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Under the direction of founding editor Brigid Hughes since 2006, it has been our mission to seek out overlooked and unclassifiable work, and to publish writing from beyond established confines. 

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We asked literary agents which magazines they actually read. They answered with this list of publications—not comprehensive, but damn close.

Lit Mags Agents Love (We Asked)

Quality magazines that compensate writers and don't charge submission fees. Supporting writers financially from both ends of the transaction? Hell yeah.

Lit Mags That Pay & Don't Charge Fees

Basically what it says in the title. Our top most bookmarked fee-free lit mags that nominate for the Pushcart Prize.

Literary Magazines That Nominate for the Pushcart Prize (and Don’t Charge Fees)

No database exists for nonfiction agents' reading habits, so we asked every agent, editor, and writing-adjacent human we could until we got enough answers.

Nonfiction Magazines That Will Make Agents Notice You

The mags in this list are competitive and publish physical print editions, so you get the satisfaction of seeing your work in print: pocket-sized, book-like, tangible. Way cooler than you'd expect.

Reputable Lit Mags with Print Issues

The top nonfiction lit mags in our database, ranked by how many users have bookmarked them.

The Ultimate List of Places to Submit Your Nonfiction

Story-focused publications with works chosen for Pushcart Prize anthologies. Less than 5% of nominated fiction typically makes the anthology.

Fiction Magazines Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

A targeted resource for short story placements with potential for Pushcart recognition.

Fiction Magazines That Nominate for the Pushcart Prize

The ultimate ranking of the world's liveliest indie literary magazines, curated by author and editor Charlie Fish. These are the passion projects; the kaleidoscopic cutting edge.

FISH List of Lively Indie Literary Magazines 2025

FISH List of Lively Indie Literary Magazines 2026

Publications with nonfiction in BAE, the premier American essay anthology. These journals consistently publish thought-provoking, beautifully crafted nonfiction defining contemporary essay excellence.

Lit Mags Featured in Best American Essay Anthologies

Publications with verse selected for America's foremost poetry anthology. These journals consistently publish poetry representing the most significant contemporary verse across styles and approaches.

Lit Mags Featured in Best American Poetry Anthologies

Publications with stories in America's most visible short fiction. These journals consistently publish fiction that represents the highest levels of contemporary American short storytelling.

Lit Mags Featured in Best American Short Story Anthologies

Publications with stories selected for America's oldest prestigious short fiction award, established in 1919. Editorial committee selections only.

Lit Mags Featured in O'Henry Award Anthologies

Publications with pieces chosen for Pushcart Prize anthologies. Recognition of exceptional quality across poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Lit Mags Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Journals that forward outstanding nonfiction to this respected anthology series founded in 1986. These publications identify exceptional essays that might reach the broader readership BAE provides.

Literary Magazines That Nominate for Best American Essays

Essential publications that nominate short fiction for the O'Henry Prize anthology, one of America's most venerable literary awards. Established in 1919.

Literary Magazines That Nominate for the O'Henry Prize

A comprehensive guide to journals that regularly nominate work for the Pushcart Prize.

Literary Magazines That Nominate for the Pushcart Prize

BASS represents the most mainstream recognition for short fiction in America. These journals serve as the initial screening layer for potential inclusion in this widely-read collection.

Literary Mags That Nominate for Best American Short Stories

All-time most competitive literary magazines. Getting published in these is a significant achievement for any writer.

Most Competitive Literary Magazines of All Time

Explore the all-time most competitive speculative fiction literary magazines. These magazines are revered in the fiction world for their editorial rigor.

Most Competitive Speculative Fiction Magazines of All Time

Explore the most popular literary magazines of all time. These long-established publications are a staple in the literary world for writers of all genres.

Most Popular Literary Magazines of All Time

Check out the all-time most popular speculative fiction literary magazines. These publications have a long-standing reputation for quality speculative fiction.

Most Popular Speculative Fiction Magazines of All Time

Essay-focused publications with works selected for Pushcart Prize anthologies. These journals have repeatedly identified nonfiction that resonates with Pushcart editors and readers.

