5 Great Literary Journals To Submit Your Short Stories To As A First Timer

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We’ve done flash fiction, we’ve done poetry, and now it’s your turn, short story writers! Here are five great places to submit. All the entries on our list are friendly to emerging writers, have no required fees and are open to simultaneous submissions. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

The Lascaux Review provides a showcase for emerging and established writers. Lascaux (rhymes with “Bordeaux”) seeks short stories (and poems) that are ‘comprehensible and that appeal to a broad audience’. Why we love them: they pay $100 per published story (or poem/poetry group); they nominate work for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and others; and they sponsor annual contests in poetry, fiction & flash fiction.
The Fiction Pool is a UK-based journal and relative newcomer to the lit mag scene, but they’ve already established a good reputation for their timely responses and attractive, high-quality, online publication. They’re looking for bold and daring short stories (and poetry and flash fiction). They aim to respond within four weeks.
Literally Stories pride themselves on their international scope. They accept stories between 500 and 3000 words (so, flash fiction writers, this is for you too). Why we’re a fan: they often provide feedback if a story is a near miss and the proceeds from their anthology go to the Book Bus, a nonprofit with the aim of improving child literacy rates in Africa, Asia and South America.
Structo is another UK-based journal but with an Amsterdam-based editor (Euan Monaghan whom you may remember from the NL launch of the excellent Freeman’s). They accept short stories of up to approximately 3,000 words and are interested in both original stories and new translations of non-English language texts (and poetry).
Eunoia Review accepts fiction and poetry (including reprints if you have the rights to your work) and they aim to respond to all submissions within 24 hours! Another distinguishing feature: their generous word count. You can submit up to 15,000 words as one single long story or several shorts.

8 August 2022

25 responses on "5 great places to submit your short stories"

Ryan 21 June 2018 at 10:52 Reply

Phenomenally useful post! If you’re intending to update it at any point, I’d love to put forward Ash Tales for inclusion.

Based in the UK, we publish original post apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, exploring the end of the world in short ~2,000 word stories and 20-minute narrated podcast episodes. Ash Tales accepts submissions year-round, and there’s no cost for submission 🙂

Thanks in advance!

IWC Staff 21 June 2018 at 11:05 Reply

Thanks, Ryan. We’ll definitely be checking out Ash Tales and cool that there’s an audio component (very War of the Worlds). Clearly we need to do a post on great places to submit speculative fiction.

Pamela davies28 February 2019 at 15:54 Reply

I have written 14 short children adventure stories. Adventures in lots of countries. I have a series of 12. Ready. But don’t know what to do next. Any help would be appreciated.
IWC Staff 28 February 2019 at 22:00 Reply

Hi Pamela,
Maybe this post helps: https://internationalwriterscollective.com/deciding-where-to-submit. Duotrope (#2 on the list) would be a good option for you – it includes a database of agents and if you’re interested in submitting to magazines, you can search for those aimed at kids. Good luck!
Drew Martyn12 April 2019 at 13:41 Reply

Hi! I found this page immediately after looking at Ash Tales’ website and wondering whether I should create a post-apocalyptic story – I’ve been toying with the idea for a while but I tend to veer towards the dark and supernatural and have never really got around to thinking about it seriously.
But synchronicity, eh? I’d better get my head together on this and start one soon (thanks Ryan!).
Yes, this is a tremendous post, informative and definitely useful (as is the link in the reply to Pamela), thank you so much.
Cheers!! 🙂
Hithesh19 April 2019 at 23:07 Reply

Hi I am a budding writer from India , at present i have a short movie script ready, I want some constructive feedback can i get help ?
mehrnaz5 May 2019 at 17:56 Reply

hi, im from iran. do you consider a short drama story in persian ? or i have to translate that to english and then sent to you ?
Anita31 May 2019 at 15:37 Reply

Hello, I am from Iran. I have written a great short and literary English story. Would you please help me how to publish it and what is the best journal.
Pranjal17 July 2019 at 12:43 Reply

Thank you for your informative article. It is a great help for me.
Jenny17 August 2019 at 18:04 Reply

