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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Literary Journals

So! I'm in a Creative Fiction class and, in its own way, its redirected me to the theoretical purpose of this blog. As part of the class, since its purpose is to prepare us for publication as really real writers, we've been reviewing/presenting on literary journals. Now, as someone who has considered themselves a writer (albeit an extremely retiring one) for a very long time, it's something of a schande that I knew very little about the journals that were out there or how they work.

Still, everyone has to start somewhere and, since I'm doing it already, I thought I'd put up links to some random journals that a) are excellent b) are particularly wonky and c) are small/obscure/indie/interested/whatever enough that previously unpublished authors have a good shot at getting into them.

I also have a preference for journals that won't charge you a fee for reading your work, as I know everyone's broke, but some of the best ones do and there'll be a couple of them on the list too. Now, most of these journals also won't pay you, but those that put out print additions often send the author a complementary copy of the issue their piece appeared in.

Edit: I'm going to separate these into two sections, based broadly on distribution size and big deal-ness, so that some of the heavy hitters are on here too. Those in the Wonky section vary in size, but those in the Big section are 'you've made it kid' likely-to-be-carried-in-bookstores kind of publications.

Also, Duotrope.com is your friend. It has a huge database of journals, searchable by most things an author would care about, and gives you access to acceptance and response time statistics. It also lets you keep track of your impending submissions all in one place.


Wonky

Naturally, I must open this list with Bust Down The Door And Eat All The Chickens, a journal of absurd and surreal work. They like funny, they don't want surreal mistaken for fantasy, and they're not super into horror. You can download their issues for free from their website, and you should.

Next is 5x5 a journal that is, when in print, five inches by five inches. They took the name from radio jargon meaning "the signal had excellent strength and perfect clarity", and that's their literary mission statement. They take everything--poetry, fiction, non-fiction, comics, art--and they have themes for each issue posted on their website. They encourage high schoolers and the under-eighteen crowd to submit, so it's a great place for precious writers to use as a springboard.

BAP Quarterly is a little less off-beat than the first two, but I like what I've seen of it so far. It also has a different theme each issue and accepts fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and photography. It's in a more conventional journal format, slickly presented, and it's also available for free online.

Cafe Irreal is another surreal (or irreal, I suppose, they have a lengthy section defining that) journal, perhaps a little more reflective, refined, and mellow than Chickens. It also gets submissions from previously published authors sometimes and, of all things, pays the author actual money for first-publish internet rights, so that's good.

 Not gonna lie, Booth Journal is on this list entirely because What They Did With The Body was such a bizarre, excellent, upsetting story. All their stories are that well-chosen though, as far as I can see. Also, the editors' tone is endearingly offbeat in a way that doesn't fill me with rage at hipsters. They take poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics, and lists and are more excited about the last three because they get less of them. Personally, I'm really pleased by the idea of submitting lists, as grouping information is oddly interesting and aesthetically cool. Some of their lists are pretty great.

Weird Tales  is taking up the mantle of the original Weird Tales, that was founded in the 1920s and gave Lovecraft his start. They publish weird, speculative, alt fiction, poetry, and one-minute videos that are "sort of a funky hybrid of a movie trailer, a Zen koan, and an Adult Swim between-show bumper". They pay you 5 cents a word for fiction and twenty dollars a poem. They also have a section called Weird Sightings, where they put up strange or amusing things related to Lovecraft.

The Liar's League is awesome. They take flash fiction and short stories (800-2000 words) and have actors read them aloud regularly at performances. Now, they're based in London, so a lot of us *cough* can't go watch, but they upload recordings to their website and to iTunes.

365 Tomorrows is not actually journal-level stuff, but it is kind of fun and a good place to experiment. It's a science fiction flash fiction site, where one incredibly short story goes up on the front page per day. That means there's lots of chances to get in, and on a separate note it's a great place for a reader to get a quick and often-bizarre sci-fi fix. On a totally self-promoting note, this one time I had a story in it and was really pleased with myself.

The Kunlun Journal of Chinese Historical Fiction  is a fledgling journal, but I love highly specific niche publications, especially when that niche is wuxia. And there aren't enough historical fiction journals out there.

So I'm also going to include Lacuna, a historical fiction journal of discerning taste that takes work set in all time periods and locations, and Alt Hist, an alternate history journal--because really, not enough people love alternate histories. 


Big

Glimmer Train actually charges a reading fee for stories you submit and has a wider circulation than the stuff in the previous section. It takes stories from published and unpublished writers alike, and tends to be a pretty good spot to get noticed by an agent from. That said, it also treats its authors very well, gives them a lot of attention, has regular competitions with substantial prizes, and has a pretty classy format. The journal is also not available online/free and don't take novels, poetry, or kids' stories. They like stories that focus on the human element, and emotional significance. Also--someone in my class totally just got a story accepted into their most recent issue. There was no point to telling you except that it was awesome.

Tin House  has themed issues, accepts submissions from September 1 to May 31, and publishes in a really nice paperback format that's carried by a lot of bookstores. They have a hard 10,000 word limit on stories and take up to five poems at a time. They also include a crossword, restaurant and book reviews, and other magazine features in their issues. The published well-known authors next to unpublished ones, and are committed to include at least one unpublished author in each issue.

McSweeney's Quarterly  is avante garde! Off-beat! Very well known! And very hard to get into. They publish books as well and have a whole host of literary things associated with them. They publish authors you wouldn't expect, like David Byrne from the Talking Heads, the the whole thing is Dave Eggers' ("A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius") brainchild. Their response time, however, is one of the worst in the business, sometimes taking an entire year.

The New Yorker really needs no introduction and it's included for completeness' sake, but it's kind of at the apex of journals and you've pretty well made it if you get accepted here. It was basically my childhood.

Clarksworld Magazine  is one of the speculative fiction (scifi and fantasy) heavy-hitters. Hard to get into, pays at professional rates, and accepts fiction with 1,000 to 8,000 words, though it prefers them to be right in the middle. They have a fairly exhaustive list of pet-peeves in their submission section, most of which are quite reasonable, that are worth checking out before you submit.