By S. Kalekar
These magazines pay up to 600 and more for fiction. They are a mix of literary and genre fiction magazines. A number of them also accept other genres, like various types of non-fiction, and poetry.
Book XI : A Journal of Literary Philosophy
“Book XI is a journal dedicated to publishing personal essays, memoir, fiction, science fiction, humor, and poetry with philosophical themes. … Book XI is housed at Hamilton College’s Arthur Levitt Center for Public Affairs.”
Deadline: 10 September 2025, or until filled
Length: 1,000-5,000 words for prose, up to 5 poems
Pay: $200 for prose, $50/poem
Details here and here.
Cast of Wonders
This is a young adult speculative fiction online magazine and podcast from the Escape Artists suite of magazines. They have detailed guidelines about the kind of work they want, including, “Stories that evoke a sense of wonder, have deep emotional resonance, and have something unreal about them. We aim for a 12-17 age range: that means sophisticated, non-condescending stories with wide appeal, and without gratuitous or explicit sex, violence or pervasive obscene language.” And, “We don’t exclusively define YA as stories featuring children or young adult characters, though they are very common. We would particularly like to receive more stories about older people having first experiences!” They also accept submissions from writers under the age of 18, as well as translations and reprints.
Deadline: 14 September 2025
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here (guidelines), here (schedule), and here (Moksha portal).
(Submissions are also open for the first issue of Quest magazine – “Quest is a new online magazine publishing literary, visual, and critical work that uses sci-fi and fantasy to reflect the world around us.” They want fiction, including serialized fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics, art, and music on the Thresholds theme. They pay $12-100 for written work and $25-100 per installation of story. The deadline is 15th September 2025; details here.)
Plott Hound
This is a magazine of speculative fiction and poetry starring animals. Regarding the kind of stories they want: “Stories with anthropomorphized animals as viewpoint characters and protagonists
-Animal-centric speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror)
-Underrepresented voices (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent) that engage with animal myths, tales, and futures
-Stories with uncommonly written about animals as protagonists
-Stories that dig deep into the senses and experience of animals
-Stories that explore the cultures and societies of animals, not just cultures and societies with animals. Think of rabbit language and warren infrastructure in Watership Down, or the clans and warrior code of feral cats in Warriors.” They also welcome translations. They publish one essay per issue, as well.
Deadline: 15 September 2025
Length: 1,000-5,000 words (prefer 3,000-4,000 words) for fiction, up to 5 poems, 1,000-2,500 words for essay
Pay: $0.08/word for stories, $50 for poetry, $100 for essay
Details here and here.
Three-Lobed Burning Eye
They publish fiction “across the speculative genres, including all the shadows between and fluid mixtures thereof. We like narrative voices that are full of feeling, from literary to pulpy, with styles unique and flowing, but not too experimental. All labels aside, we want tales that value imagination in character, narrative, and plot.”
Deadline: 16 September 2025
Length: 500-7,499 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
Westerly
This Australian magazine accepts fiction, poetry, creative as well as scholarly non-fiction, comics, and art. They are currently reading submissions for Issues 70.1 and 70.2.
Deadline: 17 September 2025 (see Submittable)
Length: Up to 5 poems, up to 3,500 words for creative prose, up to 5,000 words for scholarly prose
Pay: AUD250-500 for written work
Details here and here.
The Ex-Puritan
This Canadian literary magazine publishes fiction, non-fiction, experimental/hybrid work, interviews, reviews, poetry, and poetry in translation. The deadline is 25 September, or until filled, for the next issue; they accept a limited number of fee-free submissions every month, and read year-round.
Deadline: 25 September 2025, or until filled
Length: Varies
Pay: CAD200 per essay; CAD150 for fiction; CAD100 per interview or review; CAD50 per poem, capped at CAD100; CAD50+ per experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece.
Details here and here.
The Bombay Literary Magazine
This India-based literary magazine accepts fiction, graphic fiction, translated fiction, poetry, translated poetry, and essays (essays have to be focused on writing and literature). They have a submission cap for each category, so submissions can close before the deadline. Submission is via a form on their website.
Deadline: 30 September 2025, or until filled
Length: 2,000-5,000 words for prose, up to 5 poems
Pay: INR5,000
Details here.
The Cincinnati Review
They opened for fiction, fiction translations, literary non-fiction, poetry, poetry translations, and art submissions for the print magazine on 1st September, and will close on the deadline, or when they reach their submission cap, whichever is earlier (they usually reach the cap well before the deadline); they also accept submissions for their online flash feature, miCRo.
Deadline: 30 September 2025, or until filled
Length: Fiction up to 40 pages, non-fiction up to 20 pages, and up to 5 poems for print
Pay: $25/page for prose and $30/page for poetry for print, $25 for miCRo contributions
Details here and here
Hearth Stories
“Hearth Stories publishes slice-of-life stories with a focus on nature, forests, connection, family, romance/relationships, and comfort/kindness. We are primarily focusing on stories set in a pre-industrial-revolution time period (or a fantasy world resembling such), preferably not in city settings. … We will potentially accept literary fiction (i.e. non-speculative work) if it takes place before ~1825 or so, please let us know in your cover letter if you are submitting a story that is not speculative (this is a new type of submission for us and we want to gauge interest).” This is a vegan magazine (see guidelines). Do not send poetry or non-fiction.
Deadline: 30 September 2025
Length: 1,000-10,000 words (prefers 1,500-3,500)
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
The Iowa Review
They’re open now for fiction, poetry, non-fiction, as well as visual literature (i.e. if your fiction, nonfiction, or poetry has a visual component – graphic novel/memoir, drawings, collage, etc.). They charge for online submissions if you’re not a subscriber, but it is free to submit by mail.
Deadline: 1 October 2025 for fiction and poetry, 1 November 2025 for non-fiction and visual literature.
Length: Up to 25 pages for prose, up to 8 pages for poetry, up to 10 pages for visual literature
Pay: $0.08/word for prose, $1.50 per line for poetry, $40/page for visual literature
Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.