Where to Send Your Flash Fiction and Nonfiction (and get paid)
Submitting creative writing work can be frustrating and intimidating. There are so many magazines. You have to navigate which ones charge fees, when they’re open, whether they pay, whether they actually take unsolicited work or just say that they do, etc. If you’re just starting out it can be hard to understand the landscape. This is especially true with flash creative writing.
What is flash? When I started my MFA program I had never heard that term before. It generally refers to prose writing that is very short, let’s say below 1,500 words, though that’s actually kind of a contentious subject. I started writing some flash pieces over the last few years, and I found it was hard to know where to send them, let alone where I might get paid. I decided to do some research, and I’ve found that while the majority of magazines that accept flash don’t pay, some do. If you’re like me, with some flash fiction or nonfiction (or hybrid!) work that you’d like to send to paying markets, take a look at the chart below. It’s not exhaustive by any means, but it’s a start. It’s organized in descending order based on the amount of money they pay.
| Magazine | Genre(s) Fiction (F) Nonfiction (CNF) Sci Fi/Genre (SF/G) | Word Limits (for flash) | Fee | Payments |
| Subtropics | F/CNF | ? | $3 | $500 |
| Kenyon Review | F/CNF | 1,000 | Free? | ? |
| New Orleans Review | F/CNF | No Limit | $3 | $175 |
| Extra Teeth | F/CNF | 800-4,000 | $0 | £100 |
| Chestnut Review | F/CNF | 1,000 | $0 | $100 |
| Craft Literary | F/CNF | 1,000 | $0 | $100 |
| Electric Literature | F | 1,500 | $0? | $100 |
| El Chapo Review | F/CNF | 1,000 | $0 | $100 |
| Flash Fiction Online | F/SF/G | 500-1,000 | $0 | $80 min |
| The Forge | F/CNF | ? | $0 | $75 |
| Malahat Review | F/CNF | 750 F 1,000ish CNF | $0 | $50ish/pg |
| Gulf Coast Online | F/CNF | 3,000 | $3 | $50/pg |
| Tahoma Literary Review | F/CNF | 1,500 | $4 | $55 |
| Smokelong Quarterly | F/CNF | 1,000 | $0 | $50 |
| Vestal Review | F/SF | 500 | $3 | $50 |
| Split Lip Online | F/CNF | 2,000 CNF 1,000 F | $50 | |
| Lor Journal Experimental Work | F/CNF | 1,000 | $0 | $50 |
| Dirty Spoon Food-related Content Only | CNF | 750-1,500 | $0 | $50 |
| Copper Nickel | F/CNF | No Limit | $2 | $30/pg |
| Five Points | F/CNF | 500 | $3 | $25/pg |
| Brevity | CNF | 750 | $3 | $45 |
| Willow Springs | F/CNF | 750 | $3 | $40 |
| Hippocampus | CNF | 800 | $3 | $40 |
| Baltimore Review | F/CNF | No Limit | $0 | $40 |
| Sundog Lit | F/CNF | 750 F 1,000 CNF | $3 | $25 |
| Split Lip Print | F/CNF | 2,000 CNF 1,000 F | $5/pg $20 min | |
| Matchbook Lit | F/CNF | 1,000 | $0? | $20 |
| Spartan Lit | F | 1,500 | $0 | $20 |
| The Short Story Publishing | F/CNF | 800/CNF Flash fiction? | $0 | £15 |
| The Waking | F/CNF | 1,500 | $0 | $10 |
| The West Review | F | 1,500 | $0 | $10 |
| Third Point Press | F | 1,000 | $0 | $10 |
| Racontuer Mag | F/CNF | 2,000 | $0 | $10 |
Here’s a very short additional list of six magazines that are looking for women writers, non-binary writers, and/or material with a queer bent. I’m sorry the list is so short, and I’ll keep adding to it, but these six all pay.
| Understorey Magazine For writers who identify as women or non-binary | F/CNF | 1,500 | $0 | $150 |
| Six Hens For writers who identify as women | CNF | 2,000 | $0 | $50 |
| Baffling Mag Writing with a queer bent | F/SF/G | 1,200 | $0 | $.08/word |
| Beestung Mag For writers who identify as non-binary or two-spirit | F/CNF | ? | $0 | $20 |
| Minola Review For writers who identify as women or non-binary | F | ? | $0 | $20 |
| Yellow Arrow For writers who identify as women | CNF | 500-5,000 | $0 | $10 |
If you’re on the fence about sending stuff out, I’d say go for it! The worst that can happen is that you get a bunch of form rejections, and then you can go back and work some more. If you’re worried that your writing isn’t quite where you want it to be yet, check out my Editing Services page! I’m happy to take a look at your work and provide constructive feedback!
Good luck!
evansenie 