Nonfiction Magazines Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Highlights publications that regularly put forward essays, memoirs, and other creative nonfiction for Pushcart consideration.

Nonfiction Magazines That Nominate for the Pushcart Prize

Verse-centered publications with poems chosen for Pushcart Prize anthologies. These journals have consistently identified poems that stand out in this intensely competitive field.

Poetry Magazines Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Focuses specifically on poetry journals with established histories of Pushcart nominations.

Poetry Magazines That Nominate for the Pushcart Prize

A Public Space

As a new writer I was surprised to be seriously considered by their team

Please submit only one (​1) story at a time. Additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere we ask that you please withdraw it from our system. Novellas and novel excerpts are welcome. If you wish to submit a work of translation, please navigate to our translation category.<div><br></div><div>We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available at apublicspace.org/store/subscribe. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series apublicspace.org/magazine/public-access.</div><div><br></div><div>We will make every effort to respond to your submissions within four months, though at times it may be longer. If it has been ​more than four months and you have not yet received a response, we will be happy to reply to a query regarding the status of your submission.</div>

Fiction

Please submit up to five (5) poems in one document. Only one submission at a time is allowed; additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if a poem is accepted elsewhere, we ask that you withdraw your submission from the system or, if you've submitted multiple poems, that you add a note to your submission letting us know which poem(s) you are withdrawing. If you wish to submit a work of translation, please navigate to our translation category. <div><br></div><div>We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available at apublicspace.org/store/subscribe. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series apublicspace.org/magazine/public-access.</div><div><br></div><div>We will make every effort to respond to your submissions within four months, though at times it may be longer. If it has been ​more than four months and you have not yet received a response, we will be happy to reply to a query regarding the status of your submission.</div>

Poetry

Please submit only one (​1) essay at a time. Additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere we ask that you please withdraw it from our system. Excerpts are welcome. Memoir is welcome. Long-form cultural criticism is welcome. If you wish to submit a work of translation, please navigate to our translation category.<div><br></div><div>We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available at apublicspace.org/store/subscribe. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series apublicspace.org/magazine/public-access.</div><div><br></div><div>We will make every effort to respond to your submissions within four months, though at times it may be longer. If it has been ​more than four months and you have not yet received a response, we will be happy to reply to a query regarding the status of your submission.</div>

Nonfiction

Please submit only one (1) translated story or essay at a time. Alternatively, submit up to five (5) translated poems in one document. Only one submission at a time is allowed; additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere we ask that you please withdraw it from our system. If you've submitted multiple poems, you can let us know which poem(s) you are withdrawing. Novellas and novel excerpts are welcome. Nonfiction excerpts are welcome. Memoir is welcome. Long-form cultural criticism is welcome. Please note it is the translator's responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted. <div><br></div><div>We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available here. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series here.</div><div><br></div><div>We will make every effort to respond to your submissions within four months, though at times it may be longer. If it has been ​more than four months and you have not yet received a response, we will be happy to reply to a query regarding the status of your submission.</div>

