that work'.. happy everything..
My short story, "Closures," will appear in December in Euphemisms, the literary magazine of the Department of English at Illinois State University. They are holding a launch party on Friday, December 9 on the campus in Bloomington, Illinois, and have invited all contributors to read their work. A very nice touch!
Back in 2013, I published a story in a fledgling online publication that disappeared overnight without warning after one edition. Bulb Culture Collective, which specializes in reprinting stories that lost their original homes, will be posting "Mall Massage" on December 27. They are well worth looking into if your work has experienced a similar fate.
I, along with a few other writers and poets, will also be reading from my work on Dec 11 in a virtual event organized by The MacGuffin. It will be streamed live, with an edited recording posted on YouTube at a later date.
I recommend submitting to journals that read blind, such as Burningword Literary Journal and Thin Air Magazine. I don't know if they are necessarily supportive, but not having publishing credits won't put you at a disadvantage.
“Supportive” was the wrong word. Reading blind is more what I am looking for because it separates the person from the piece, so readers concentrate on the story, not prior successes or lack thereof. Thank you for the suggestions.
By the way, my Kestrel publication was my first short story publication so my absence of extensive writing credits didn't hurt me. Plus they always have a wonderful reading in connection with each issue. The celebration was online last time I participated, but it may be in-person now. Good luck!
This piece came out on the very last day of November (yesterday)! I think I had submitted it to about 69 journals and this one was lucky 70! ;-) It's a story set in the 14 c. Mali Empire inspired by what some say is a true story so I can imagine that it wasn't up the alley of most American journals, but an online magazine that focuses on African writing and writing of the African diaspora picked it up to my delight. I revised it several times over the past 2-3 years. The editors were great to work with. There was about a 3-week period between acceptance and contact from an editor re edits. I also really like the photo they magazine picked to accompany the piece. Incidentally, after I withdrew the piece from another journal after the acceptance, that journal asked me if I had anything else I'd like to submit and I just learned that they want to publish one of the pieces I sent them so that was a delightful bonus.
I am delighted to have two poems in Hole In The Head Review. https://www.holeintheheadreview.com/ v3n4 11.01.22. When I was researching lit mags and came across this beautiful review, I felt that I would very much like to be in the company of its fine contributors.
I'm late to this party, but here goes. I have my third piece of narrative nonfiction coming out in Moss Piglet Zine in their December issue. My work was also in their August and October issues. They do a beautiful perfect-bound issue each month, combining art and all forms of writing. Here's the October issue: https://issuu.com/krazines/docs/moss_piglet_oct_2022_web They were a joy to work with, a very personal experience. I also have a piece coming out in Meat for Tea--their "Electric" themed issue releases today. All of these pieces are adapted from a soon-to-be published book I'm writing for my mountain club's centennial history. Meat for Tea was great to work with as well. All pieces were written in response to Duotrope listings, so there wasn't a lot of time for tweaking and re-drafting--I'm in a hurry since I won't be able to submit the stories after the book is published.
I was happy to suggest an essay by Mexican writer Mónica Lavín on food in Coyoacán to World Literature Today and to have it not only accepted for the 95th Anniversary issue of the magazine, but to inspire editor Michelle Johnson to interview Mónica for an accompanying interview with Lavín. Working with WLT is an ongoing pleasure for me as a translator and writer because their process is transparent, they pay a respectable amount which always comes on time (via the University of Oklahoma), the editors are smart and responsive, and it's a huge pleasure to be on the pages of a beautiful paper magazine. Read "Coyoacán a la carte" here: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2022/november/coyoacan-la-carte-monica-lavin
In early October I decided to enter my first short story contest, this one held by The Dillydoun Review. I entered a piece titled "The East Bay Hills", which I wasn't feeling all that confident about. I found out a couple of weeks ago it was longlisted along with about 25 other stories. I'm not sure how many submissions they received, but they said they had to delay the announcement due to the quality and quantity of the submissions. I found out this morning I was not among the winners, but I'll take it anyway!
