These magazines and outlets publish creative non-fiction – lyrical, personal, narrative, and experimental essays, memoir, literary non-fiction, and more. They pay up to $450. Most also publish other genres, like fiction and poetry. – S. Kalekar
clavmag
They publish writing from LGBTQ+ writers – creative non-fiction, life writing, and fiction. They have a list of genres they are especially attached to, and these include literary, as well as journal/memoir and graphic/illustrated.
Deadline: 18 November 2021
Length: Up to 3,000 words
Pay: £52
Details here.
(Another outlet for personal essays and other articles is Autostraddle – it is a magazine for lesbian & queer culture; pay is $80-200+. Details here.
And Room Magazine publishes writing by marginalized genders, including women, both cisgender and transgender, transgender men, Two-Spirit and nonbinary people; they are reading submissions of creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry for the Audacity-themed issue until 15 January 2022. Pay is CAD50-200 for works up to 3,500 words. Details here — scroll down).
Prairie Fire: Uncharted Territory
This Canadian literary journal publishes non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. They’re reading on the ‘Uncharted Territory’ theme. Their guidelines say, “Each person is essentially, a vast uncharted territory just waiting to be explored. Sometimes the changes we create, or are plunged into, are monumental, adventurous and exciting, at other times, they are grueling, painful, and require us to endure until we reach the other side.
Tell us about a time you (or a fictional character) either deliberately threw away the roadmap and set out on a new, uncharted course into the unfamiliar and unexpected, or a time when an external catalyst such as loss, illness, poverty, a social movement, a work of art, or a pandemic changed the way you think, or sent you in a new direction and changed the course of your life.”
Deadline: 24 November 2021
Length: Up to 5,000 words for fiction and non-fiction; up to 3 poems
Pay: $0.10/word for prose, up to $250; $40/poem; varies for other formats
Details here and here.
(Slice Magazine was also scheduled to open for submissions of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry at the time of writing, from 1st November 2021 until 1st January 2022. They will announce a theme soon. Pay is $100-$400.)
The Forge Literary Magazine
They publish one prose piece per week, fiction or non-fiction, and are open to all genres and voices. They open on the 1st of every month and can accept a limited number of fee-free submissions – the window closes when the limit is reached, and will re-open the following month, except September.
Deadline: Until filled, each month except September
Length: Prefer up to 3,000 words; won’t accept anything above 5,000 words
Pay: $75
Details here.
The Puritan
This Canadian literary magazine publishes non-fiction – interviews, essays (accepts pitches), as well as fiction, reviews, and poetry. They accept a limited number of fee-free submissions every month. They’re also currently looking for Editors in Residence for their blog, The Town Crier – this is a month-long virtual position and offers CAD200.
Deadline: 25 December 2021 for the Winter cycle (may close earlier if Submittable cap reached); reads year-round
Length: Up to 10,000 words for fiction, up to 4 poems; various for non-fiction (see guidelines)
Pay: CAD200 per essay; CAD150 for fiction; CAD100 per interview or review; CAD25 per poem (or page, capped at CAD80)
Details here.
(Another literary magazine, The Cincinnati Review, accepts literary non-fiction of up to 20 pages, as well as fiction, poetry, and poetry translations. They’ll open for print magazine submissions on 1st December and will remain open until 31 December, or until the Submittable cap is reached. Pay is $25/page for prose in the journal, $30/page for poetry.)
New York Times: Modern Love; Solver Stories
They are open to unsolicited submissions of personal essays about love, and about puzzles.
— Modern Love: They accept submissions for their Modern Love column; one of their reading periods is from September to December. Modern Love publishes honest personal essays about contemporary relationships – see guidelines for further details and examples of past published essays. They especially encourage Black and Indigenous people and other people of color to submit, as well as writers outside of the United States and those who identify as members of LGBTQ communities. (They also publish Tiny Love Stories of exactly 100 words, for which there is no monetary payment. However, here’s an article on how one of these was turned into an episode for a TV series, along with some other Modern Love stories).
Deadline: 31 December 2021
Length: 1,500-1,700 words
Pay: Unspecified
Details here.
— Solver Stories: These are personal essays about your relationship with puzzles. Their guidelines say, “Solver Stories, a feature of Wordplay, welcomes submissions of personal essays on a variety of topics, such as: An issue the writer has faced in life, and how solving puzzles (of any kind) has helped them resolve that issue; A feel-good story or good news from the worlds of puzzles and games…; How solving puzzles has affected a relationship in the writer’s life; How puzzles, games or use of language have been agents of cultural change.
The most important thing is that the writing be emotionally honest and for the story to be freshly and compellingly told.” They have examples of Solver Stories essays within the guidelines.
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: 800-1,200 words
Pay: $200
Details here.
Ploughshares
There is a fee to submit online for non-subscribers, but postal submissions are free. They publish creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Also look at their Solos, which accepts longer submissions, and Look2 essays, which are about underappreciated or overlooked writers, living or dead, anywhere in the world – there’s no fee to submit online for Look2 essays.
Deadline: 15 January 2022
Length: Varies
Pay: $45/page, up to $450
Details here.
West Branch
The well-regarded literary magazine from Bucknell University, West Branch, publishes creative non-fiction, as well as fiction and poetry. Send no more than two submissions per reading period (see guidelines).
Deadline: 1 April 2022
Length: Up to 6 poems; up to 30 pages for prose
Pay: $50/poem; $0.05/word for prose, up to $100
Details here.
MotherWell
They publish personal essays on parenting. Their guidelines say, “We are looking for evocative first-person narratives that have a unique focus, or take a novel angle, on a slice of the parenting experience. We are open to a range of styles and tones: the only requirement is that the essay works on its own terms—be it lyrical, humorous, research-oriented, etc—and conveys something fundamental about its writer.” They also publish themed pieces, including on Home for the Holidays, Parenting and Food, as well as perspective pieces, and more. Some of the pieces are unpaid (see guidelines).
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: Up to 1,200 words
Pay: Unspecified
Details here.
CRAFT
They pay for fiction and creative non-fiction pieces, both flash and short works. “We review literary nonfiction, but are open to a variety of genres and styles including memoir, lyric essays, personal essays, narrative nonfiction, and experimental prose—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.” They’re also reading for their non-fiction contest currently, for which they charge a fee. They also publish craft essays, critical essays, book reviews, and interviews.
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: Up to 1,000 words for flash; 1,000-6,000 words for short creative nonfiction and fiction
Pay: $100 for flash, $200 for short creative non-fiction and fiction
Details here.
The Razor
This is the magazine of Gotham Writers Workshop. They publish two pieces each month, one fiction and one non-fiction.
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: Up to 2,000 words
Pay: $100
Details here.
London Review of Books
This venerable magazine accepts unsolicited submissions. Their guidelines say, “We look at unsolicited submissions as well as proposals. The best guide to what we might like is what we usually publish, including poems, reviews, reportage, memoir, articles for our Short Cuts and Diary slots, and blogposts.”
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: Unspecified
Pay: Unspecified
Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.
