How To Submit Your Writing To And Get It Published In Literary Journal

Leo Migdal

-Nov 20, 2025, 3:26 PM

how to submit your writing to and get it published in literary journal

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A photo of several literary journals and an antique typewriter on my home bookshelf. Photo by Payton Hayes. You’re going to want to get your bookmark button ready because there’s a ton of useful links in this post! 🔖 If you’re reading this blog post, you’re probably a creative or literary writer looking to share your work with the world! Whether you’re a seasoned author or debut writer, literary journals (also called literary magazines) are a great way to get your work out there!

Literary journals are periodicals that are committed to publishing the work of writers at all stages of their careers. Most literary journals publish poetry, prose, flash fiction, and essays, but many of them publish photography, paintings, and other visual art as well! With 2023 wrapping up and the new year just around the corner, I thought it would be helpful to share some amazing resources for writers looking to submit their work in 2024! Many literary journals are still accepting submissions into 2024 and there are plenty of publications looking for high-quality writing for their next issue! Below is an in-depth guide for submitting your writing as well as a list of my top Oklahoma-based literary journals that I’d recommend submitting to! First off, do your research!

The next couple of points go hand-in-hand with this idea, but to ensure the best possible chance at success with your submissions, it is crucial to conduct thorough market and publisher research rather than... According to Poets & Writers, “Your publishing success rests on one axiom: Know your market.” 📖 Explore live writing courses starting every week! View Courses » Rudri Patel | August 26, 2025 | 6 Comments For the last few months, you’ve opened the document on your computer and spent time constructing sentences, reading, researching, and working on the right metaphor for your poem, short story, or nonfiction essay.

This writing is done in isolation, with no one witnessing late nights, pages of revision, and of course, frustration. You’ve finally revised your story for the hundredth time, and after feedback from your trusted critique group, you believe your story is ready for publication in literary journals. But, what is a literary journal, and how do you submit to one? In other words, the writing is done: what are the next steps? Let’s explore how to submit to literary journals, as well as some great literary journals to submit to. A literary journal is a publication that features creative work which can include fiction, nonfiction, photography, poetry, book reviews and/or artistic drawings.

It can be online or in-print. Some literary journals are affiliated with a university or academic institution. Literary journals are usually staffed with volunteers and funding is generally through donations. These journals tend to feature lesser known artists and offer publication to emerging writers. This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use. This section of the OWL seeks to demystify the process of submitting creative work to literary magazines. We’ll review topics such as how to figure out what to submit in the first place, how to find good potential homes for your work, and how to maximize your chances for acceptance.

We’ve also included examples of writing relevant to the submission process such a cover letter and a biography as well as an acceptance and rejection letter to provide a look into what correspondence with... You’ve done it! Whether it was a lightning bolt of inspiration or weeks (months? years?) of writing and revising, you’ve crafted a piece of creative writing you’re proud of. Maybe it’s a sestina; maybe it’s a lyric essay. Whatever it is, you want to get it published.

Reasons for publication are numerous: wanting to see what others think of your work, seeking a way to bulk up your CV, or hoping for a chance to get some hard-earned cash, just to... Regardless of if you’ve submitted 100 times before or this is your first time, this resource will help you navigate the submission process. We’ll start by thinking through what you can submit in the first place. Next, we’ll move into thinking about where to submit, considering strategies for finding places to submit in the first place as well as how to discern whether or not a particular publication is a... After, we’ll think through the logistics of how to submit and talk through an example cover letter and biography (written materials you’ll almost certainly be asked to include in your submission). Finally, we’ll discuss what happens after you submit and review a few example rejection letters as well as an example acceptance letter.