Even my ego (that untamed little beast!) is amazed that in my 8th decade I've been not only creative enough to write a few hundred poems but that I've been fortunate enough to get many of them published in over 120 lit mags. But what thrills me most is that as of this month my work has been published online/in print in 11 countries, with the last 2 being Sweden ['The Stockholm Review of Literature' ] and Turkey ['The Bosphorus Review of Books']. I spent 1/2 my 20's living in Europe and Asia and so like the idea of folks from very different cultures reading poems and essays I somehow managed to create. My system is simple: after I write the poems (or more like they write themselves) I kick them out of the house into the cruel cold world. And I do this with the 'shotgun' approach, sending out scores every week and seeing what sticks. It takes a lot of time [unlike writing them which takes surprisingly little it seems] but I'm long retired and it's the only job I could get at my age. And no, it doesn't pay much, except in happy dances for that little beast, my ego.
Thanks for this comment about your shotgun approach to submissions. It’s really working for you!
Thanks as always, Becky, for providing this platform. And no, I cannot believe the month, and the year, are nearly over! What happened?!
I feel like I'm winning at some sort of irreverent lit mag bingo of late (hear that, Taco Bell Quarterly? Fingers crossed...). This month, I have five poems in Bullshit Lit, two poems in Rejection Letters, and a story and a poem in HORNS, Bullshit Lit's new NSFW imprint (for sale in PDF and print formats). I had a good experience working with all of them. In a lit mag-scape that can sometimes take itself *very* seriously, these publications provide a nice counterbalance.
Links:
Bullshit Lit: https://www.bullshitlit.com/post/five-poems-by-goldie-peacock
Rejection Letters: https://rejection-letters.com/2022/11/07/2-poems-goldie-peacock/
HORNS (print copies for sale): https://www.bullshitlit.com/product-page/horns-issue-1
HORNS (PDFs for sale): https://www.bullshitlit.com/product-page/horns-issue-1-pdf
Great work, Goldie! Thanks for sharing here. I particularly liked the sibling-correspondence poem—funny and, sadly, true to life. God help us all.
Thanks so much, and re: God help us all, yes!
Goldie, really like.
Thanks, Margaret!
Nice! I particularly enjoyed "Summered as a Verb."
Writing that one felt especially fun. Thanks for reading!
No brag here, for the moment, but here is something by Francesca Bell, just for fun, if you haven’t seen it.
I LONG TO HOLD THE POETRY EDITOR’S PENIS IN MY HAND
and tell him personally,
I’m sorry, but I’m going
to have to pass on this.
Though your piece
held my attention through
the first few screenings,
I don’t feel it is a good fit
for me at this time.
Please know it received
my careful consideration.
I thank you for allowing
me to have a look,
and I wish you
the very best of luck
placing it elsewhere.
—published in Rattle #40, Summer 2013
Mmmm...interesting, but what if the editor is a female? Would the PC police be called?
Hilarious! Familar language for sure.
I started writing early 2021 and have been submitting for about a year. I’ve had work published now in Fatal Flaw, Gasher, Longleaf and Hippocampus AND out of those, two BOTN nominations. I have two more pieces being published in 2023 - in Cutleaf and Peatsmoke.
-I’ve worked with some lovely journals and editors and had some really great experiences.
-I started a writing group with people I met in a Grubstreet class. We meet via zoom every month and have become good friends, despite not meeting in person!
-I’ve helped edit another friend’s work, pieces that have been published in the Washington Post and Capsule Stories.
-I’ve taken advantage of low cost and free workshops and talks to learn more about craft, basically trying to do a DIY MFA in creative writing.
-Thanks for reading my giant self-pat on the back, lol. I’m so proud of how much I’ve achieved this year- even after having a baby in July (we already have a 4 yo). Can’t wait to see what I will accomplish this time next year.
Ps: My work can be found at sarajstreeter.com
I have three poems in Write Launch:
https://thewritelaunch.com/2022/11/self-portrait-as-poet-work-friends-and-now-playing/?fbclid=IwAR3rb7oeuKNjZqwjq6K13CNIvs3FFLtZ6JGAcV4byjT-vO6W5pUTVYGmHk0
one in Dillydoun Review
https://thedillydounreview.com/julie-benesh-11/
one in Wild Roof Journal
https://wildroofjournal.com/issue-17/
one in Sad Girls Club
https://www.sadgirlsclublit.com/post/i-am-a-contested-territory-julie-benesh?fbclid=IwAR32iGgt1QHqb5mVe7XZAwqN-ErD5n_vTZ8quoeNjUIeG-yRwnbXTSrT67A
I recommend all those journals, having lofs of experience with them..
