What Lit Mag Is the Right Home for Your Work?
A Literary Community Conversation Starter
You’ve Been Published in ONE ART, Where Else Might You Publish?
There are boatloads of lit mags and yet writers wonder where it makes sense to submit their work for consideration.
In recent times, I’ve wondered what would happen if lit mags started suggesting other lit mags where it might make sense to try to submit. These suggestions could come directly in response to a submission (whether the outcome is a rejection or an acceptance; and, yes, I realize not all think this is a good idea). This could be information directly shared on lit mag websites—possibly in Submission Guidelines. This would be an opportunity for those considering submitting if the journal felt like a sensible fit for their work. The goal is not to discourage trying to submit to markets that do not seem directly correlated but rather to encourage submitting to markets that have at least some correlation.
This gets complicated for many reasons. For one thing, every piece is different. While in some ways, writers tend to write variations on the same, they do not write precisely the same thing in the same style over and over again.
Here’s an example. Poems published in ONE ART tend to have a limited amount of negative space or movement on the page. Poems published in DIAGRAM often have lots of negative space and movement on the page. Still, there are ONE ART contributors who have published in DIAGRAM. That’s because they happened to write specific poems that made sense for each journal. (At least the editors think so.)
What follows is my attempt to determine journals that have some correlation, moderate correlation, high correlation, or very high correlation with ONE ART.
My hope is to encourage other journals to determine if they think the correlation makes sense and, maybe, in turn, produce their own lists. This would, in theory, help provide writers with a better understanding of where their work has a chance of being published.
So, how did I go about doing this?
ONE ART receives email submissions. Therefore, I searched the archive of accepted poems and looked for the number of appearances of a wide range of journals in Contributor Bios. There are some obvious problems/biases with this method. More accomplished poets/writers are less likely to name journals and will just name their books. More accomplished poets are more likely to name only “top tier” or “prestige” journals they have appeared in. More accomplished poets do not alter their bio as often to include new journals they have appeared in (meaning they may have appeared in The New Yorker 20 years ago but that’s still prominently featured in their bio).
Bearing all this in mind…
Very High Correlation
(the “very high” section is in precise order, statistically)
*
High Correlation
Verse-Virtual (a community-oriented publication/space)
Thrush (going defunct or transitional phase)
*
Moderate Correlation
Muddy River Poetry Journal (defunct)
Front Porch Review (defunct)
*
Some Correlation
The Threepenny Review (DNR)
Ruminate (defunct)
EcoTheo Review (DNR)
Atticus Review (possibly closing)
+++++
*DNR = Do Not Recommend
This is a fabulous list of places to submit. I've published in a few of things and others have been my list. I'm saving this.
Great post, Mark. I would add "Only Poems" somewhere in your mix. It's more selective and new so you may not see it in bios, yet. But it is high in correlation in other important ways: 1) They use the term "curation." 2) They take work that has appeared in social media. 3) They offer workshops. 4) They have a substack that explores both poetics other also curation related issues. And 5), most important, (like you) they are accessible and not stand-offish.