Northern Michigan University

Annual literary journal sponsored by Northern Michigan University, has published short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid writing since 1979.

Passages North, the annual literary journal sponsored by Northern Michigan University, has published short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid writing since 1979.

 Email us at passages@nmu.edu or write to us at Passages North, NMU, 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Marquette, MI 49855.

No database exists for agents' reading habits, so we did this the hard way—by asking every agent, editor, and writing-adjacent human we could until we got enough answers.


15 Fiction Magazines That Will Make Agents Notice You

Printed lit mags are way cooler than you'd expect. Some are pocket-sized. Others are like actual books. Lots of writers get so much more out of seeing their work in print. Holding it. Smelling it. Using it as a reason to show their favorite English teacher while low-key checking if they're still married. We have over 1000 mags with printed issues so we cut this down to our most competitive ones in our top two vibe categories. Good Luck!

89 Reputable Lit Mags with Print Issues

Digital publications with stories chosen for Best of the Net anthologies. Selection indicates outstanding quality in the online fiction ecosystem. These journals demonstrate consistent excellence in identifying digital fiction that deserves wider recognition and readership.

Fiction Magazines Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Story-focused publications with works chosen for Pushcart Prize anthologies. Selection indicates exceptional quality, as less than 5% of nominated fiction typically makes it into the anthology. These journals have consistently identified stories that stand out among thousands of nominations.

Fiction Magazines Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Prestigious publications that strengthen your literary credentials, signaling serious accomplishment and catching attention from editors and agents.

Impressive Bylines for Your Literary Bio

Publications with ultra-short stories selected for this anthology series celebrating fiction under 400 words. Best Microfiction, founded in 2018, has quickly become the definitive collection for the form. These journals consistently identify microfiction that achieves remarkable depth despite severe word constraints.

Lit Mags Featured in Best Microfiction Anthologies

Publications with compressed narratives selected for this anthology series celebrating fiction under 1000 words. Best Small Fictions, founded in 2015, includes approximately 55 stories annually. These journals consistently identify short-short fiction that exemplifies the artistry possible in compact narratives.

Lit Mags Featured in Best Small Fictions Anthologies

Online publications with work selected (not just nominated) for inclusion in Best of the Net. The anthology chooses approximately 30 pieces annually across genres from hundreds of nominations. These journals consistently publish online work of exceptional quality that stands out in the digital literary landscape.

Lit Mags Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Publications with pieces chosen for, or mentioned in, Pushcart Prize anthologies.

Lit Mags Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Prose poetry! Everyone loves it except those who hate it, and if that sounds like you then, hey—hey, what are you doing here? Go iambic pentameter yourself.

Lit Mags That Love Prose Poems

Publications with stories selected for this respected annual flash fiction showcase established in 2008 by Scott Garson. Wigleaf's Top 50 has become perhaps the most prestigious flash-specific recognition. These journals consistently publish very short fiction that delivers exceptional impact in minimal space.

Lit Mags with works in Wigleaf's Top 50

Online publications with essays selected for Best of the Net anthologies. The anthology typically includes 6-10 nonfiction pieces annually. These journals consistently publish digital essays and memoirs that exemplify the best of what's possible in online creative nonfiction.

Nonfiction Magazines Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Essay-focused publications with works selected for Pushcart Prize anthologies. The Pushcart increasingly celebrates innovative nonfiction, with essays often comprising nearly a third of each anthology. These journals have repeatedly identified nonfiction that resonates with Pushcart editors and readers.

Nonfiction Magazines Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Digital publications with poems chosen for Best of the Net anthologies. The anthology typically includes around 30 poems annually from hundreds of nominations. These journals consistently identify exceptional verse that represents the highest quality of poetry published online.

Poetry Magazines Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Verse-centered publications with poems chosen for Pushcart Prize anthologies. Poetry selections represent the most competitive category, with thousands of nominations for roughly 30 slots annually. These journals have consistently identified poems that stand out in this intensely competitive field.

