Going Postal with Literary Citizenship

Writer: Where should I submit my work?

Workshop Leader: To the magazines you read.

Writer: Um…

There are more literary magazines than anyone’s postman can carry. Michael Nye, managing editor of The Missouri Review tells what makes his mailbox and why.

One of the things I’ve long argued that literary journals need to embrace is transparency. Too often, writers believe that magazines simply publish their friends, and editors believe that writers only want to publish in our pages and won’t read the issue. Both stances are a bit extreme, but broadly, these are fair assessments of an environment that is too frequently opaque and combative.

I had decided that writing about which literary magazines I subscribe to would be a neat post to do, and yet, I often backtrack from it. Will I offend anyone by acknowledging I don’t subscribe to his/her magazine?

Read the list (and why) here.

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