Where to submit a short story: 13 magazines and their rules

To submit a short story, pick a magazine whose own guidelines fit the story, then follow them to the letter: the word limit, the reading period, the fee and the rule on simultaneous submissions. We read the submission pages of 13 magazines on 3 October 2026. That day Ploughshares, AGNI, SmokeLong Quarterly and Clarkesworld were accepting stories; One Story, The New Yorker and the Kenyon Review were not.

EdCitation publishes this guide. Every rule comes from the magazine's own page, linked under References; advice of our own is marked as ours. Nothing here promises acceptance: One Story says it receives close to 5,000 submissions a year, Ploughshares over two thousand a month.

EdCitation never writes any part of anyone's work, so the story stays wholly yours. It handles the paperwork around it: the free Check your paper turns a magazine's guidelines into a checklist, each rule beside the sentence it came from.

Which magazines accept short stories, and what are their rules?

These 13 magazines take unsolicited short stories. Each row was read at its own page on 3 October 2026; quotations are the magazine's words, and "none stated" means no fee was named.

Genre rules

Clarkesworld takes science fiction and fantasy but no horror (Clarkesworld Magazine, n.d.); Strange Horizons calls its 5,000 words "a firm limit" (Strange Horizons, 2026b). AGNI, by contrast, publishes no genre romance, horror, mystery or science fiction (AGNI, n.d.).

Ireland and the UK

The Stinging Fly in Dublin had more than 3,700 submissions in its May 2026 round and is choosing its next two issues from them (The Stinging Fly, n.d.). The White Review in London is closed. The submission pages of Granta, The Paris Review and The Sun would not open for us on 3 October 2026, so they are left out.

How do reading periods and submission caps work?

A reading period is the window in which a magazine accepts work. The 13 follow three patterns.

1. Fixed dates. Ploughshares reads from 1 June to 15 November (Ploughshares, n.d.-b). AGNI opens from 1 September to 15 December and from 15 January to 31 May. The Kenyon Review opened for September 2026 only. The Threepenny Review stops reading from 15 April to 31 December.
2. Open until a cap. One Story closes when it reaches its cap. Strange Horizons announced it would open on 1 October 2026 at 3 p.m. UTC and stay open until 1,000 stories arrived (Strange Horizons, 2026a); its guidelines, updated on 2 October, said it was closed.
3. Year-round. Clarkesworld said it was open for short stories, Narrative reads "at any time, year-round", and Asimov's names no period.

Our advice for a capped window: have the story and its cover letter ready before opening day.

Pages that disagree with themselves

One Story's banner said it had reached its cap for spring 2026 and would reopen in early December 2026; lower down, the same page still named 8 June 2026 as the next opening. In our view, trust the newest notice and the portal: One Story says that if nothing shows on its Submittable page, the cap has been reached.

Can you send the same story to several magazines at once?

Only to magazines that allow it; sending one story to several at once is a simultaneous submission. One Story, Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, AGNI, SmokeLong and Narrative accept them; Clarkesworld, Asimov's, Strange Horizons, The Threepenny Review and The Stinging Fly refuse them.

Narrative Magazine (n.d.) argues that no magazine can fairly ask for an exclusive look unless it answers within two to three weeks. The Threepenny Review (n.d.) answers online submissions in two days to two weeks, asks for sole consideration in return, and says writers who ignore the rule will not be published in it.

In our reading, speed explains much of the split: Clarkesworld answers in under two days on average and refuses, while the Kenyon Review aims for six months and accepts. The pattern is loose: The Stinging Fly aims to reply within four months and still refuses.

When a story is accepted, withdraw it everywhere else at once; One Story asks for that "immediately". Our guide to the cover letter for a literary magazine covers how to say a submission is simultaneous.

Simultaneous is not multiple

A multiple submission is several pieces sent to one magazine at once, and most limit it. One Story, Ploughshares and AGNI take one story per reading period. Clarkesworld asks writers to wait seven days after a rejection before sending another. SmokeLong takes up to three flash pieces in one document through its multiple-submissions option.