Poetry Magazines Featured in Pushcart Prize Anthologies

Passages North

Send us your well-written, innovative creative nonfiction up to 6,500 words

Ray Ventre Memorial Creative Nonfiction Prize

Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize

The Passages North poetry editors are looking for work that is honest, conscious of craft and form, knows rules and breaks them, owns its transgressions, and challenges conventions. We want to feel punches to the gut and goosebumps of excitement. We are very much open to poems that are experimental or nontraditional and encourage submissions that get us discussing, questioning, and thinking.
Please submit a packet of 1-3 poems for consideration. If you need to withdraw part of your submission, leave us a note in Submittable.
Genre editor: Patricia Killelea

Poetry Submissions

We're looking for all manner of well-written, innovative creative nonfiction (up to 4500 words) including, but not limited to, lyric essays, personal essays, memoir, and literary journalism. We enjoy work that pays attention to form and language—whether traditionally or experimentally—and explores and challenges the boundaries of the genre. We seek work that is pathologically curious. That said, our primary concern is not with one particular component of creative nonfiction, but with the quality of the work. 
In addition to standard (whatever that means) submissions, Passages North wants your hybrid work. Send us your orphans, your bastards, your bumpings, and your grindings, whether whimsical, grave, or neither. 
Note: Submissions with extensive use of color are less likely to be publishable in our issues, though not impossible.
Genre editor: Matthew Gavin Frank

Nonfiction/Hybrids Submissions

Send us up to three short-shorts (fiction, nonfiction, prose poems, hybrids) all pasted into one document. For us, a short-short is anything beneath 1000 words (though we’re not bean counters).
On brand for our short-shorts: snowy + magical, density + clarity, mystery, precision, unique worlds and voices,  honesty, restraint, suggestion, an image that makes us stop and re-read, meditations that make us feel lost but not alone, a final moment that breaks us. 
If you need to withdraw part of your submission, please leave us a note via Submittable.
Genre editor: Jennifer A. Howard

Short-Short Submissions

We are open for fiction submissions from Sept 1-October 15 and from Jan 1-Feb 15.
Please send us your best short story, 1000 - 5000 words in length. The Passages North team has diverse interests; so send us your weird, your experimental, your speculative, your genre-bending, your brave, risk-taking work. We are looking for unique, impactful, powerful voices. We’d love to read stories featuring settings we’ve never seen, situations we couldn’t have imagined, and characters that pull us in for the ride. That said, we love the quiet ones too—the ones we’ve seen before but still hit and burn softly in the back of our brains for weeks. We want your entertaining stories and your emotional stories. A good way to win us over is through great dialogue, a propulsive first page, and an ending that either leaves us completely satisfied or begging for more. Don’t be afraid to send us your stories that hit close to home—we promise to treat them with care. 
Genre editor: Esperanza Vargas Macias

Fiction Submissions

We love experimental CNF forms so much that we made a whole new category! In Visual Essay, we are seeking work that plays on the page, bringing in color, texture, dimension; we're drawn to pieces in which the look is as meaningful as the content. We'd like to consider new meanings of the word "collage." Draw us in, consider the physicality of your work in our hands, turn us into Flat Stanley as we traverse the 2d space... and of course, above all, give us work that is curious and compelling. 
Note: Submissions with extensive use of color are less likely to be publishable in our issues, though not impossible.

Visual Essay Submissions

We always want to keep regular submissions free, but if you'd like to contribute a small donation to PN, this is the spot. Your contribution helps us showcase literature that matters. Rocket Fuel submissions will be processed at the same rate, and with the same consideration, as regular submissions. Please see below for a brief overview of our genre guidelines. We can't tell you how much we appreciate your generosity. Thank you!


Guidelines


Poetry:
Please submit a packet of 1-3 poems in a single document. If you need to withdraw part of your submission, leave us a note in Submittable.

 Creative Nonfiction/Hybrids:
Please submit 1 piece up to 6,500 words. 


Fiction:
 Please submit 1 story 1,000 - 5,000 words in length. 


Short-Shorts
Submit up to three short-shorts (fiction, nonfiction, prose poems, hybrids) up to 1,000 words in a single document.

Passages North

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