upd ∙ Oct 8, 2024
25 Most Competitive Literary Magazines (All Time)
Our twenty-five most competitive lit mags according to thousands of rejection letters collected by our community. Go us! Or, well, go you, if you can land a spot in any of them. To make this list, we cut any with 0% acceptance rates (I mean, why bother?) and only counted lit mags with at least 100 tracked submissions. Your chances? Oh, a bit less than .5%. But hey, fuck it?
- NameAcceptance Rate
- 1
SmokeLong Quarterly0.45% (224 tracked subs)1SmokeLong Quarterly0.45% (224 tracked subs) - 2
Chestnut Review0.59% (338 tracked subs)2Chestnut Review0.59% (338 tracked subs) - 3
Split Lip Magazine0.64% (311 tracked subs)3Split Lip Magazine0.64% (311 tracked subs) - 4
Frontier Poetry0.68% (146 tracked subs)4Frontier Poetry0.68% (146 tracked subs) - 5
Rattle0.74% (269 tracked subs)5Rattle0.74% (269 tracked subs) - 6
The Masters Review0.79% (126 tracked subs)6The Masters Review0.79% (126 tracked subs) - 7
Alien Magazine0.94% (106 tracked subs)7Alien Magazine0.94% (106 tracked subs) - 8
A Public Space0.95% (105 tracked subs)8A Public Space0.95% (105 tracked subs) - 9
fractured literary0.96% (104 tracked subs)9fractured literary0.96% (104 tracked subs) - 10
Palette Poetry1.44% (139 tracked subs)10Palette Poetry1.44% (139 tracked subs) - 11
trampset1.47% (136 tracked subs)11trampset1.47% (136 tracked subs) - 12
New England Review1.64% (122 tracked subs)12New England Review1.64% (122 tracked subs) - 13
Black Warrior Review1.8% (111 tracked subs)13Black Warrior Review1.8% (111 tracked subs) - 14
Baltimore Review2.38% (168 tracked subs)14Baltimore Review2.38% (168 tracked subs) - 15
The Lumiere Review2.65% (113 tracked subs)15The Lumiere Review2.65% (113 tracked subs) - 16
Fiction3.34% (389 tracked subs)16Fiction3.34% (389 tracked subs) - 17
Pithead Chapel3.39% (118 tracked subs)17Pithead Chapel3.39% (118 tracked subs) - 18
Passages North3.79% (132 tracked subs)18Passages North3.79% (132 tracked subs) - 19
The Adroit Journal3.98% (176 tracked subs)19The Adroit Journal3.98% (176 tracked subs) - 20
Beaver Magazine7.91% (139 tracked subs)20Beaver Magazine7.91% (139 tracked subs) - 21
Hobart10% (130 tracked subs)21Hobart10% (130 tracked subs) - 22
HAD14.89% (141 tracked subs)22HAD14.89% (141 tracked subs) - 23
BULLSHIT LIT MAG27.35% (117 tracked subs)23BULLSHIT LIT MAG27.35% (117 tracked subs)