Best Short Fiction Literary Magazines in 2026

Print magazine for Short Fiction,

Islandia Journal is a subtropical print periodical of art and writing. We publish work by people from South Florida or by writers and artists whose work deals with our region. All contributors are paid - starting at $50 for poems and visual art and $100 for prose pieces of all kinds, scaling upwards depending on amount work or research involved.

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Print & Online magazine for Short Fiction,

For over sixty years, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine has been one of the foremost publishers of mystery, crime, and suspense short stories, offering mystery fiction of the broadest range and the highest quality.

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Print magazine for Short Fiction,

Southern Humanities Review publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. $1,000 and publication in SHR will be awarded annually to one poem of witness by an American poet. Full guidelines on our website.

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Online magazine for Short Fiction,

The Incandescent Review is an entirely non-profit, teen-run literary magazine, and our team hails from across the globe: from San Jose to Shanghai, from Atlanta to Athens. Our purpose is to create a platform for teens and young adults to express their opinions and emotional response to world issues in the form of poetry, prose, visual art, and more.

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Print & Online magazine for Short Fiction,

From its earliest days in 1977 under the editorial direction of Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine has maintained the tradition of publishing the best stories, unsurpassed in modern science fiction, from award-winning authors and first-time writers alike.

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Print magazine for Short Fiction,

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, founded in 1949, is the award-winning SF magazine which is the original publisher of SF classics like Stephen King's "Dark Tower", Daniel Keyes's "Flowers for Algernon", and Walter M. Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz."

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Print & Online magazine for Short Fiction,

Founded by Stevan V. Nikolic and Adelaide Franco Nikolic in 2015, the magazine’s aim is to publish quality poetry, fiction, nonfiction, artwork, and photography, as well as interviews, articles, and book reviews, written in English and Portuguese.

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Online magazine for Short 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 Short Fiction,

Building on a tradition of excellence dating back to 1939, the Kenyon Review has evolved from a distinguished literary magazine to a pre-eminent arts organization. Today, KR is devoted to nurturing, publishing, and celebrating the best in contemporary writing. We're expanding the community of diverse readers and writers, across the globe, at every stage of their lives.

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Online magazine for Short 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 & Online magazine for Short Fiction,

On Spec adheres to a strong mandate that has served us well over the years. We discover and showcase quality works by predominantly Canadian writers and artists, in the genre we call “Fantastic” literature. We foster the growth of emerging writers in this genre, by offering support and direction through constructive criticism, education, mentoring, and manuscript development.

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Print magazine for Short Fiction,

We like stories that start quickly and have a strong narrative arc. Poems that are passionate about subject, language, and image are welcome, whether they are traditional or experimental, whether in formal or free verse (closed or open form). We publish all forms of creative nonfiction, from personal narrative to lyric essay to immersive journalism; we appreciate when an essay moves beyond the personal to tell us something new about the world.

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Print magazine for Short Fiction,

PROMPTED is a celebration of the power of inspiration, and the places our imagination can take us with the slightest nudge. Each story is inspired by a one-sentence prompt, and written in a single week.

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Online magazine for Short Fiction,

Based in Central Texas, The Raven Review is a literary magazine that publishes poetry and short fiction that explores the human experience through dark, atmospheric writing. Since 2019, the magazine has been publishing both seasoned and newbie writers with the explicit goal of helping them gain exposure.

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Print & Online magazine for Short Fiction,

Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine continues to bring together celebrated authors, new talent, and award-winning stories, poems, and articles, as it has since its launch in 1930. Originally published as Astounding Stories of Science Fiction, Analog remains the unparalleled literary magazine in the genre, and rewards readers with realistic stories that reflect both the highest standards of scientific accuracy and the far reaches of the imagination, as well as lively articles about current research on the cutting edge of science.

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