This latest essay topic on writing was selected by my amazing subscribers in my subscriber chat. So, if you’d like to weigh in on next month’s craft essay, consider subscribing and tuning in to the chat. If you care more about getting published than you do about the quality of your work, it’s unlikely publication will ever be a regular occurrence for you, if it ever happens at all. I say this, not as a harsh judgement, but as a lesson I myself had to learn. There was a time when I was obsessed with publication—when I was churning out piece after piece just so I could package them up and submit them. It’s unsurprising that those efforts yielded no results (it also made writing a lot less joyful).

Eventually, despondent, I decided to take a break from the submission game and just focus on improving as a writer. I took online classes with Gotham Writers Workshop, Grub Street, and Smokelong, all of which I cannot recommend highly enough. I got feedback on my work. I edited my pieces once, twice, three, four times. I identified my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. I focused on improving my weaknesses and leaning into my strengths.

After about a year of not submitting and just focusing on my craft, I wrote something that I loved. I submitted it. It was accepted for publication. Since then I have had pieces accepted and published by Cleaver, Chestnut Review, Fractured, F(r)iction, Grim & Gilded, Gramarye, Ghost Parachute, and more. Running a literary magazine or journal takes time and care, so if you expect to be published by a reputable venues above all the hundreds, or even thousands, of other submissions they receive, you... When I first started submitting, I just submitted pieces scattershot to any magazine I could find open on Submittable.

This resulted in me submitting a comedy piece about smoking weed to Guernica, no joke. I was not a part of any literary or writing community so I had no idea which journals were which. But, over time, I discovered some resources that helped me more accurately target my submissions to magazines that were a good fit. I’ll describe each of those resources below: As a writer or poet looking to share your work with the world, finding open literary journal submissions can feel overwhelming. With so many platforms logging submission opportunities—like ChillSubs, Submission Grinder, and Submittable—it’s easy to get lost in an endless sea of options.

If you’re new to submitting, the sheer volume of calls for submissions and their varying requirements can be intimidating. But don’t worry—I’ve been there! Through submitting over 150 pieces (with 60+ acceptances), I’ve developed a system that simplifies the process. Here’s how you can find and organize literary journal submissions like a pro. My first submission outside of my college was an anthology call I found on Instagram. Inspired by the theme, I wrote and submitted a poem—and soon, I had my first published piece.

This experience taught me that social media is a goldmine for finding submission opportunities. Many publications post submission calls on their Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook pages, giving you insight into their aesthetic and themes. Follow publications that resonate with you so you never miss an open call! If you’re unsure where to start, here are a few literary magazines that frequently have open submissions and unique themes: The Infinite Blues Review (@theinfinitebluesreview) Vellichor Literary Magazine (@vellichor_lit)

Storytelling is the heartbeat of great fiction, weaving intricate threads of emotion, character, and plot to captivate audiences. At its core, effective storytelling in fiction hinges on a masterful blend of essential elements that elevate narratives from ordinary to... Understanding the narrative perspective in fiction is a cornerstone of literary analysis, offering insights into how authors construct stories and engage readers. Whether through first-person narratives, omniscient viewpoints, or limited perspectives, the narrative... Mastering Plot Development: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Compelling StoriesHave you ever wondered how some stories captivate you from the very first page? While great characters and vivid settings are undeniably crucial, it’s the underlying...

If you’ve ever wondered about the process of literary journal submissions (aka “literary magazine submissions”), this blog may be able to answer some of your questions about how to get published in these types... Recently, Authors Publish magazine offered a free talk from writer Shannon Mann titled “How to Increase Your Chance of Literary Magazine Acceptance.” (You can view the entire recording HERE). Listening to Shannon speak reminded me of my own days in graduate school, as a fiction submissions reader for Southeastern Review and of my experience submitting poetry to various online and print publications. (You can check out my published poetry on THIS page). I am also fortunate enough to remain friends with some incredible creative writers of short stories, essays, poetry, and more, and witness their successes (and struggles!) with publication in journals and magazines. In this blog, I’ve compiled an overview and provided some insight into how to get published in literary magazines and journals.

How To Submit Your Writing To And Get It Published In Literary Journal

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