7 great places to submit for the thrifty and impatient

For this month’s list, we looked for journals with no submissions fees and typical response times of weeks rather than months.

All accept simultaneous submissions. Things can change, so make sure to read their guidelines carefully and take a look at previous issues to see if your story, essay or poems are a good fit.

Note: We are a creative writing school and compile these lists for the benefit of our students. We’re happy to answer questions about our courses but please don’t send us your publishing queries or submissions :). Instead, click on the green links to go to the publication’s website and look for their submissions page. For more great places to submit as well as our best tips on getting published, check out our other lists and resources.

 

On the Seawall is a US-based online “community gallery of new writing, art, and commentary” that publishes bi-monthly. They accept original or translated pieces of poetry, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, and cross-genre work. The limit is 3-6 poems for poetry submissions and 3-5 pieces for flash prose, whereas they have no specific limit for longer prose. Their response time is fast, and they are open for submissions year-round. They are currently soliciting prose pieces about “Poems Not Written” – short narratives “about decisions not to engage or not to engage further. What underlies our hesitations? What do we seek to avoid? What do we renounce?”

 

Third Wednesday is a US based journal that is published quarterly in print and online. They accept fiction and poetry, and are open to all genres and styles. You can submit  up to three poems per submission for poetry and one flash fiction piece no longer than 1000 words. Payment is $3 per published piece and a print copy of the issue in which your work appears. Submissions are open year-round, but may close briefly to to avoid backlogs. They usually respond within a month.

 

Stone Circle Review is an online poetry journal that publishes new poems weekly, and intends to “share poems that, like seeds, find the seams between stones and take root”. Poetry of all genres and styles are welcome, and the response time is within four weeks. They nominate accepted poems for the Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. Please submit only one poem per submission.

 

Wrong Turn Lit is a monthly online magazine that is looking “to be entertained, or made slightly uncomfortable, but most importantly, left in awe of what you can do with a sentence”. They only accept submissions of flash fiction and creative non-fiction under 1000 words, and will respond within one or two months. Writers whose work is accepted get a complementary one year subscription to the journal. They are open for submissions all year round, and encourage writers to submit “what they’re too afraid to show anyone else”.

 

Club Plum is an online quarterly journal that is “a haven for the broken and salve for the wounded. A place to speak. A place to listen. In other words, it’s home”. They are looking for daring and exciting work – and currently accept works of creative non-fiction up to 3000 words (including lyric essays), flash fiction up to 800 words, up to three pieces of prose poetry and hybrid writing per submission. The response time is quick, and they nominate accepted works for Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes.

 

trampset is an online journal that publishes on a rolling basis, and welcomes “all tramps, diverse voices, including writers working outside academia”. They are looking for short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction as long as it is “something that resonates, that hasn’t been put forth in the same way dozens of times before”. For prose submissions, the limit is 3000 words (and up to three flash fiction pieces), and up to three poems per submission. They respond within 3 months, and often within weeks, and pay 25 USD per accepted piece. They also nominate selected works for the Best of the Net anthology. Their submissions are open all year round.

 

Front Porch Review is an American online quarterly magazine that is looking to construct an “electronic front porch displaying the significant artistic work of our older generation, men and women coming late to the creativity game but still with something of value to express”. They are looking for fiction, poetry, and essays that “appeal to the older segment of American society”. They respond within a month, and writers can send one prose piece (between 1000-5000 words) and 1-5 poems per submission. They have some specific content guidelines for what exactly they are looking for in fiction and poetry that they publish, so be sure to check their website before submission. They are open for submissions year-round.

 

Compiled by Duru Bayramoglu