Writers should get paid for their work. Unfortunately, that can be an uphill battle. Most literary magazines don't pay, but there are some that offer professional rates for fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.
Here are twenty-six literary magazines that pay $100 and up for fiction and personal essays. (Poetry rates vary.) None charge submission fees. Nearly all have reading periods, so check their guidelines carefully.
For hundreds of paying markets, broken down by genre, see: Paying Markets.
________________
Boulevard
"Boulevard strives to publish only the finest in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. While we frequently publish writers with previous credits, we are very interested in less experienced or unpublished writers with exceptional promise. If you have practiced your craft and your work is the best it can be, send it to Boulevard." Submissions accepted between November 1 and May 1. $3 to submit online. No charge for postal submissions.
Payment: Prose minimum is $100, maximum is $300. Poetry minimum is $25, maximum is $250.
________________
Capilano Review
The Capilano Review is a Canadian journal that publishes art, poetry, fiction, essays and interviews commissioned by the editor, as well as a small selection of unsolicited poetry and prose. See reading periods.
Payment: $50 per published page to a maximum of $200.
________________
The Sun Magazine
"We publish essays, interviews, fiction, and poetry. We tend to favor personal writing, but we’re also looking for provocative pieces on political and cultural issues." They rarely run anything longer than seven thousand words; there’s no minimum length. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged.
Payment: Personal Essays $300 to $2,000; Fiction $300 to $2,000; Poetry $100 to $250.
________________
West Branch Magazine
West Branch Magazine is a publication of Bucknell University. They publish personal essays, poetry and fiction. They pay upon publication. See submission periods.
Payment: $50 per poem, 5 cents per word for prose with a maximum payment of $100.
________________
AGNI
Accepts poetry and prose. "We look for writing that catches experience before the crusts of habit form—poetry and prose that resist ideas about what a certain kind of writing “should do.” We seek out writers who tell their truths in their own words and convince us as we read that we’ve found something no one else could have written." See submission periods.
Payment: $10 per printed (or printed-out) page for accepted prose, and $20 per page for accepted poetry, up to a maximum of $150.
________________
Colorado Review
Accepts poetry of any style, personal essays, and fiction. Submit no more than five poems with a maximum of 15 pages. Colorado Review prefers short stories and essays that are somewhere between 15 and 25 manuscript pages. No submission fee for mailed submissions.
Payment: $10 per page ($30 minimum) for poetry and $200 for short stories and essays.
________________
Grain
Poems, sequences, or suites of poems up to a maximum of six pages or fiction or nonfiction of no more than 3,500 words. See reading periods.
Payment: $50 per page to a maximum of $250.
________________
Nashville Review
Accepts fiction and poetry. "Nashville Review seeks to publish the best work we can get our hands on, period. From expansive to minimalist, narrative to lyric, epiphanic to subtle—if it’s a moving work of art, we want it." See reading periods.
Payment: $100/story, $25/poem.
________________
Highlights Magazine
Highlights is a magazine for children ages 6-12. Genre: Poems up to 10 lines, especially non-rhyming and/or humorous poetry. No poems with nature or seasonal themes or poems about dogs. Also publish short stories (see guidelines for current themes), puzzles, articles, activities, and cartoons.
Payment: $40 and up for poems, crafts, and puzzles, and $175 and up for fiction and nonfiction.
________________
The Puritan
The Puritan is one of Canada’s premier online literary magazines. Based in Toronto, and founded in late 2006, The Puritan is committed to publishing the best in new fiction, poetry, interviews, essays, reviews, and more, from both Canada and abroad — and has published many of today’s finest literary talents.
Payment: $100 per interview, $200 per essay, $100 per review, $150 per work of fiction, and $25 per poem (or page, capped at $80 for poems running four pages or more).
________________
The Threepenny Review
The Threepenny Review is a respected literary magazine publishing fiction and poetry. Their nonreading period is July 1 through December 31.
Payment: $200/poem, $400/story.
