Lit Mags

Whoops, nevermind. Um, while I'm here, no, I haven't really read any lit mags. I have, or had, this copy of Writer's Quarterly (I think that was the title) signed by Thomas Kennedy, but I seemed to have misplaced it.

I know this thing has only been up for a day, but wow. Nobody else reads literary magazines? Really?

[QUOTE=Rents]I know this thing has only been up for a day, but wow. Nobody else reads literary magazines? Really?[/QUOTE]

No...that is why getting published is so hard. Literary magazines don't make any money whatsoever and therefore either don't exist for long, or don't put out more than quarterly issues. Stephen King writes a lot about this in the intro to his short fiction novels...

A good place to look...

Check out the back of Poets & Writers. They usually have contests/source info for places to try and publish.

well, yeah, I know about plenty of places to check out and try to get published, but I just wanted to see if anyone else had mags they wanted to share. And yeah, it is kinda hard to get published when you don't read any mags...

Get a copy of Novel and Short Story Writers Market 2005 they list all the lit mags and what they are looking for, what they pay what your chances are as a new writer and so on.

It includes online as well as print mags.

Current ones of note besides the standards might include:

Glimmertrain

Tin House (as you mentioned)

Zoetrope All-Story

Bomb Magazine

McSweeney's

Alaska Quarterly

Fiction

Granta

Web Del-Sol

Literary Absinthe

Word Riot (they published mine (hurray for my side)

I'm missing a whole bunch that rejected me, no doubt it's a psychological block...

You guys have any opinions on these? I guess that's what I'm really curious about. Do you read much short fiction in this form? Any favorites?

im in the same boat Rents, but right now im only looking at lit mags who publish canadians, i figured id start small and local, and then work up. Grain and Event are the two im considering.

man I just want to write well written interesting stories, if I ever make money doing it, I'll consider it a bonus.

Anyhow, the only literary magazine I read religiously is Poet & Writers. The back section is fully devoted to conferences, publishers, publishing opportunities in other magazines, contests, writing workshops, writing Mfa's, and probably some other stuff I can't recall.

Anyhow that's what I suggest:
Poets & Writers magazine. here's their website.
[URL=http://www.pw.org/mag/]Poets & Writers[/URL]

I am too very much interested in trying for publication. Not that I realistically expect anything to happen, but it'd just be nice to have tried. The problem is that I can't start small since naturally no one in Bulgaria would publish anything in English. So I would probably first try for some internet literary magzine. But I would stil prefer it to be one that is read by more than two people including the editor. And money would be cool too. I would love to try out both my poetry and my short stories.

Any suggestions? It would be best if there is anything that has a special rubric or is especially dedicated to people whose first language is not English, but something tells me I won't find anything like this.

You'd be surprised, stoyan. I know for a fact that there are some mags out there that specialize in translations, so I'm sure there have got to be something along those lines for you. It's all about finding which ones suit you. Check out the link below and click on member directory. There's a ton of lit mags that are a part of this organization and there are undoubtedly a few that would love to have a piece written by a bulgarian in English. One thing I can't say enough though is don't lose heart if you've been rejected. It sucks, but it happens to everyone and if you continue to persevere, you'll get somewhere eventually.

[url]http://www.clmp.org/[/url]

I wouldn't mind the first few letters of rejection at all actually I mean it's like getting your nose broken for the first time in a boxing match. At first it hurts, but then again, the earlier, the better.

funny this should be a thread: Lately, Saturdays have been slow at work. So, I`ve been picking up magazines (instead of books because people question what im reading, and a book can sometimes maintain and even heighten conversation longer than any 2 page `quick-zine`. and id much prefer to [B]not[/B] associate with others while im in my cozy corner, saturday solitude) to alleviate the heaviness of the day...I picked up [URL=http://www.kitchensinkmag.com/index.php]Kitchen Sink[/URL] quarterly print magazine. (theyre website is much more colourful than the actual mag, come to find)

To be honest, Im not too sure if I like it. More honestly, I havent read much of it. Even more clear is that Im either not interested, or my Saturdays are more busy than I chock out. Either way, it could just be that Ive not paid much attention to it, or this issue sucks.
Ill definately buy it again, give it another try.

This thread will be a good resource

[QUOTE=Minuet]funny this should be a thread: Lately, Saturdays have been slow at work. So, I`ve been picking up magazines (instead of books because people question what im reading, and a book can sometimes maintain and even heighten conversation longer than any 2 page `quick-zine`. and id much prefer to [B]not[/B] associate with others while im in my cozy corner, saturday solitude) to alleviate the heaviness of the day...I picked up [URL=http://www.kitchensinkmag.com/index.php]Kitchen Sink[/URL] quarterly print magazine. (theyre website is much more colourful than the actual mag, come to find)

To be honest, Im not too sure if I like it. More honestly, I havent read much of it. Even more clear is that Im either not interested, or my Saturdays are more busy than I chock out. Either way, it could just be that Ive not paid much attention to it, or this issue sucks.
Ill definately buy it again, give it another try.

This thread will be a good resource :)[/QUOTE]
Heyyyyyyyy, opinions!!! Thanks for the heads up, Minnie. I've never heard of Kitchen Sink, but I'm always looking for new ones. Then again, maybe not if this one isn't so hot.

Word on the street is that once you've made it a few times, shoot for the big boys. One of which would be All Story. I've only read an issue of this one, but definitely worthwhile stuff. Now, keep in mind I'm new to this whole lit mag thing and tell me more about which mags are good and which ones belong in the bin.

[QUOTE=Rents]Heyyyyyyyy, opinions!!! Thanks for the heads up, Minnie. I've never heard of Kitchen Sink, but I'm always looking for new ones. Then again, maybe not if this one isn't so hot.