I have two (overdue) pending from Quartz & Green House--I'll report on those later.
I have a piece of flash fiction by French author Monique Debruxelles in the latest issue of Firmament, the quarterly "magazine of considered miscellany" from the Seattle-based small press Sublunary Editions (https://sublunaryeditions.com/products/firmament-vol-2-no-4-various).
The press publishes short books (generally under 100 pages), and Firmament is dedicated to very short prose and poetry; in both cases, there's a pretty even split between writers working in English and works in translation. The new issue of Firmament is currently available only in print, but you can get a sense of their aesthetic by browsing the magazine archive online.
Had a poem published this month in a beautiful British journal called MONO. The poem was an old one, written over ten years ago when I was about to become an empty-nester (more focused on being a Grandad these days...). It had collected ten rejections throughout the years, but I never gave up on it because it always rang true to me.
I was drawn to the journal in part because of the two editors and their focus on publishing a spread across the generations. Old farts like me are sometimes given short shrift by all the young whippersnappers populating the industry. I believe I may have first found mention of MONO in New Pages. The experience working with them was caring and excellent, and I highly recommend the journal for both readers and writers.
The poem, "Later", can be found in the journal here:
https://www.paperturn-view.com/?pid=Mjg283559&fbclid=IwAR0i-uJtP4Q2VvtOxGt_pPJza3Ph4HWNtbM2Jmwdh7av7DK8BA5UopPSQ18
I had my translation of a radio play published last week, "Jonah's Whale" by Claude Aveline. It's the first thing I've had published in 12 months. Delos Journal at the University of Florida kindly accepted it in January this year, so it's been a 10-month wait. Six times I was asked to expand the accompanying 3,000-word commentary, or to adjust the spelling, punctuation and layout according to American needs. In the editor's intro, he reports that many contributors withdrew their submissions because of the long commentary requested after acceptance, and perhaps because no payment was offered for it all. Anyhow, I gave them what they wanted and my work is now available online and in print, but only to paying subscribers: https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/delos/article/view/2001/2357
Good afternoon. I have a poem out this month in The Healing Muse, which is an annual print publication with some samples online: https://www.upstate.edu/bioethics/thehealingmuse/ The journal publishes "fiction, poetry, narratives, essays, memoirs and visual art, particularly but not exclusively focusing on themes of medicine, illness, disability and healing." Contributors receive two copies. The zoom launch party was well-attended and entertaining (the first person to read was a doctor in scrubs who then dashed off, presumably to save a life), and the editors seem very invested in the journal. It took a little under three months to receive the acceptance. I recommend submitting if you have something on theme--the finished product is attractive and there are some excellent pieces.
Sounds like a interesting journal, Colette. And congratulations!
Thanks Stanley!
An essay, "Being Human, What do you Know?" was picked up by the lit mag, Months to Years. I don't know what their circulation is, small I imagine. I think their issues are beautifully curated, though, and they've been a pleasure to work with. They responded in under two weeks, and I gratefully accepted, choosing not to wait to see if any of the larger mags I submitted to would pounce. Here's the link: https://www.monthstoyears.org/being-human-what-do-you-know/?fbclid=IwAR2BzEMyVOgewEjX31fhljAyqkvY2DEZL7fziqpui3OT89IUmm7uxkCqe3k
Hi Donaldson, I related to much of your piece, which was beautiful and powerful in its restraint. Thank you so much for sharing.
Joe
Isele Magazine (https://iselemagazine.com/) had a call for submissions on "Food. Nutrition. Sustenance. Community. Culture." I submitted a creative nonfiction piece titled "Rain-Soaked Banana Plantations, Quetzal Birds, Garifuna Music." It will be published in December. I am quite excited about it. I only submitted that piece to Isele because I wrote specifically to their prompt. I have one more piece out with another magazine that I'm waiting on, and I wrote specifically to their prompt as well. And I'm working on a third essay for submission in January. (Thanks, Becky, for providing this space!)
Hi Audrey--I, too, am responding to prompts. It can be so rewarding since you usually get a quick reply and you have a better chance of finding a fit. Now to find a home for those that were rejected!
Best regards!
I just discovered Isele today. Looks like a really good magazine.
Indeed!