This is a great list, thanks.
Do you have a web address for Freeman’s? I can’t seem to do the right search. I tried Euan Monaghan + Freeman’s, but it didn’t help.
IWC Staff 17 August 2019 at 19:36 Reply

The web address for Freeman’s is: https://www.freemansbiannual.com. They don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Nathasitha wongchanta2 November 2019 at 06:36 Reply

I have been writing 12 short stories of spiritual sci-fi. 2 got published in Thailand. Really want to translate them into English and get them posted in the journal.
Jim F27 December 2019 at 16:46 Reply

I have just started writing short stories this year and have completed two and two further flash fiction. The style is a little like Dahl, Woolf, Somerset Maughan etc. Any ideas for publishing this type of easy reading with a twist fiction!
Ginny South 11 January 2020 at 06:08 Reply

Greetings, Having just completed my first short story, my interest went to see what’s next…here I am! Excited as my idea popped up right as we hit 2020. It’s a real life story with no names yet much in relation to my satirical narrative of becoming in the last 60 years; including life and experiences therein. Its light, humorous but my point is serious in nature. I addressed the world at large in the Awakened 2020 year including The Age of Aquarius that we are in now. I enjoyed writing about this and to live life with the Highest Intention seems most powerful a way of getting some attention where it is so important and necessary. Thanks for the space in spirit! Looking forward to possibly hearing from you. Ginny South
Cheryl2 August 2020 at 16:26 Reply

Hi my name is Cheryl I m looking forward to become
a FreeLance Writer. I have never written stories before I just love to write Fiction,Non-Fiction,or Murder Mystery’s . Do you think you can help me become a writer.
Kayden Milnes14 January 2021 at 14:39 Reply

My name is Kayden and I’m 14 years old. I’ve created a book, but I don’t know where to publish it. Could you help me?

Frank Dittmar 26 January 2021 at 15:30 Reply

I stumbled across this old(ish) article the other day: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/learning/out-of-the-classroom-and-into-the-world-70-plus-places-to-publish-teenage-writing-and-art.html

Namita Mukherjee12 March 2021 at 15:42 Reply

I have been writing stories on women’s emancipation. I would like to publish.
Please help me.Namita
Sana Chettiar13 June 2022 at 14:43 Reply

Nice article.

Would request if you could add Little Authors @ http://www.littleauthors.in/ in your article which is a great place for young adults to publish their stories and poems.
Chip 5 August 2022 at 16:07 Reply

“The Fiction Pool” link is troubling – first, it redirects to an age-verification page that states
“Age Verification
This dating site is for adults only.
You can register for free to access the profiles.”
And the URL is thefictionpool.com

Then, if you do click the link that says “Enter and register for free” Malwarebytes (which I have installed) flags it/blocks it with this message:
“Website blocked due to fraud

Website blocked: justlarge.com
Malwarebytes Browser Guard blocked this website because it may contain malware activity.
We strongly recommend you do not continue.”

At that point, I simply close the browser tab and give up on The Fiction Pool.
IWC Staff 8 August 2022 at 14:29 Reply

Chip,
Thank you for letting us know.
We don’t normally go back to posts to modify changed links but in this case, given the subject matter, we did and changed it to the (currently active, just verified by us) working URL: https://thefictionpool.wordpress.com/ (Closed for new submissions now though – August ’22)

All the best.
Freshta Azimi22 March 2023 at 03:38 Reply

hi🙃
I am Freshta from Afghanistan.
I love reading and writing. I write short realistic stories in English. Searching for a good journal which is intrested in publishing and paying.🤓😁
Syed Khaja Mohinuddin24 May 2023 at 10:51 Reply

Dear IWC team,
I have a short fictional story in my mind best for animation/cartoon movie.
kindly let me know how can i proceed with it.
Thanks
Syed
Meadow26 August 2023 at 03:33 Reply

Hi
How can I send my short story to be published in your magazine?
I would be grateful if you could give me the e-mail address of the magazine publisher.
Maggie Bayne14 September 2023 at 20:49 Reply

I’ve been writing short stories for several years, most seriously in the last two years. I have had 4 published and a total of 28 finished. I keep sending them out and waiting for responses. Is there a better way?