Do literary magazines charge submission fees?

Some do, usually a few dollars, and each states its own. On 3 October 2026:

• No fee. The Kenyon Review charges no reading fee for general submissions; The Stinging Fly says there is "no fee".
• A small fee, with a free route. Ploughshares charges a $3.75 online service fee, and subscribers submit free. AGNI charges $3 online, waives it on request and charges nothing on paper. SmokeLong opens a free window in each reading period before "a small charge" begins, and promises a free period always (SmokeLong Quarterly, n.d.).
• Amount not given. Narrative charges a reading fee that partly funds its $5,000 Narrative Prize; its guidelines did not state the amount.
• None mentioned. One Story, Clarkesworld, Asimov's, Strange Horizons and The Threepenny Review.

Every magazine in the table that states a rate pays for the short stories it takes.

What counts as previously published, and what about AI?

Most of these magazines want unpublished work, and for several the internet counts as publication.

• One Story refuses stories published online, on blogs, personal websites or forums, but considers one printed outside North America.
• AGNI refuses anything already published in English, including on a website or a social media feed.
• SmokeLong considers a piece that appeared only on your own site or blog, if it comes down before publication.

AI policies

Every magazine here that states an AI policy refuses AI-written work, and several draw the line early. One Story refuses work made with AI "at any stage", including ideas and revision. Ploughshares asks writers to affirm that no AI tool drafted, generated or fact-checked the work, while allowing spell check, grammar check and AI used for accessibility, such as dictation. EdCitation sits comfortably beside these rules: it never writes any part of a story.

How do you prepare a story before you submit it?

Prepare it against the magazine's own page.

1. Read the magazine; SmokeLong says its archive is free to read.
2. Paste the guidelines from the magazine's page into EdCitation's free Check your paper, and keep the checklist beside you.
3. Check the length. Strange Horizons rounds the word processor's count up to the next 100.
4. Format the file as asked: standard manuscript format in .RTF or .DOCX for Clarkesworld, a PDF with title and contact details on the first page for One Story.
5. Write the cover letter the page asks for: One Story wants the word count and a short biography.
6. Clean the file. EdCitation's Mechanics QA, part of Pro, finds comments and tracked changes left in it and checks its language; its formatting check follows a citation style, not a magazine's manuscript format.
7. Send it through the magazine's own system, and log the date and the response time its page gives.

Named or anonymous?

Check whether the editors read blind; the instructions point both ways. For its regular reading period, Ploughshares wants your name and email at the top of each page; its Emerging Writers' Contest form asks entrants to remove all identifying information (Ploughshares, n.d.-a). SmokeLong and Strange Horizons want no identifying details in the document. Our guide to leftover comments and tracked changes shows what a file can give away.

What did Check your paper make of Ploughshares's guidelines?

A three-rule checklist, each rule beside its sentence. On 3 October 2026 we pasted the manuscript guidelines and online instructions from the Ploughshares "Submit your writing" page, 34 lines and 781 words, into EdCitation's Check your paper.

The page count belongs to the poetry allowance, so a story writer strikes it out; the sentence beside the rule is what shows that. Twenty-eight lines were set aside as not checked, among them the simultaneous-submission rule, the AI affirmation and "Numbered pages with the author's name and email address at the top of each page." Those you tick by hand.

Where does EdCitation fit when you submit a story?

EdCitation's Check your paper is the best tool for turning a magazine's guidelines into a checklist, because every rule sits beside the sentence it came from: that is how the stray poetry page count in the Ploughshares run was caught at a glance.

• Check your paper, free with no account: word limits, required headings, sources, citation style, font, spacing and margins, each with its sentence.
• Theoretics QA, part of Max at $24 a month: judges the finished work against that checklist, with quotations from it, and never rewrites anything.
• Mechanics QA, part of Pro at $8 a month: formatting against the style, comments and tracked changes left in the file, citations, numbers and language.
• Find sources, free: about 300 million published works, searched by topic or by the claim a sentence needs, for a story set in a real time and place.

