Most Competitive Literary Magazines of 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?
25 magazines
upd ∙ Dec 22, 2024
- NameAcceptance Rate
- 1
CRAFT Literary0.19% (615 tracked subs)1CRAFT Literary0.19% (615 tracked subs) - 2
The Masters Review0.23% (542 tracked subs)2The Masters Review0.23% (542 tracked subs) - 3
Bourbon Penn0.25% (770 tracked subs)3Bourbon Penn0.25% (770 tracked subs) - 4
West Branch0.33% (303 tracked subs)4West Branch0.33% (303 tracked subs) - 5
Interzone0.35% (564 tracked subs)5Interzone0.35% (564 tracked subs) - 6
MudRoom0.41% (242 tracked subs)6MudRoom0.41% (242 tracked subs) - 7
Virginia Quarterly Review0.45% (224 tracked subs)7Virginia Quarterly Review0.45% (224 tracked subs) - 8
Five Points0.49% (257 tracked subs)8Five Points0.49% (257 tracked subs) - 9
Ploughshares0.50% (294 tracked subs)9Ploughshares0.50% (294 tracked subs) - 10
$ - Poetry Is Currency0.51% (270 tracked subs)10$ - Poetry Is Currency0.51% (270 tracked subs) - 11
Bat City Review0.55% (318 tracked subs)11Bat City Review0.55% (318 tracked subs) - 12
Three-Lobed Burning Eye0.55% (905 tracked subs)12Three-Lobed Burning Eye0.55% (905 tracked subs) - 13
Orion's Belt0.57% (871 tracked subs)13Orion's Belt0.57% (871 tracked subs) - 14
Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores0.61% (491 tracked subs)14Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores0.61% (491 tracked subs) - 15
A Public Space0.61% (441 tracked subs)15A Public Space0.61% (441 tracked subs) - 16
Conjunctions0.65% (153 tracked subs)16Conjunctions0.65% (153 tracked subs) - 17
Bennington Review0.66% (580 tracked subs)17Bennington Review0.66% (580 tracked subs) - 18
F(r)iction0.69% (144 tracked subs)18F(r)iction0.69% (144 tracked subs) - 19
Storm Cellar0.71% (237 tracked subs)19Storm Cellar0.71% (237 tracked subs) - 20
One Story0.72% (172 tracked subs)20One Story0.72% (172 tracked subs) - 21
Planet Scumm0.74% (269 tracked subs)21Planet Scumm0.74% (269 tracked subs) - 22
Asimov's Science Fiction0.77% (1596 tracked subs)22Asimov's Science Fiction0.77% (1596 tracked subs) - 23
Apex Magazine0.77% (1850 tracked subs)23Apex Magazine0.77% (1850 tracked subs) - 24
SmokeLong Quarterly0.80% (1126 tracked subs)24SmokeLong Quarterly0.80% (1126 tracked subs) - 25
Chestnut Review0.83% (1208 tracked subs)25Chestnut Review0.83% (1208 tracked subs)