Some of them accept submissions from adults – and all of them accept submissions from youth of various ages.

Compared to most of our lists, more of these markets are closed, because these journals have more limited submission windows.

Just Children

Stone Soup This magazine by and for children has been around since 1973. They publish work by and for kids under 13 year of age. They publish stories and poems. Their website contains a lot of helpful tips about what they are specifically looking to publish. Submissions to a few categories are free, but some have fees attached. Learn more here. 

Magic Dragon They publish stories, essays, poems, and art by young people. They don’t have strict age limits that I could find, but most work seemed to be by children under the age of 12. Learn more here.

Teens and Children

Tween Girl Magazine,  this new print magazine focuses on girls between 8-12 is open to submissions on topics like friendship and self care. To learn more go here, and scroll down.

Paper Lanterns A literary journal for anyone who is 19 or under the age of 19. Writers under 16 receive a  book voucher as payment. Anyone older than 16 receives payment. Learn more here.

Press Pause Press This literary journal publishes work by adults and by those 18 and younger. If you are younger than 18, they do have special guidelines you must follow. You can learn more here.

Highlights A very established children’s magazine, they allow general submissions from those 16 and up, but younger children are encouraged to submit poetry and art here.

Fingers Comma Toes This journal focuses on publishing work by youth, and while they don’t have a strict age range in the past they’ve published work written by people between the ages of 4 and 26. They are not currently open to submissions. To learn more, go here.

HaluHalo Journal They are open to submissions from anyone, between the ages of 12-25, but they “give preference to submissions from writers and artists of Southeast Asian decent”. What sets them apart is they promise that “every submission will receive feedback from our editors”. Learn more here.

Teens (and sometimes up)

Bridge: The Bluffton University Literary Journal This magazine of arts and letters is compiled by Bluffton University’s Department of English and Writing Program. They only publish artists and writers ages 14-24. Learn more here.

the borderline An international online literary magazine publishing poetry, prose, photography, and visual art from youth creatives aged 13–26. They are currently open for submissions to their fifth volume. You can learn more here.

Cast of Wonders Cast of Wonders is a young adult short fiction market, open to stories up to 6,000 words in length, that they publish in a podcast format. They have detailed submission guidelines but are particularly open to work by young writers. They also have a special submission window every year for for writers ages 20 and under and you can see their schedule here, but they allow younger authors to submit even outside of that, as long as they include that information in their cover letter. Learn more here. 
BALLOONS Literary Journal An online journal that publishes poetry, fiction, and art that is primarily aimed at young readers aged around 12-16, but is unconventional. They accept submissions from adults and teens. Learn more here.

Adroit Journal Adroit Journal was founded by a high school student over a decade ago now, and it is currently partially run by by high school and college students. Adroit publishes poetry, fiction, flash fiction, art/photography, and cross-genre works by adults and teens. They have a number of opportunities available to young writers, the most notable being the Summer Mentorship Program.

One Teen Story This magazine publishes three stories a year. Stories are written by teenagers and have to be submitted as part of their yearly contest. Entry is free, the winners are paid, and the next contest opens up in Fall 2024. Learn more here.

Élan They accept original fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screen writing, plays and visual art from students ages 14 to 18. They publish two online and one print issue a year. You can learn more here.

Polyphony Lit This international literary journal run by and for teens is only open to submissions from high-schoolers. They have excellent covers. You can learn more here.

Levitate Once a year, the Chicago High School for the Arts publishes their literary magazine Levitate. They are currently closed to submissions. Learn more here.

Blue Marble Review A literary journal open to students ages 13-22. Learn more here.

And Galleons Submissions for this magazine are currently closed. Writers must be between the ages of 13-22. Learn more here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2024 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.

If you work in the publishing industry and feel like you are a good potential candidate for a future interview in this series, please send us an email at: submit@authorspublish.com. We are paying all contributors to this series, and the questions will be similar to the ones asked below. These are the questions we think readers most want to hear the answers to. If you have any additional questions you think should be added to the regular rotation, please let us know by sending an email to the same address.

For our eighth instalment of the series we are talking to Casey Aimer. Casey Aimer is a cyberpunk poet and editor who holds master’s degrees in both poetry and publishing. He works for a non-profit, publishing science research articles, and is founder of Radon Journal, an anarchist science fiction semi-pro zine. His poetry has been featured in Space and Time Magazine, Apparition Lit, Star*Line, Heartlines Spec, and many more. An SFWA and SFPA member, his work has been a Rhysling Award finalist and Soft Star Magazine contest winner. He can be found on Bluesky and CaseyAimer.com. 

What is your primary role (in terms of the literary community), and how did you get it?

I serve as Founder/Editor-in-Chief of Radon Journal, a semi-pro publisher that focuses on science fiction, transhumanist, anarchist, and cyberpunk works.

The simple answer to how I got the gig is by having an idea percolate for a decade and then running with it until it became a reality.

But the real answer is longer and involves thirty years of starting writing and activist groups that failed and then learning what worked from them. Also self-publishing terrible sci-fi books on my own in high school and college to figure out the process, training to work on literary journals during my Poetry MFA, being a poet and novelist myself so I know how to treat authors, teaching university classes and learning how to share the excitement of genre art with people who don’t care, working for scientific journals to understand deadlines and planning ahead, reading genre fiction for decades to hone my editorial eye, and studying what the big leagues like Strange Horizons and AK Press do.

Essentially, being a publisher requires a multitude of skills. You piece them together from your life bit by bit until one day you realize you have the abilities needed to give readers a professional product, take good care of authors’ work, and stay sane while doing it.

