Best Fiction Literary Magazines in 2026

Print & Online magazine for Fiction,

Witness blends the features of a literary and an issue-oriented magazine to highlight the role of the modern writer as witness to their times.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

In 1997, Francis Ford Coppola launched Zoetrope: All-Story, a quarterly magazine devoted to the best new short fiction and one-act plays.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

The Sun is an independent, ad-free magazine that for more than forty years has used words and photographs to evoke the splendor and heartache of being human. The personal essays, short stories, interviews, poetry, and photographs that appear in The Sun's pages explore the challenges we face and the moments when we rise to meet them.

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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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Online magazine for Fiction,

Shorts is a free online magazine launched in February 2020 with the aim of bringing together writers and creative artists from all over the world. Shorts particularly encourages submissions from marginalised communities, and from new and emerging writers. Shorts was established in a time of growing isolationism on the part of the UK and the US, and aims to combat this by uniting global creatives and nurturing unheard voices. It is an LGBTQ+ friendly platform with a liberal outlook.

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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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Online magazine for Fiction,

A new literary and art magazine dedicated to showcasing emerging artists and writers.

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Print & Online magazine for Fiction,

Commonweal's mission is to provide a forum for civil, reasoned debate on the interaction of faith with contemporary politics and culture. Read by a passionate audience of educated, committed Catholics, as well as readers from many other faith traditions, Commonweal presents well-argued, respectful points of view from across the ideological spectrum.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

The first issue of the Orion Nature Quarterly was published in June 1982, and in its editorial George Russell, the publication's first Editor-in-Chief, boldly stated Orion's values: It is Orion's fundamental conviction that humans are morally responsible for the world in which we live, and that the individual comes to sense this responsibility as he or she develops a personal bond with nature.

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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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Online magazine for Fiction,

An award-winning monthly literary magazine that focuses on strong writing and captivating stories (fiction and narrative nonfiction), regardless of genre or author pedigree.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

The Chicago Quarterly Review is a nonprofit, independent literary journal publishing the finest short stories, poems, translations and essays by both emerging and established writers. We're proud to have had work from our pages chosen for Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize Anthology as we continue our mission to stimulate, entertain, and inspire.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

Alaska Quarterly Review publishes fiction, short plays, poetry, photo essays, and literary non-fiction in traditional and experimental styles. Although we publish established writers, most of our content comes from unsolicited submissions and the editors are committed to publishing new and emerging writers.

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Online magazine for Fiction,

Uncanny Magazine is an online Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine featuring passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, provocative nonfiction, and a deep investment in the diverse SF/F culture. Each issue contains intricate, experimental stories and poems with verve and imagination that elicit strong emotions and challenge beliefs, from writers of every conceivable background.

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Print magazine for Fiction,

The Pinch was founded in 1980 as the Memphis State Review by William Page. In its first few years, the journal published such well-known writers as Robert Bly, Phillip Levine, Mary Oliver, Robert Penn Warren, and Margaret Atwood.

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