________________
VQR
"VQR strives to publish the best writing we can find. While we have a long history of publishing accomplished and award-winning authors, we also seek and support emerging writers. We read unsolicited fiction, poetry, and nonfiction submissions June 15 to July 15, and October 1 to November 1 each year through our Submittable portal. We read nonfiction pitches from June 15 to December 1." Note: Genre fiction not accepted.
Payment: $200 per poem, up to 4 poems; for a suite of 5 or more poems, payment is $1,000. For short fiction, $1,000. For other prose, such as personal essays and literary criticism, $1,000 and above, at approximately 25 cents per word, depending on length. Online content is generally paid at $100-$200, depending upon genre and length.
________________
The Georgia Review
Founded in 1947, The Georgia Review is the University of Georgia’s journal of arts and letters. The journal has twice taken a top prize in the annual National Magazine Awards competition, winning out over the likes of the Atlantic, Esquire, the New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, and has been a finalist twenty times in various categories.
Payment: $50 per printed page for prose and $4 per line for poetry. Essay-reviews and standard reviews earn $50/printed page. In addition, all contributors receive a one-year subscription to The Georgia Review. No fee to submit by regular mail. Fee to submit online, no fee by post.
________________
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld Magazine is a Hugo, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine that publishes short stories, interviews, articles and audio fiction. Issues are published monthly in ebook format, and via electronic subscription. All original fiction is also published in our trade paperback series from Wyrm Publishing. Currently open for art, non-fiction and short story submissions. No simultaneous submissions.
Payment: 10¢ per word. Length: 1000-22000 words, no exceptions.
________________
Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov's Science Fiction is a renowned science fiction magazine. They are happy to publish new writers. Stories should be between 1,000 and 20,000 words.
Payment: 10 cents per word for the first 7,500 words, and 8 cents (per word) for the rest of the story.
________________
Slice
SLICE, a New York-based literary nonprofit, was founded in 2007 by book editors Maria Gagliano and Celia Johnson. They publish fiction, poetry, and personal essays. Their reading period runs from October 1 – December 1, 2019.
Payment: $400 for long stories and essays, $150 for flash fiction, and $100 for poems.
________________
Litmag
Accepts poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. "What We Look For: Work that moves and amazes us.We are drawn to big minds, large hearts, sharp pens." Length: Print: 15,000 words; Online: 4,000 words. See submission periods.
Payment: Print: Upon acceptance, $1,000 for fiction or nonfiction; $250 for a poem, a group of short poems, or (the rare) short short. Online: Upon acceptance, $250.
________________
Bennington Review
Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing, and cross-genre work. "We aim to stake out a distinctive space for innovative, intelligent, and moving fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing, and cross-genre work. In the spirit of poet Dean Young’s dictum that poets should be “making birds, not birdcages,” we are particularly taken with writing that is simultaneously graceful and reckless." The next submissions period will be from November 1, 2019 to May 15, 2020.
Payment: $100 for prose of six pages and under, $200 for prose of over six pages, and $20 per poem, in addition to two copies of the issue the piece is published in.
________________
Lamplight
"We go for stories that are dark, literary; we are looking for the creepy, the weird and the unsettling. We do not accept stories with the following: vampires, zombies, werewolves, serial killers, hitmen, excessive gore or sex, excessive abuse against women, revenge fantasies, cannibals, high fantasy."
Payment: $0.03/word, up to $150. Accepts reprints.
________________
Gay
"What we love and want: cultural criticism; thoughtful, clever and beautiful personal essays; short fiction; original artwork and photography. We do *not* want even the best hot take you can imagine, and we will not publish news. We do not want you to cannibalize yourself. We are interested in provocative work but we are not interested in senseless provocation." See themes.
Payment: $1 a word for work up to 3,500 words in length.
________________
Chicken Soup for the Soul
"A Chicken Soup for the Soul story is an inspirational, true story about ordinary people having extraordinary experiences. It is a story that opens the heart and rekindles the spirit. It is a simple piece that touches our readers and helps them discover basic principles they can use in their own lives. These stories are personal and often filled with emotion and drama. They are filled with vivid images created by using the five senses. In some stories, the readers feel that they are actually in the scene with the people."
Payment: $200.
