When you're just starting to circulate your work, there really isn't any such thing as a "bad" publishing credit, but when your story, poem or essay appears alongside that of more widely published authors, it's all the better of course. So for this post I want to look at some journals whose stated mission is to showcase new(er) writers/poets along with their better-known colleagues.
Looking in Duotrope's Digest (one of my favorite sources for finding outlets), this journal came to light: Contemporary World Literature, whose editors "publish well-known authors to beginners," according to their "About" page. They write further, "Our goal is to publish those who are not mainstream authors, but we are also interested in mainstream." An added plus, for new writers especially, is that Contemporary World Literature is a fledgling market.
A similar market is The Adroit Journal, similar in that it is fledgling and its editors have an eye out for experienced as well as newer (also known as "emerging") writers and poets. They write, via their Submishmash site, "We love to publish emerging writers, but also experienced, established writers. Don't let us scare you out of submitting!" Adroit has an interesting background, founded by a fifteen-year-old who was "frustrated" with competing with more experienced authors for publishing space. Moreover, Adroit supports the charity Guiding Eyes for the Blind, based in New York.
Far from "fledgling," Southern Poetry Review is the second oldest poetry journal "in the region," according to its homepage. Their semi-annual publication "showcas[es] poems by leading poets as well as those writers we think will become leading poets." It's worth noting that well-established journals, like SPR, tend to take great pride in finding and publishing unpublished or underpublished writers and poets. Competition for space can be fierce, but if you're able to place a story or poem or creative essay it's an especially fetching feather in your publishing cap. Incidentally, I used another of my favorite resources for locating publishing outlets, NewPages.com, to find Southern Poetry Review, which was a featured listing under literary magazines.
These of course are just a microscopic fraction of the journals that are openly looking to publish new writers alongside more seasoned ones. A little research will quickly yield a lengthy list of potential markets.
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