I've been doing research on literary magazines, because, as most of you know, I'm trying to get myself published so I can qualify as a "real" writer. (Though I already tell people I'm a poet with a capital P.)One of the sad things is that most literary journals aren't taking unsolicited manuscripts at this time of the year. Those include:
Alaska Quarterly Review
American Literary Review
The Antioch Review
Arts and Letters: Journal of Contemporary Culture
River Styx
Bellingham Review
Brevity
The Columbia Review
Then there are the journals that I can't publish with, because I don't meet their qualifications. One of the big disqualifications is that I am no longer an undergraduate or I don't go to a certain school. These include:
The Allegheny Review
Echoes
Yale Literary Magazine Or my favorite disqualification: no unsolicited manuscripts. I'm looking at you,
American Poet
Contemporary American Voices
What frustrates me the most about all of this is that the entire point of having a literary magazine is to try and publish people before they get famous, that way you can brag that you published so-and-so before they got it big. I mean, maybe if I'm lucky I'll get an invitation from people like this, but so far, it's very frustrating.
Finally, I have a short list of places I can send to immediately:
American Quarterly
Bellowing Ark
Ascent
Atlanta Review Land Grant College Review
Beliot Poetry Journal
Black Warrior Review
Birmingham Poetry Review
The Capilano Review
This is actually not such a short list, and I know I shouldn't be complaining, but I feel like I've done a ton of work for not very much payoff. Though, I've worked in history, I know that's basically how research always goes.