________________
Contemporary Verse 2
"Contemporary Verse 2 is a quarterly literary journal that publishes poetry and critical writing about poetry, including interviews, articles, essays, and reviews. It is our policy to publish new writing by both emerging and established poets. The writing we encourage reflects a diversity representing a range of social and cultural experience along with literary excellence." See reading periods.
Payment: $30 - $150.
________________
One Story
"One Story is seeking literary fiction. Because of our format, we can only accept stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words. They can be any style and on any subject as long as they are good. We are looking for stories that leave readers feeling satisfied and are strong enough to stand alone." See submission periods.
Payment: $500.
________________
The Gettysburg Review
"The Gettysburg Review, published by Gettysburg College, is recognized as one of the country’s premier literary journals. Since its debut in 1988, work by such luminaries as E. L. Doctorow, Rita Dove, James Tate, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Wilbur, and Donald Hall." Accepts poetry, art, fiction, and nonfiction.
Payment: Payment is upon publication: $2.50 per line for poetry, with a maximum of $250.00 for an individual poem, and $25.00 per printed page for prose. Published authors also receive a copy of the issue containing their work and a one-year subscription. Charges small fee for online submissions. No fee for snail mail.
________________
Antioch Review
Publishes nonfiction articles, fiction and poetry geared to an educated audience. "The Antioch Review, a small independent literary magazine founded in 1941 in a small town in the cornfields of Ohio, is one of the oldest, continuously publishing literary magazines in America. Publishing essays, fiction, and poetry from promising and prominent authors, the Antioch Review has an international readership and reputation of publishing the “best words in the best order” for over 75 years." See submission periods.
Payment: $20/page (about 425 words) plus 2 copies of the issue. Snail mail submissions only.
________________
Escape Pod
Science fiction - audio and text. "We are fairly flexible on what counts as science (we’ll delve into superheroes or steampunk on occasion) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre. We want stories that center on science, technology, future projections, and/or alternate history, and how any or all of these things intersect with people." Length: 1500-6000 words.
Payment: $0.06 per word for original fiction; $100.00 flat rate for reprints of any length.
Here are twenty-six literary magazines that pay $100 and up for fiction and personal essays. (Poetry rates vary.) None charge submission fees. Nearly all have reading periods, so check their guidelines carefully.
For hundreds of paying markets, broken down by genre, see: Paying Markets.
________________
Boulevard
"Boulevard strives to publish only the finest in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. While we frequently publish writers with previous credits, we are very interested in less experienced or unpublished writers with exceptional promise. If you have practiced your craft and your work is the best it can be, send it to Boulevard." Submissions accepted between November 1 and May 1. $3 to submit online. No charge for postal submissions.
Payment: Prose minimum is $100, maximum is $300. Poetry minimum is $25, maximum is $250.
________________
Capilano Review
The Capilano Review is a Canadian journal that publishes art, poetry, fiction, essays and interviews commissioned by the editor, as well as a small selection of unsolicited poetry and prose. See reading periods.
Payment: $50 per published page to a maximum of $200.
________________
The Sun Magazine
"We publish essays, interviews, fiction, and poetry. We tend to favor personal writing, but we’re also looking for provocative pieces on political and cultural issues." They rarely run anything longer than seven thousand words; there’s no minimum length. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged.
Payment: Personal Essays $300 to $2,000; Fiction $300 to $2,000; Poetry $100 to $250.
________________
West Branch Magazine
West Branch Magazine is a publication of Bucknell University. They publish personal essays, poetry and fiction. They pay upon publication. See submission periods.
Payment: $50 per poem, 5 cents per word for prose with a maximum payment of $100.
________________
AGNI
Accepts poetry and prose. "We look for writing that catches experience before the crusts of habit form—poetry and prose that resist ideas about what a certain kind of writing “should do.” We seek out writers who tell their truths in their own words and convince us as we read that we’ve found something no one else could have written." See submission periods.
Payment: $10 per printed (or printed-out) page for accepted prose, and $20 per page for accepted poetry, up to a maximum of $150.
