Actually Inclusive - Best Lit Mags of 2025

A biannual compendium of the most dynamic, urgent LGBTQ+ writing today. It’s a space where queer and trans writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace.

Foglifter—created by and for LGBTQ+ writers and readers—continues the San Francisco Bay Area’s tradition of groundbreaking queer and trans writing, often publishing those who are multi-marginalized (BIPOC, youth, elders, and people with disabilities). 

Our biannual journal features the widest range of forms, with an emphasis on transgressive, risky, challenging subject matter, innovative formal choices, and work that pushes the boundaries of what writing can do. 

By putting extraordinary queer and trans writers into conversation, we uplift a growing community of LGBTQ+ readers and writers and carve out space in the larger literary community for voices that have historically been silenced.

Out of 3,489 votes, these lit mags came out on top in 2025 as the best lit mags for diverse voices.

Publications that celebrate LGBTQ+ voices every single day. Editor picks from Vellichor Lit.

LGBTQ+ Lit Mags Changing the Game

Journals that have published debut stories later selected for this award honoring exceptional first-time published short story writers.

Lit Mags That Have Published PEN/Robert J. Dau Award Winners

If you know, you know. These publications have exceptional energy and editorial vision, with an ineffable quality that makes them special.

Lit Mags Vibing So Hard It'll Make Your Teeth Hurt

Literary magazines recently opened for submissions that don't charge fees and pay for acceptances. Fresh opportunities.

Recently Opened Fee-Free Paying Magazines

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

Specialized publications that recognize exceptional brief fiction through Pushcart nominations.

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

Lit Mags Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Looking for balance between prestige and accessibility? These magazines are competitive but attainable for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writers.

Literary Magazines in the Sweet Spot

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

Literary Magazines That Nominate for the Pushcart Prize

These magazines have the fastest response times, so you won't be left hanging for months. No more endless waiting. Just, you know, regular waiting.

Literary Magazines with the Fastest Response Times

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 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

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

Foglifter Journal & Press

Flash Fiction Submissions (Print Issue)

Fiction Submissions (Print Issue)

Nonfiction Submissions (Print Issue)

Poetry Submissions (Print Issue)

Art Submissions

This issue's guest poetry editor is heidi andrea restrepo rhodes, who is a queer, non-binary, crip/disabled, brown, writer, artist, scholar, educator, cultural worker and creature of the Colombian diaspora. They are poetry co-editor at Apogee Journal and their previously published works include: The Inheritance of Haunting (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019), Ephemeral (Ecotheo Collective, 2024), Afterlives of Discovery: Speculative Geographies in the Settler Colonial Imaginary (Duke University Press, 2025), Wayward Creatures (Host Publications, 2025), and the forthcoming Ampersand Organ: a more-than-human lyric (Milkweed editions, 2026). They live in southern California.
 
Submission must adhere to the following guidelines:

  Submit a maximum of 5 pages 
  Poems can be longer than one page, but the entire submission cannot exceed 5 pages. 
  Each new poem must start on its own separate page.
  Include all poems in a single Word document (and put the titles of your poems, separated by commas, in the title field).
  For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.

Foglifter aims to reflect the vibrant diversity of the LGBTQ+ literary community in our award-winning journal. Fill out our anonymized Demographics Survey to be considered for publication—then take a screenshot of the thank-you screen at the end and attach it along with your submission.

Poetry 11.1 {Digital Submissions}

This issue's guest fiction editor is Charlotte Kidd, a writer of all kinds of prose and public librarian based in Toronto, Ontario. She is Associate Prose Editor over at chestnutreview.com. She is most interested in stories about complex familial, romantic, or platonic relationships, unique and thoughtful prose, and original treatment of topics like climate change and economic injustice — but she is also a literary omnivore who can find something to love in almost any piece of prose. She is excited to read your work. She can be found @charjoycek on instagram for writing updates and occasional pictures of treasures from the stacks.  

  Please send a single Word document with up to 7500 words of fiction (up to three flash fiction pieces). Make sure it is in standard double-spaced formatting and a readable font.
  For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.
  Because of the high volume of submissions that we receive in this genre, we are capping our fiction submissions at 250, so please submit sooner rather than later!

Foglifter aims to reflect the vibrant diversity of the LGBTQ+ literary community in our award-winning journal. Fill out our anonymized Demographics Survey to be considered for publication—then take a screenshot of the thank-you screen at the end and attach it along with your submission.

