Best Fiction Literary Magazines in 2026

Print & Online magazine for Fiction,

Boulevard's mission is to publish the finest in contemporary fiction and poetry as well as definitive essays on the arts and culture, and to publish a diversity of writers who exhibit an original sensibility.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

Arguably America's most esteemed journal of humor writing. Submission to be made separately for their web and print editions. Short stories, flash fiction, and personal essays are not something we typically run on the website. Instead, we're in the market for short, conceptual humor. We strongly recommend reading through our archives to get a sense of the style of writing we're after.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

The Oxford American is a nonprofit, quarterly literary magazine dedicated to featuring the best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Over its quarter century, the Oxford American has won four National Magazine Awards — including an award for General Excellence in 2016.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

Confrontation Magazine began operation in 1968 with the mission of bringing new talent to light in the shadows cast by well-known authors. Open to all submissions, each issue contains original work by famous and by lesser-known writers.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

Founded in 1972 and “known for publishing important new writers early in their careers” (PEN), AGNI discovers stories, poems, and essays that map our pressured interiority and respond in necessary ways to the bedeviled state of the world. Six contributors have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

It's time to see your name in print! Send us your previously-unpublished submissions for inclusion in Mslexia. There are 14 opportunities to submit for women writers of all specialisms: poetry, fiction and non-fiction, with five slots kept solely for subscribers to the magazine.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

Harper's Magazine, the oldest general-interest monthly in America, explores the issues that drive our national conversation, through long-form narrative journalism and essays. With its emphasis on fine writing and original thought Harper's provides readers with a unique perspective on politics, society, the environment, and culture. Non-fiction authors must query the magazine before submission.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

We publish two print issues a year of compelling poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction by established writers and new voices alike. We're global in scope, but with a regional bias. Over the years, we've been privileged to feature work by Wendell Berry, Louise Erdrich, Richard Hugo, Seamus Heaney, James Welch, Patricia Goedicke, James Lee Burke, Chris Offutt, Aimee Bender, Steve Almond, and a number of other writers whose work we're fond of.

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Print & Online magazine for Fiction,

The Dark Sire is an online magazine for short fiction, poetry, and art in the subgenres of Fantasy, Gothic, Horror & Psychological Realism

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Print magazine for Fiction,

Nimrod International Journal, founded in 1956 at The University of Tulsa, has been active in the discovery and publication of new writers for more than 60 years. Nimrod has also encouraged and rewarded new writers for more than 30 years through The Nimrod Literary Awards.

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Online magazine for Fiction,

Invisible City is an online publication of the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco that publishes in the fall and spring. We seek work that encourages us to see the world from new perspectives and different angles, ones that we may not have previously considered or imagined.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

Hayden’s Ferry Review looks for well-crafted work that takes risks, challenges readers, and engages us emotionally and artistically. A small portion of our publication is solicited from established authors, while the majority of our contributors are chosen from the thousands of manuscripts we receive each year.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

From its inception in prohibition, through depression and war, in prosperity and peace, the Virginia Quarterly Review has been a haven for the best essayists, fiction writers, and poets, seeking contributors from every section of the United States and abroad. It has not limited itself to any special field. No topic has been alien: literary, public affairs, the arts, history, the economy. If it could be approached through essay or discussion, poetry or prose, VQR has covered it.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

We began as a free print pamphlet featuring just one short story. Now we're a pocket-sized monthly magazine — still free — with a handful of short stories and the occasional spot of nonfiction and poetry for the reading pleasure of London commuters. We aim to discover emerging writers and give them a platform to be read alongside stalwarts of the literary scene.

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Print & Online magazine for Fiction,

For over half a century Shenandoah has been publishing splendid poems, stories, essays and reviews which display passionate understanding, formal accomplishment and serious mischief.

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