________________
Colorado Review
Accepts poetry of any style, personal essays, and fiction. Submit no more than five poems with a maximum of 15 pages. Colorado Review prefers short stories and essays that are somewhere between 15 and 25 manuscript pages. No submission fee for mailed submissions.
Payment: $10 per page ($30 minimum) for poetry and $200 for short stories and essays.
________________
Grain
Poems, sequences, or suites of poems up to a maximum of six pages or fiction or nonfiction of no more than 3,500 words. See reading periods.
Payment: $50 per page to a maximum of $250.
________________
Nashville Review
Accepts fiction and poetry. "Nashville Review seeks to publish the best work we can get our hands on, period. From expansive to minimalist, narrative to lyric, epiphanic to subtle—if it’s a moving work of art, we want it." See reading periods.
Payment: $100/story, $25/poem.
________________
Highlights Magazine
Highlights is a magazine for children ages 6-12. Genre: Poems up to 10 lines, especially non-rhyming and/or humorous poetry. No poems with nature or seasonal themes or poems about dogs. Also publish short stories (see guidelines for current themes), puzzles, articles, activities, and cartoons.
Payment: $40 and up for poems, crafts, and puzzles, and $175 and up for fiction and nonfiction.
________________
The Puritan
The Puritan is one of Canada’s premier online literary magazines. Based in Toronto, and founded in late 2006, The Puritan is committed to publishing the best in new fiction, poetry, interviews, essays, reviews, and more, from both Canada and abroad — and has published many of today’s finest literary talents.
Payment: $100 per interview, $200 per essay, $100 per review, $150 per work of fiction, and $25 per poem (or page, capped at $80 for poems running four pages or more).
________________
The Threepenny Review
The Threepenny Review is a respected literary magazine publishing fiction and poetry. Their nonreading period is July 1 through December 31.
Payment: $200/poem, $400/story.
________________
VQR
"VQR strives to publish the best writing we can find. While we have a long history of publishing accomplished and award-winning authors, we also seek and support emerging writers. We read unsolicited fiction, poetry, and nonfiction submissions June 15 to July 15, and October 1 to November 1 each year through our Submittable portal. We read nonfiction pitches from June 15 to December 1." Note: Genre fiction not accepted.
Payment: $200 per poem, up to 4 poems; for a suite of 5 or more poems, payment is $1,000. For short fiction, $1,000. For other prose, such as personal essays and literary criticism, $1,000 and above, at approximately 25 cents per word, depending on length. Online content is generally paid at $100-$200, depending upon genre and length.
________________
The Georgia Review
Founded in 1947, The Georgia Review is the University of Georgia’s journal of arts and letters. The journal has twice taken a top prize in the annual National Magazine Awards competition, winning out over the likes of the Atlantic, Esquire, the New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, and has been a finalist twenty times in various categories.
Payment: $50 per printed page for prose and $4 per line for poetry. Essay-reviews and standard reviews earn $50/printed page. In addition, all contributors receive a one-year subscription to The Georgia Review. No fee to submit by regular mail. Fee to submit online, no fee by post.
________________
Clarkesworld Magazine
Clarkesworld Magazine is a Hugo, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine that publishes short stories, interviews, articles and audio fiction. Issues are published monthly in ebook format, and via electronic subscription. All original fiction is also published in our trade paperback series from Wyrm Publishing. Currently open for art, non-fiction and short story submissions. No simultaneous submissions.
Payment: 10¢ per word. Length: 1000-22000 words, no exceptions.
________________
Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov's Science Fiction is a renowned science fiction magazine. They are happy to publish new writers. Stories should be between 1,000 and 20,000 words.
Payment: 10 cents per word for the first 7,500 words, and 8 cents (per word) for the rest of the story.
________________
Slice
SLICE, a New York-based literary nonprofit, was founded in 2007 by book editors Maria Gagliano and Celia Johnson. They publish fiction, poetry, and personal essays. Their reading period runs from October 1 – December 1, 2019.
Payment: $400 for long stories and essays, $150 for flash fiction, and $100 for poems.
