Literary Magazine
Quick answer: A literary magazine is a periodical that publishes poems, stories and essays by many writers. Learn how lit mags work and why poets submit to them first.
A literary magazine is a periodical, in print or online, that publishes new poems, stories, essays and reviews by many different writers, issue after issue. Often shortened to lit mag or called a journal, it is the basic ecosystem of contemporary poetry: almost every poem you meet in a prize list or a collection lived first in a magazine. Titles range from centuries-old institutions like Poetry (founded 1912) and The Paris Review to one-editor online journals launched last spring.
For a working poet, literary magazines are where a publication record is built. Editors of book presses, judges reading bios, and other writers all use magazine credits as a rough signal that your poems have passed independent readers. Just as importantly, magazines are where you find your contemporaries, the poets writing alongside you rather than the famous dead.
How Literary Magazines Work
Most magazines run on volunteer or barely-paid labour. Submissions arrive through a portal or email during a reading period, first readers sift them, and editors choose a handful from hundreds or thousands. Acceptance rates at well-known magazines commonly sit below two percent, which is worth knowing before you take a rejection personally.
Payment varies enormously: some magazines pay per poem or per page, many pay in contributor copies, and most online journals pay nothing but reach more readers than print ever did. What you should never do is pay to be published, though a modest reading fee or contest entry fee is standard practice at some venues.
Where You Will See Them
The history of modern poetry is partly a history of magazines. Harriet Monroe's Poetry gave early platforms to T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens. In Britain, magazines such as The Rialto, PN Review and Magma have shaped careers for decades. Online, journals like Rattle's web presence and countless independents have made first publication more reachable than at any time in history, though also more crowded.
Building a Submission Habit
Read at least one issue before you submit anywhere; nothing predicts acceptance like genuine fit. Tier your targets, a few reaches, several realistic homes, and send work out on a steady rhythm rather than in occasional anxious bursts. Track everything in a spreadsheet: poem, venue, date, outcome.
Pair magazine submissions with venues that return feedback, since silence teaches you little. A contest that scores every entry on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, as Writory's monthly one does, can tell you which poems to push toward selective magazines next.
What poets can take from this
- Read a magazine before submitting, even one sample issue online.
- Send three to five poems per submission unless guidelines say otherwise.
- Follow formatting rules exactly; sloppy files are the easiest rejections an editor makes.
- Keep poems circulating: when one comes back, send it somewhere new within the week.
- Celebrate acceptances properly, since a two percent acceptance rate makes each one an event.
Try it yourself
Pick a literary magazine you admire, read five poems from its latest issue, and write a new poem that would sit naturally beside them without imitating any of them.
Questions
Do literary magazines pay poets?
Some do, usually a small per-poem or per-page fee, and a few pay well. Many respected journals pay only in copies or exposure. Payment terms are almost always listed on the submissions page.
How hard is it to get published in a literary magazine?
Selective magazines accept under two percent of submissions, so rejection is the default experience for everyone, including established poets. Persistence, fit and steady submitting matter more than any single outcome.
What is the difference between a literary magazine and a journal?
In poetry circles the words are interchangeable. Journal can sound slightly more academic, but both describe a periodical publishing new creative writing by many authors.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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