TOP 1000 LITERARY MAGAZINES

This database includes more than 1000 literary magazines publishing fiction and/or creative non-fiction. Magazines publishing genre fiction and those with geographical restrictions tend not to be included.

 

The database also contains information on: cost of submission, pay, word limits, reading times, location of journal, journal description (taken from Twitter) and web address.

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If you have comments, suggestions, questions, please send them to: brecht_dp@protonmail.com

 

Putting this together was a lot of work. If you can, please consider supporting this project by buying me a coffee!

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Ranking methodology

 

The ranking is based primarily on prizes/anthologies and gives greatest weight to the Best American Short Stories, topped up with Pushcart winners and honourable mentions. Extra points are given for the Henry Prize for Short Fiction and the PEN DAU Short Story Prize, as well for featuring in the many web and flash fiction anthologies (Best of the Net, Wigleaf Top 50, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction).  For journals that do not figure in any of these anthologies, the number of Twitter followers is the only comparable statistic.

 

It's important to note that not all aspects of journal quality can be measured and that this is just one ranking amongst many. In the end, this is just additional information, a tool, to decide where to submit. The ranking is also very US-focused, so journals from other countries are at a disadvantage. 

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Components and weights:

• Best American Short Stories (weight = 90%): data for 2013-2022; 4 points for every featured story; 1 point for every notable story; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine). Part of the reason for giving BASS so much weight is that the New Yorker's score is so high that other journals pale into insignificance. 

• Pushcart (weight = 6.5%): data from Clifford Garstang; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine).

• O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction (weight = 1.4%): data for 2013-2022; 1 point for every featured story; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine).

• PEN DAU Short Story Prize (weight = 0.5%): data for 2017-2022; 1 point for every featured story; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine).

• Best of Net (weight = 0.5%): data for 2013-2022; 2 points for every winning story; 1 point for every finalist; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine).

• Wigleaf Top 50 (weight = 0.5%): data for 2013-2022; 1 point for every featured story; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine); note: special adjustment made for Wigleaf because they do not feature.

• Best Small Fictions (weight = 0.2%): 4 points for every spotlighted story; 1 point for every story in full selection; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine).

• Best Microfiction (weight = 0.2%): 1 point for each story featured; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine).

• Twitter followers (weight 0.2%): follower count on 15 January 2023; normalised to 1 (where 1 = top magazine).

 

This version: 21 January 2023