Fiction 11.1{Digital Submissions}

Body Politics — Visual, Multimedia, & Literary Art Open Submission Call

This issue's guest nonfiction, hybrid, and drama editor is Edgar Gomez (he/they), who is a queer NicaRican writer born and raised in Florida. He is the author of the memoir High-Risk Homosexual, winner of the American Book Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Their sophomore memoir, Alligator Tears, was released February 2025 and called "triumphant, dazzling, and unfailingly stylish" by Publisher's Weekly. Gomez lives between New York and Puerto Rico and across social media @OtroEdgarGomez. 
 
—
Please label your piece as nonfiction or hybrid & drama in your cover letter!
NONFICTION

  Please send a single Word document with up to 7500 words of nonfiction (up to three flash nonfiction pieces). 
  Please make sure it is in standard double-spaced formatting and a readable font.
  For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.

HYBRID & DRAMA

  Send up to 20 pages of cross-genre work, text-image hybrids, or drama. 
  PDFs are accepted in this category.
  For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.

Foglifter aims to reflect the vibrant diversity of the LGBTQ+ literary community in our award-winning journal. Fill out our anonymized Demographics Survey to be considered for publication—then take a screenshot of the thank-you screen at the end and attach it along with your submission.

Nonfiction, Hybrid, & Drama 11.1{Digital Submissions}

In response to rapid gentrification and displacement of QTBIPOC+ literary artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in celebration of these communities’ revolutionary history, Foglifter Press and Still Here San Francisco joined forces to create a poetry chapbook prize for local emerging queer and trans Black writers, indigenous writers, and writers of color. Each year, one chapbook author is awarded publication, a $3,000 prize, and $1,000 to support their book tour/promotion.
 
Judges:

  Grayson Thompson, author of 2024 Start A Riot! winning chapbook Sand Bodied Florida Boy
  Dani Putney
  Zara Jamshed
 

Eligibility:

  Submitter is a QTBIPOC+ literary artist
  AND is a current resident of the larger San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda, Napa, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Solano, Marin, San Mateo, Sonoma counties)
  AND does not have a previous full-length poetry book publication

Manuscript Details:

  Poetry (Literally anything that falls under the verse genre—prose poetry, hybrid, etc. We want all your wild experiments!)
  25 pages max; 15 pages minimum
  Remove all identifying information, including acknowledgments. There should be one title page with the name of the chapbook only.
  Microsoft Word doc preferred; PDF also accepted

Important Dates:

  Submissions: September 1 to December 1, 2025
  Results Announced: January 2026
  Chapbook Release: June (Pride Month) 2026

Start A Riot! Poetry Chapbook Prize — Publication, $3000 Prize, $1000 for Tour/Promo

Community Intern
1-3 hours per week in peak seasons (i.e., submissions, submission periods, etc.)

  The Community Intern assists the Community Managers in the successful planning and execution of social media campaigns. They schedule social media posts on Later, assist in crafting engaging and exciting captions for Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky, and collaborate with the Community Managers to develop content ideas and design for social media campaigns. The Community Intern aggregates ongoing contributor surveys for social media post creation. They also assist in gathering assets/drafting content for our newsletter.
  This open call is aimed at students in the San Francisco Bay Area with experience and/or interest in communications and social media. Though we cannot guarantee school credits, we will work with your institution to get you internship credits if that is of interest to you.
  Foglifter is an lgbtq+ organization that works to celebrate and uplift queer and trans voices in art and literature. Please read our mission statement before applying.

Foglifter Community Intern Application (LGBTQ+ & SF Bay Area)

Thank you for your interest in The Yearning Hour, a poetry workshop for Bay-Area based youth writers (18-26) led by poet, doula, and Issue 7.1 Poetry Contributor Briana Grogan! Writers from all genres are welcome to apply. 

This workshop will explore how Queer and Trans histories exist within us and beside us and consider how the threat of erasure shapes our relationship to ancestry, place, collective memory, and, of course, longing. 

Please note, this workshop is available for Bay Area residents only and will take place primarily in-person in San Francisco. Workshops will take place Thursday evenings, once a week, starting January 29th, 2026. 

The Yearning Hour: Poetry Workshop for SF Bay Area Youth Writers (18-26)


Submission must adhere to the following guidelines:

  Submit a maximum of 5 pages 
  Poems can be longer than one page, but the entire submission cannot exceed 5 pages. 
  Each new poem must start on its own separate page.
  Include all poems in a single Word document (and put the titles of your poems, separated by commas, in the title field).
  For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.