No new acceptances this month but my microfiction piece 'Signing Off' has been nominated by The Dribble Drabble Journal for the Best Small Fiction Anthology 2023 and my poem 'Christmas Presence' has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by the delightfully named Rat's Ass Review.
I don't know the publication dates yet, but I had two pieces accepted this month: a long, weird essay with drawings called "The Slump" (Propogule Magazine), and a story with drawings, "Five Stories from the Picture Box" (Sagging Maniscus Journal). (Sagging and Slumping seem to be resonant themes for me)...
I got a craft essay published in the Brevity Blog: https://brevity.wordpress.com/2022/11/21/piano-lesson/
I feel like I've got several pieces floating in the purgatory of submission land. It's true that the blue rectangles on Submittable do seem to hang around for quite a while. The majority of the essays I've had published went directly to journal, though one was submitted through Duotrope and two through Sumittable.
I read "Piano Lesson." Nice piece!
I had a really good week!!!
I had an acceptance by Bending Genres for a piece that was a kind of thread of micros strung together with mini essay-like-factoid-intros that I'm really proud of and thrilled that they said yes to. I love how quick their turnaround is. They don't take simultaneous submissions, but I find it fair since their turnaround is less than 5 days. I've received (kind) rejections in the past as well.
And I had a couple of visual pieces come out in Streetcake Magazine, too. I love love love them. Only great experiences with them and they're such fun and kind editors. :)
Fascinating! I'd love to see the Bending Genres piece--is it available yet?
Hi Debra! That's kind of you. :) Not yet. They said December, so I assume next issue?
I’ve been fortunate to publish my poetry in JerryJazzMusician, Last Stanza, Adelaide and a few other lit mags. Here’s a couple of links …… For some of my latest work —
https://jerryjazzmusician.com/?s=Russell+Dupont
https://adelaidemagazine.org/2021/05/15/alone-in-the-house-on-a-winter-afternoon-by-russell-dupont/
Thanks for this thread, Becky! If Asian Mythology interests you, check out my story in Tasavur:
https://tasavvurnama.com/the-eye-of-the-warrior/
This interesting question led to some interesting results via Duotrope. It seems I very, very seldom have work published in ligmags that use Submittable. Most of my acceptances come from litmags that take submission as attachment to an email or in the body of an email. Going back as far as October, 2020, only two submissions via Submittable have been accepted, one by Triggerfish Critical Review, whose editor is a friend of mine with whom I have workshopped in person (https://triggerfishcriticalreview.com/). Editor Dave Mehler is very slow to produce an issue, and very thorough. I recommend his collection titled Roadworthy (Aubade Press). My most recent acceptance is with Wild Roof Journal (https://wildroofjournal.com/), whose editor I first became acquainted with gathering and editing the collected works of the late Alex Leavens, due out with Finishing Line Press next summer. This acceptance took 73 days, compared with a reported average of 33. This poem was submitted to 11 litmags, accepted by 1, withdrawn from 3, and rejected by 7, over a time period of almost exactly 2 years. Five of the rejecting litmags use Submittable, as does Wild Roof; the other two use a different electronic portal. So my work seems to appeal more to litmags that are not academic or top-tier, but rather those that tend to be one-person labors of love, or which have very small and localized staffs. Perhaps there is a lower level of competition, or perhaps the editors that take my work look for transcendence over what's trending in terms of style and content. Readership is my aim always, certainly not money.
Yes, Bruce, I too have had many more accepted via email submission than Submittable--and I refuse to pay a dime in reading fees [a few times I even wrote the lit mags who charge fees ostensibly to 'recover' their costs for using Submittable, asking why not just accept free email/snail mail: guess how many ever responded to my logical query....zilch!]
And don't worry my friend about the 'hoity-toity' lit mags shooting us down-- they mostly publish crap! They share that obfuscating mindset that infects so many academics and the self-styled 'Intelligentsia ': If something does not leave readers scratching their heads, wondering what the hell does that mean? , it can't be very good. But great poetry is as accessible as the Psalms, Shakespeare, Emily...because great writing is , as you say, TRANSCENDENT, appealing to the soul and not the mind. But those minds that cannot sense the soul itself will shrink from the Eternal, and be left hollow, with naked egos and fearful hearts....