________________
Litmag
Accepts poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. "What We Look For: Work that moves and amazes us.We are drawn to big minds, large hearts, sharp pens." Length: Print: 15,000 words; Online: 4,000 words. See submission periods.
Payment: Print: Upon acceptance, $1,000 for fiction or nonfiction; $250 for a poem, a group of short poems, or (the rare) short short. Online: Upon acceptance, $250.
________________
Bennington Review
Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing, and cross-genre work. "We aim to stake out a distinctive space for innovative, intelligent, and moving fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing, and cross-genre work. In the spirit of poet Dean Young’s dictum that poets should be “making birds, not birdcages,” we are particularly taken with writing that is simultaneously graceful and reckless." The next submissions period will be from November 1, 2019 to May 15, 2020.
Payment: $100 for prose of six pages and under, $200 for prose of over six pages, and $20 per poem, in addition to two copies of the issue the piece is published in.
________________
Lamplight
"We go for stories that are dark, literary; we are looking for the creepy, the weird and the unsettling. We do not accept stories with the following: vampires, zombies, werewolves, serial killers, hitmen, excessive gore or sex, excessive abuse against women, revenge fantasies, cannibals, high fantasy."
Payment: $0.03/word, up to $150. Accepts reprints.
________________
Gay
"What we love and want: cultural criticism; thoughtful, clever and beautiful personal essays; short fiction; original artwork and photography. We do *not* want even the best hot take you can imagine, and we will not publish news. We do not want you to cannibalize yourself. We are interested in provocative work but we are not interested in senseless provocation." See themes.
Payment: $1 a word for work up to 3,500 words in length.
________________
Chicken Soup for the Soul
"A Chicken Soup for the Soul story is an inspirational, true story about ordinary people having extraordinary experiences. It is a story that opens the heart and rekindles the spirit. It is a simple piece that touches our readers and helps them discover basic principles they can use in their own lives. These stories are personal and often filled with emotion and drama. They are filled with vivid images created by using the five senses. In some stories, the readers feel that they are actually in the scene with the people."
Payment: $200.
________________
Contemporary Verse 2
"Contemporary Verse 2 is a quarterly literary journal that publishes poetry and critical writing about poetry, including interviews, articles, essays, and reviews. It is our policy to publish new writing by both emerging and established poets. The writing we encourage reflects a diversity representing a range of social and cultural experience along with literary excellence." See reading periods.
Payment: $30 - $150.
________________
One Story
"One Story is seeking literary fiction. Because of our format, we can only accept stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words. They can be any style and on any subject as long as they are good. We are looking for stories that leave readers feeling satisfied and are strong enough to stand alone." See submission periods.
Payment: $500.
________________
The Gettysburg Review
"The Gettysburg Review, published by Gettysburg College, is recognized as one of the country’s premier literary journals. Since its debut in 1988, work by such luminaries as E. L. Doctorow, Rita Dove, James Tate, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Wilbur, and Donald Hall." Accepts poetry, art, fiction, and nonfiction.
Payment: Payment is upon publication: $2.50 per line for poetry, with a maximum of $250.00 for an individual poem, and $25.00 per printed page for prose. Published authors also receive a copy of the issue containing their work and a one-year subscription. Charges small fee for online submissions. No fee for snail mail.
________________
Antioch Review
Publishes nonfiction articles, fiction and poetry geared to an educated audience. "The Antioch Review, a small independent literary magazine founded in 1941 in a small town in the cornfields of Ohio, is one of the oldest, continuously publishing literary magazines in America. Publishing essays, fiction, and poetry from promising and prominent authors, the Antioch Review has an international readership and reputation of publishing the “best words in the best order” for over 75 years." See submission periods.
Payment: $20/page (about 425 words) plus 2 copies of the issue. Snail mail submissions only.
________________
Escape Pod
Science fiction - audio and text. "We are fairly flexible on what counts as science (we’ll delve into superheroes or steampunk on occasion) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre. We want stories that center on science, technology, future projections, and/or alternate history, and how any or all of these things intersect with people." Length: 1500-6000 words.
Payment: $0.06 per word for original fiction; $100.00 flat rate for reprints of any length.
RSS Feed