Foglifter aims to reflect the vibrant diversity of the LGBTQ+ literary community in our award-winning journal. Fill out our anonymized Demographics Survey to be considered for publication—then take a screenshot of the thank-you screen at the end and attach it along with your submission.

Poetry

As Foglifter revitalizes our website and digital production, we are interested in creating and holding space for works that may not fit within the constraints of our print edition. We are now accepting submissions for our new Online Exclusive Issue dedicated to showcasing queer voices across a wide spectrum of creative forms.
As always, we are seeking art that aligns with our mission of promoting queer, transgressive, and original work. The themes will change from issue to issue. For 1.2, our theme is Queer Mythologies: a celebration of spirituality, folklore, and queer cosmologies. This open call seeks dreamlike, symbolic, and otherworldly explorations that reimagine mythology through a queer lens—queering gods and monsters, rewriting origin stories, and uncovering hidden lineages of desire, transformation, and devotion.
We welcome interpretations of tarot, astrology, ritual, and divination that challenge binaries and expand spiritual narratives beyond the normative, embracing fluidity, mysticism, and personal myth-making. Submissions may be visual, textual, or hybrid, and should evoke a sense of the uncanny, the sacred, and the speculative—worlds where queerness is ancestral, cosmic, and divine.
Pieces must be original, unpublished work in genres including, but not limited to: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, comics, visual art, scripts, and multimedia (video, audio, music, interactive pieces, experimental work, etc.) that align with the current issue’s theme.
This online exclusive issue will be published as a summer issue on our website. We’re especially interested in pieces that experiment with form, push boundaries, and reflect the complexity, joy, rage, beauty, and multiplicity of the queer experience.
Why Online Exclusive?
Our print publication has limits—page counts, dimensions, ink. This digital issue is a space without borders. We want to uplift work that can’t—or won’t—fit in print: multimedia projects, audio pieces, visual art, and performance pieces  that demand to be seen and heard in digital space.
General Submission Guidelines:
We accept only first rights to publication.
We do accept simultaneous submissions, however please withdraw pieces that have been accepted elsewhere.
Please include a short bio, description of your work, any past publications, and applicable trigger warnings in your cover letter.
Visual and [multi]media work must be web-viewable—please include links or uploads through Submittable and include content warnings if applicable
Genre Specific Guidelines
Please submit up to 5 pieces
For video and audio submissions, please limit to 5 minutes
We accept art created via all mediums (except AI — if a submission is suspected or found to be AI generated, it will be declined and we will not consider your work in the future). This includes, but is not limited to, photography, painting, digital, ink, pencil, collage, etc.
Acceptable file types: .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .tif, .tiff, .png, .svg, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .odt, .mp3, .m4a, .wav, .mp4, .mov, .avi, .mpg, .3gp, .wmv
All applicable artworks submitted will be considered for cover art for the online exclusive issue
We love experimental work, feel free to submit hybrid forms that blend genres
For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission
Foglifter aims to reflect the vibrant diversity of the LGBTQ+ literary community in our award-winning journal. Fill out our anonymized Demographics Survey to be considered for publication—then take a screenshot of the thank-you screen at the end and attach it along with your submission.

1.2 Foglifter Online Exclusive: Queer Mythologies  —  Visual, Multimedia, & Literary Art Open Submission Call

Please send a single Word document with up to 7500 words of fiction (up to three flash fiction pieces). Make sure it is in standard double-spaced formatting and a readable font.
No AI submissions — if a submission is suspected or found to be AI generated, it will be declined and we will not consider your work in the future. 
For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.
Because of the high volume of submissions that we receive in this genre, we are capping our fiction submissions at 250, so please submit sooner rather than later!

Fiction

HYBRID & DRAMA

Send up to 20 pages of cross-genre work, text-image hybrids, or drama. 
PDFs are accepted in this category.
AI-generated submissions will not be accepted. If a piece is found to be AI-generated, it will be declined and we will not consider your work in the future.
For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.

Hybrid & Drama

NONFICTION

Please send a single Word document with up to 7500 words of nonfiction (up to three flash nonfiction pieces). 
Please make sure it is in standard double-spaced formatting and a readable font.
For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission.

Foglifter Journal & Press

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