Not a line of the story or the cover letter comes from EdCitation. Plans are on Pricing.

How do you find more magazines to submit to?

Use a database of guidelines and open windows, then read each magazine's own page. Poets & Writers (n.d.) lists nearly 1,000 literary magazines, vetted by its editorial staff, and keeps an Open Reading Periods page. The Submission Grinder is a donation-supported tracker and market database (Diabolical Plots, n.d.), and Submittable (n.d.) runs a free marketplace searchable by deadline and fee.

For undergraduates

Start on campus. plain china, a national anthology of the best undergraduate writing, reads literary journals that feature undergraduate work, from September to December and February to April (plain china, n.d.). One Story's One Teen Story publishes writers aged 13 to 19, and the Ploughshares Emerging Writers' Contest, open from 1 February to 31 March in 2026, is for writers who have not published or self-published a book. If the story is coursework too, see how to write a short story.

Quick questions

Can I submit a short story to more than one magazine at a time?

Only where each magazine allows simultaneous submissions. One Story, Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, AGNI, SmokeLong and Narrative do; Clarkesworld, Asimov's, Strange Horizons and The Threepenny Review do not.

Which literary magazines are accepting short stories now?

On 3 October 2026, Ploughshares and SmokeLong (both until 15 November), AGNI (until 15 December) and Clarkesworld were open, and Narrative reads year-round. The New Yorker reopens to fiction on 1 November 2026.

Do I have to pay to submit a short story?

Not always. The Kenyon Review and The Stinging Fly charge no fee for general submissions; Ploughshares charges $3.75 online and AGNI $3, each with a free route.

Does posting a story on my blog count as publishing it?

At some magazines, yes. One Story refuses stories posted on blogs or personal websites, while SmokeLong considers a blog piece taken down before publication.

Can EdCitation write or improve my story?

No. EdCitation never writes any part of anyone's work. Its free Check your paper reads a magazine's guidelines into a checklist; the story stays yours.

References

• AGNI. (n.d.). Submit to AGNI. AGNI Online. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://agnionline.bu.edu/submit/
• Asimov's Science Fiction. (n.d.). Writer's guidelines. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://asimovs.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines/
• Clarkesworld Magazine. (n.d.). Submission guidelines. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/
• Diabolical Plots. (n.d.). The Submission Grinder. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/
• Kenyon Review. (n.d.). Submissions. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://kenyonreview.org/submit/
• Narrative Magazine. (n.d.). Submission guidelines. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://www.narrativemagazine.com/submission-guidelines
• The New Yorker. (n.d.). Contact us. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://www.newyorker.com/about/contact
• One Story. (n.d.). Submit a story. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://one-story.com/write/submit-a-story/
• plain china. (n.d.). Submissions. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://plainchina.org/submissions/
• Ploughshares. (n.d.-a). Manuscript submission [Submission form]. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://pshares.org/product/manuscript-submission/
• Ploughshares. (n.d.-b). Submit your writing. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://pshares.org/submit/submit-writing/
• Poets & Writers. (n.d.). Literary magazines. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://www.pw.org/literary_magazines
• SmokeLong Quarterly. (n.d.). Guidelines. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://www.smokelong.com/guidelines/
• The Stinging Fly. (n.d.). Submissions. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://stingingfly.org/submissions/
• Strange Horizons. (2026a, September 7). Fiction submissions open October 1. https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/azimuth/fiction-submissions-open-october-1/
• Strange Horizons. (2026b, October 2). Fiction submission guidelines. https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/submit/fiction-submission-guidelines/
• Submittable. (n.d.). Discover. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://www.submittable.com/discover/
• The Threepenny Review. (n.d.). Submissions. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://www.threepennyreview.com/submissions/
• The White Review. (n.d.). Submissions. Retrieved 3 October 2026, from https://www.thewhitereview.org/submissions/