Translation

In connection with the Editorial Fellowship at A Public Space, we are pleased to announce an open call for a special portfolio in the magazine to be edited by Berta Coll.
Impenetrability as a Generative Force:
What would you do if you encountered a door and didn’t own the key? Or if you met someone and didn’t speak the same language? Or if you read a book and it felt inscrutable? You could try to break the barrier one way or another. You could get angry because you couldn’t pass through. Or you could stare at the barrier and examine it to see what it can tell you. We have been trained to get closer, to go deeper, to reach a point. But what if we celebrate impenetrability? What if we champion those things that cannot be entered, pierced, or understood? What if we treat them as something worth protecting?
For this open call, I would like to see prose that explores impenetrability as a generative force, as a quality that unlocks unexpected doors. I’m not interested in impenetrability as a stylistic choice that makes a text illegible or snobbishly abstruse. I want to read authors who understand impenetrability as a rare opportunity, as a channel toward clarity. I invite you to redefine our relationship with that concept, to expand its meanings in playful, surprising ways. Here are a few examples:
— Regarding his creative process, Philip Guston once wrote, “These few people who are the closest to me and think they know me well, they don’t know me at all. And that became the most important thing, that the people closest to you don’t really know you.”
— Édouard Glissant said, “A person has the right to be opaque. That doesn’t stop me from liking a person. A racist is someone who refuses what he doesn’t understand. I can accept what I don’t understand.”
— In the foreword to his novel L’Écume des jours (translated into English as both Froth on the Daydream and Mood Indigo), Boris Vian provocatively stated that “the essential thing in life is to judge everything a priori.” When you judge something a priori, you refuse logical reasoning; you decide not to cross an intellectual threshold.
— In physics, impenetrability means that two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. This makes me think of the Swedish composer Lisa Streich, who collects unusual chords. When two or more people sing the same chord in slightly different intonations, they are circumventing something impenetrable—a complete encounter, a perfect communion. Perhaps being slightly out of tune (in music, in life) is a refusal to penetrate an imagined center.
— One of my favorite idioms comes from the Catalan language. In Catalan, when people say they “have drunk oil,” they mean they are doomed. This idiom comes from a brutal practice in which victims were forced to drink boiling oil as a form of execution.
Eligibility: Only previously unpublished works of fiction or nonfiction are eligible. Only writers who have not yet published or been contracted to write a book-length work with a U.S. publisher are eligible. Writers who have self-published, published an academic text, published a book with a publisher outside the U.S., or translated another writer’s work are eligible to apply. International applicants are encouraged to apply. Work that incorporates multiple languages is eligible, so long as the primary language is English. Translations are welcome, but please note it is the translator’s responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted. Only one submission per person is allowed. A Public Space reserves the right to invite submissions.
Timeline: Submissions will be accepted via Submittable from June 29, 2025-July 13, 2026. Submissions close at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on July 13. All submissions will receive a reply by the end of August.
Submission Requirements: Submissions are only accepted through Submittable. There is no submission fee. Please submit the following:
— A cover letter, including a short biographical statement and a paragraph describing the connection of your piece to the open call.
— One previously unpublished piece (fiction, nonfiction, or translation) up to 6,000 words, double spaced.
— Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Note that we only accept PDF or Word files (.doc and .docx). Please do not include your cover letter as part of your manuscript.
Questions? Write Editorial Fellow Berta Coll at berta@apublicspace.org.
Examples from the APS archive:
— Kelly Link’s “The White Road,” published in APS No. 28: We know that they are monsters because they come at night and they tear us to pieces. But they are also monsters, I think, because we do not understand why they do what they do.
— Roland Kelts’ “Focus: Japan—America Inverted,” published in APS No. 1: The culture gap and the aura of mystery it confers on Japan suits some Japanese, bolstering their dearly held conviction that an essential Japaneseness can never be understood by gaijin—literally, the “outside people.” They are unique, they believe, and perhaps unfathomable. [...] As I learned when I moved to Japan in the late nineties, to ensure a sympathetic smile and a smooth journey from a Tokyo cabbie, you only need to concede that, yes, speaking Japanese is very difficult. The driver will be thrilled to have his nation’s impenetrability verified.
— Jonathan Lethem’s “The Night they First Played Monster Eyes,” published in APS No. 3: This band’s got something, and some of the something they’ve got is the allure of an enclave at odds within itself and yet impenetrable to others, its members exchanging small gestures of disaffection within their troupe that makes others crave to be included in the fond dissention.
— Anne Carson’s “Variations on the Right to Remain Silent,” published in APS No. 07: There are two kinds of silence that trouble a translator: physical silence and metaphysical silence. Physical silence happens when you are looking at, say, a poem of Sappho’s inscribed on a papyrus from two thousand years ago that has been torn in half. Half the poem is empty space. A translator can signify or even rectify this lack of text in various ways—with blankness or brackets or textual conjecture—and she is justified in doing so because Sappho did not intend that part of the poem to fall silent. Metaphysical silence happens inside words themselves. And its intentions are harder to define. Every translator knows the point where one language cannot be translated into another. [...] But now what if, within this silence, you discover a deeper one—a word that does not intend to be translatable. A word that stops itself. [...] There is something maddeningly attractive about the untranslatable, about a word that goes silent in transit.
— Allen Grossman’s “Sing, Muse, Wrath,” published in APS No. 07: When we say, “same world,” “same room and persons,” / “same course of life,” we speak approximately.
— Amy Leach’s “Strangers,” published in APS No. 27: Whereas strangers are all pretty much opaque—you can’t candle their heads like you candle an egg. Animals are opaque like strangers; even jellyfish and glass frogs are opaque like bears; and when their anatomy is gone, they are gone. This is not true of brothers and sisters.