Word on the street is that once you've made it a few times, shoot for the big boys. One of which would be All Story. I've only read an issue of this one, but definitely worthwhile stuff. Now, keep in mind I'm new to this whole lit mag thing and tell me more about which mags are good and which ones belong in the bin.[/QUOTE]
damn it, i typed `theyre` instead of `their` in my more recent post. hate when i do that. for shame
theres a piece in KS I am going to scan and post. it makes me curious. maybe you guys have heard of it. too lazy (just got off work) to do it now, but figured Id put a teaser here for now. If ya wanna look at it that way

ha ha!

all i know is i'm in love Minuet's new Avatar.

But also thanks for the info. .

Ok, so i said fuck scanning it, but i may do it later....

i searched it on the net from the add in KS (godamn it! i wanna scan it now. so i guess Im scanning it)

also, heres the link that I looked up due to not wanting to scan it right away, and what caused me to scan it anyways, sooner than later.

[URL=http://www.tmcm.com/]Link [/URL]
Mother fuck, I hate websites that do that. They make a webiste that hasnt an index to open direct links, you have to search. (well, you dont have to) Im not lazy anymore, so heres how to get to the fun little thing I saw and grew more attached to the mag because of:
Open the link above > Click on either the picture of the cartoon butt man or click on Buy Stuff (youre not buying shit unless you want to, but heres how to.. ..just keep going > Search (up top, third click from the left, in Yellow, between account and product list) > Type in Palahniuk > There you go, click on the link they have there, only one. you cant get lost. and there you have TMCM #16. Im interested in seeing what they have in there.

Hows that for making up for what used to be lazy .?

Heres the scan too (if youre lazy too and dont want to go through the steps to see it on their site): (rather a picture i took of it - lazy is coming back, strong)

My opinion of TMCM isnt really that good. Its just not funny. At least not what I have seen. Im really not that hard to please.

[URL=http://www.swinkmag.com/index.html]Swink![/URL]

stuff's due by 4/1, get crackin'.

Have you read the first issue? What kind of stuff are they dealing in? Do you know if it's more for emerging artists or established ones?

dude, did you even click the link? editor's award for EMERGING writers??

Everytime I read the title of this thread, I think "Lit... like high? or like the band? or.. oh, [I]Lit[/I], as in short for literary..."

Ok, carry on.

[QUOTE=moe.ron]dude, did you even click the link? editor's award for EMERGING writers??[/QUOTE]
Heh, didn't see that part. But still, have you read the first issue at all? If so, what do you think?

Why do they all want me to mail the hardcopies? What's so difficult about emails? I mean sending an email is one thing but preparing all that stuff in hardcopy and then sending it out to the U.S. is much more complicated.

[QUOTE=stoyan]Why do they all want me to mail the hardcopies? What's so difficult about emails? I mean sending an email is one thing but preparing all that stuff in hardcopy and then sending it out to the U.S. is much more complicated.[/QUOTE]

I think if I remember correctly, and I very well could be wrong, but having a hard copy instead of an email is tied into the possibility of fraud or plagarism issues that might come up, and covering themselves in the long run, or in a court case.

Plus, this I do know for sure, it shows initiative. Anyone can email a story. Fewer people are going to go through the trouble of mailing a story out. To the place it looks more professional, and it does cut down on the possible number of submissions they have to read.

[QUOTE=stoyan]Why do they all want me to mail the hardcopies? What's so difficult about emails? I mean sending an email is one thing but preparing all that stuff in hardcopy and then sending it out to the U.S. is much more complicated.[/QUOTE]

There are still plenty of magazines out there that will accept email submissions. Just gotta find the right ones. It's a long, arduous process. Don't stop looking. My suggestion is that before you even start submitting get a list of like 50 mags you wouldn't mind being published in, then you can just work your way down the list.

On top of what Justin said, another big reason that a lot of places don't accept email submissions is because of potential viruses that could crash their system. And, of course, hardcopies are easy to transport.

Here's a link to one of the mag's listed above by Parkaboy. [url]http://absinthe-literary-review.com/[/url] Any more out there that people want to share?

That magazine looks great, thanks. Only thing is that they say they don't accept "high school fiction or poetry" but I guess I'll just leave the details of my age out of the thre-line bio they want... and besides, I think that's as unfair a discrimination as any other. Like, if they have a minimum age, why not have a maximum age, or a gender limitation... bastards. Anyway, I'll probably choose my best poems and send them. I'll tell you as soon as I do and as soon as I get any results.

I don't think they were really talking about age limits there. I think it was more like, "don't send us stories about senior prom and how bummed you were that your parents wouldn't lend you the car." They're looking for serious literature. And just so you know, that wasn't specifically intended for your use (not that you shouldn't use it), but there was a link further up the first page that goes to an organization of literary magazines. Check out the member's directory and you're bound to find some up your alley.

Yep, the links to other lit mags they had on that site are very very useful. I'll definitely send out my first submissions soon.

Try these for size ... it's a bit overwhelming and bewildering, butit's a numbers game.

Get your stuff out there.

Good luck

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[URL=http://newpages.com/]http://newpages.com/[/URL] has a pretty comprehensive list of lit mags, it seems. and of course there's always [URL=http://webdelsol.com]http://webdelsol.com[/URL], for general goings-on.

[QUOTE=Undertow]Whoops, nevermind. Um, while I'm here, no, I haven't really read any lit mags. I have, or had, this copy of Writer's Quarterly (I think that was the title) signed by Thomas Kennedy, but I seemed to have misplaced it.[/QUOTE]

Correction: It's [URL=http://www.StoryQuarterly.com]StoryQuarterly[/URL], and I found my copy -- issue 35, from 1999, with T.C. Boyle and autographed by Thomas E. Kennedy. I've barely read it though.