Thrilled to have had my piece "Fearless Girls" accepted by The Aurora Journal.
https://www.theaurorajournal.org/autumn-2022-volume/fearless-girls
Sophie, the editor, was very easy to work with. In terms of turnaround time, I spent a few dollars for an expedited response and heard back the next day. So can't say what typical response time would be.
This is my first time sharing here...I really appreciate the opportunity for all of us to celebrate our wins!
thanks for the reminder, but I am on pause... too much doing this time of year... and I love this holiday distraction from 'all that work'.. happy everything..
My short story, "Closures," will appear in December in Euphemisms, the literary magazine of the Department of English at Illinois State University. They are holding a launch party on Friday, December 9 on the campus in Bloomington, Illinois, and have invited all contributors to read their work. A very nice touch!
Back in 2013, I published a story in a fledgling online publication that disappeared overnight without warning after one edition. Bulb Culture Collective, which specializes in reprinting stories that lost their original homes, will be posting "Mall Massage" on December 27. They are well worth looking into if your work has experienced a similar fate.
Love it when journals have celebrations of the issues. So much fun! Congratulations!
My short story "Mardy Gras" was published in The MacGuffin, Fall 2022 issue.
(https://www.schoolcraft.edu/macguffin/) The piece was on submission for under a year.
I, along with a few other writers and poets, will also be reading from my work on Dec 11 in a virtual event organized by The MacGuffin. It will be streamed live, with an edited recording posted on YouTube at a later date.
Could anyone suggest lit mags supportive of unpublished writers? Thank you.
I recommend submitting to journals that read blind, such as Burningword Literary Journal and Thin Air Magazine. I don't know if they are necessarily supportive, but not having publishing credits won't put you at a disadvantage.
“Supportive” was the wrong word. Reading blind is more what I am looking for because it separates the person from the piece, so readers concentrate on the story, not prior successes or lack thereof. Thank you for the suggestions.
By the way, my Kestrel publication was my first short story publication so my absence of extensive writing credits didn't hurt me. Plus they always have a wonderful reading in connection with each issue. The celebration was online last time I participated, but it may be in-person now. Good luck!
Thank you for the recommendations, Stanley—very helpful. I appreciate it.
You're most welcome. I know that Lunch Ticket also used to read blind, but I couldn't tell from their website whether this is still the case.
I'd consider Susurrus if you're a writer from the American South. Also, Kestrel and Middle House Review. I've had great experiences with all of them.
This piece came out on the very last day of November (yesterday)! I think I had submitted it to about 69 journals and this one was lucky 70! ;-) It's a story set in the 14 c. Mali Empire inspired by what some say is a true story so I can imagine that it wasn't up the alley of most American journals, but an online magazine that focuses on African writing and writing of the African diaspora picked it up to my delight. I revised it several times over the past 2-3 years. The editors were great to work with. There was about a 3-week period between acceptance and contact from an editor re edits. I also really like the photo they magazine picked to accompany the piece. Incidentally, after I withdrew the piece from another journal after the acceptance, that journal asked me if I had anything else I'd like to submit and I just learned that they want to publish one of the pieces I sent them so that was a delightful bonus.
https://brittlepaper.com/2022/11/empire-of-the-sea-stanley-stocker-fiction/
I am delighted to have two poems in Hole In The Head Review. https://www.holeintheheadreview.com/ v3n4 11.01.22. When I was researching lit mags and came across this beautiful review, I felt that I would very much like to be in the company of its fine contributors.
I'm late to this party, but here goes. I have my third piece of narrative nonfiction coming out in Moss Piglet Zine in their December issue. My work was also in their August and October issues. They do a beautiful perfect-bound issue each month, combining art and all forms of writing. Here's the October issue: https://issuu.com/krazines/docs/moss_piglet_oct_2022_web They were a joy to work with, a very personal experience. I also have a piece coming out in Meat for Tea--their "Electric" themed issue releases today. All of these pieces are adapted from a soon-to-be published book I'm writing for my mountain club's centennial history. Meat for Tea was great to work with as well. All pieces were written in response to Duotrope listings, so there wasn't a lot of time for tweaking and re-drafting--I'm in a hurry since I won't be able to submit the stories after the book is published.
Thank you, Joseph. It's very kind of you to have read it and reached out. All the best to you, Donnaldson