Open Call | Impenetrability as a Generative Force — Fiction

Open Call | Impenetrability as a Generative Force — Nonfiction

Open Call | Impenetrability as a Generative Force — Poetry

In connection with the Editorial Fellowship at A Public Space, we are pleased to announce an open call for a special portfolio in the magazine to be edited by Sam Karagulin.
MISRECOGNITION
You insist you are not the person everyone, including the state, says you are.*
Your nose detaches itself from your face, and runs off. It becomes more popular, more important, than you.**
You appear to your mother as a monstrous bird, and not her child.***
Have you been mistaken for someone else? Did they insist you really were that other person? Like catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and not recognizing yourself, misrecognition can destabilize. The present can contradict the surety of memory. For this open call, I want writing of any genre, that tells me what emerges from this encounter.
* Max Frisch’s Stiller (1954); It Was Just An Accident (2025)
** Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose” (1836)
*** Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn (2026); Monica (2022)
Eligibility: Only writers who have not yet published or been contracted to write a book-length work with a U.S. publisher are eligible. Writers who have self-published, published an academic text, published a book with a publisher outside the U.S., or translated another writer’s work are eligible to apply. Writers who have published a chapbook in the U.S. are ineligible to apply. International applicants are encouraged to apply. Work that incorporates multiple languages is eligible, so long as the primary language is English. Works of translation are eligible. Please note it is the translator’s responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted. Only one submission per person is allowed. A Public Space reserves the right to invite submissions.
Timeline: Submissions will be accepted via Submittable from June 29, 2026–July 13, 2026. Submissions close at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on July 13. All submissions will receive a reply by the end of August.
Submission Requirements: Submissions are only accepted through Submittable. There is no submission fee. Please submit the following:
— A cover letter, including a short biographical statement and how your submission connects to the open call.
— One previously unpublished piece up to 6,000 words, double-spaced, or up to five (5) poems.
— Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Note that we only accept PDF or Word files (.doc and .docx) are accepted. Please do not include your cover letter as part of your manuscript.
Questions? Write Editorial Fellow Sam Karagulin at sam@apublicspace.org.
Recommended Reading: Below are selections from A Public Space’s archive that were among my references in developing this open call. These pieces are part of this month’s Public Access—work from the magazine’s archive, made free and open to all.
“The Let-Out”
Jamel Brinkley
But all of a sudden she started walking again, with more quickness and purpose. Her steps were bringing her in the direction she was looking, and it became clear, despite every self-abnegating doubt, that she was walking toward me.
“Again It Has Prepared Itself For My Awakening”
Patrizia Cavalli, translated from the Italian by Jorie Graham
In broad daylight on the other hand I shall mistake them, / I shall not compete with them, / I shall act like it’s nothing…
“This Handwriting”
Matthew Zapruder
Very / small horses attached to invisible reins attached / to facts is how I would describe my thoughts, / but what of my memories?
“Trans-Neptunian Object”
Suzanne Buffam
Facts exist for whole centuries and then suddenly cease.
“Compromise”
Ada Zhang
It was like receiving a new man, a new husband, and to me this was a relief.

Only writers who have not yet published or been contracted to write a book-length work with a U.S. publisher are eligible; writers who have self-published, published academic texts, published books outside the U.S., or translated works are eligible; writers who have published a chapbook in the U.S. are ineligible.

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