Describe a typical day at the role.

A typical day features nothing but the journal on my mind until I am little more than a mixture of anxiety and hopeful plans.

But in all honesty, running a journal with set publication dates is unique in that there are never any lulls or rest periods. The nature of each day does change depending on what phase we’re in: production, launch, or post-launch (AKA reading period).

During reading periods:

– Sunday: Reading submissions and planning the weekly editor’s meeting.

– Monday: Organizing our Submittable queue for the week, writing interview questions, sending out contracts.

– Tuesday: Responding to authors and sending decision letters.

– Wednesday: Helping our Marketing Editor with author spotlight graphics for the week.

– Thursday: Updating our website with upgrades and new author interviews.

– Friday: Aiming to take a break and failing, usually reading ahead.

– Saturday: Pulling interview quotes and running a social media blast for our interviewee.

Add into each day a constant worry about how to reach readers, keep our socials alive, find funding, and think of new DIY marketing ideas that don’t require money.

In the month before launch, all editors add to their schedule detailed line and copy edits every night. And I find myself coding the site for 40 new web pages and working with the team to put together the final ePub/PDF product, planning launch events, and coordinating print and digital releases.

Lastly, all of this is typically done only after the day job finishes, during limited free time.

Still love it, though.

Does this role pay your bills?

Oh no, it’s always the other way around: My paychecks fund this role. And I work in the publishing industry, which is not known for paying well. But whatever is needed comes off the top of what I earn, as what we’re doing here is more important than I am.

The monetary situation of genre journals is well-known and well-trodden, so I won’t wax anti-poetic about it here. But as an anti-capitalist outlet, our focus was never on breaking even. It was on providing the best experience possible for readers and authors. A lot of journals pay that ideal lip service, but we made sure out the gate to have no ads, no sub fee, pay authors, respond quickly, be transparent, and support authors after publication.

We stand with the majority of the SFF field that submission fees are the mark of going about things wrong. Money should always flow from the publisher to the writer and never the other way around. Just put out a good and unique product and people will support you. If you have to nickel and dime writers, then you’re not trying to be a quality publisher; you’re just scamming young authors.

Radon is a not-for-profit journal and so we will never have positive revenue. Whenever we meet our fundraising goals through Patreon, we immediately put the money back into growing the journal. Last year we doubled our pay rates, and hopefully next time we can move to quarterly or raise our fiction word limit.

What is a common misconception people have about your work?

That editors spend most of their time editing. Industry-wide, we’re always doing a million other things. Only sometimes do we get to do the work we really love: sculpting words.

Most days, it feels like I’m more marketer than editor.

Lastly, some seem to have a misconception that editors are rooting against authors. The vast majority are rooting for every person that comes into their inbox. Editors want to publish and support you. But there are older editors who have had mental breakdowns from one too many authors not adhering to the submission guidelines and give the rest of us a bad name. We’ve all seen them before: The editors who write five pages of guidelines in all caps and threaten anyone who misses a single bullet point with rejection via the most venomous letter. If you see that sort of text, run away and find a better editor.

Have you ever considered quitting your role, and why?

I have not. Though my family has occasionally gotten perturbed by how much time I devote to the journal, it’s not something I would willingly give up. Editing and running a journal is everything I’ve wanted out of life. Well, almost everything.

The biggest danger for journal editors is burning out and growing too tired. A lot of editors only make it 4-8 years before their flame dies. I’m still in my early thirties with plenty of big ideas left. So I expect to make a long go of it like Neil Clarke.

What is the best part of your role?

Making authors happy, hands down. And providing a unique community that didn’t exist for radical writers before. Also watching careers take off from authors who submitted to us a year or two ago before making it big. Lastly, getting to revel in the nerdiest of passions with others has been a joy.

As a writer yourself, how does this work impact your creative writing?

It has simultaneously hampered and revitalized my own writing.

I am constantly inspired by our authors and the amazing ideas submitted to us. To be in the middle of such creative outpourings is akin to the post-SFF-conference high we all get.

But the time available for me to write has been reduced to mere minutes a day. There is always work to be done with a journal. One can always market more, post more, read more, edit more, design more graphics, offer more services, write more award nominations, etc. So taking the time to write has become difficult because it inherently feels like a selfish act that takes away from my family and from the authors who count on me.

But as writers, we know we’ll explode if we don’t get certain ideas down on the page. And so, every few days, I find myself writing a couple poems to relieve the screaming, traumatized voice in my head that demands to be heard.

The Writers’ Journal is currently curating their first issue. It will be published online in a format that is free to read, and it will also be available in print. 

Their first issue will be themed “Live & Learn.” Authors are invited to submit fiction, creative nonfiction, memoirs, and prose poetry responding to this theme. Submissions should be 150 to 1,000 words, and should be accompanied by a cover letter and a third-person bio of 50 words or fewer. Submitting authors can expect a response within 30 days.

The deadline to submit writing for the “Live & Learn” issue is September 1. Submitting authors must be 18 years or older.

The Writers’ Journal accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They do not accept previously published work, or writing generated by AI.

The Writers’ Journal only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting. Please also note that right now, they are only accepting submissions on the theme “Live & Learn.”

If you would like to learn more or submit to The Writers’ Journal, please visit their website here. 

In college, without paint brushes in sight, I turned to pen and paper and spent whatever time I had as a pre-med to write. Short bursts of insight on the corner of lab reports, notes on the margins became poems. And I kept those poems until I came back to Chicago after college. At some point that year, I joined the Chicago Writer’s Association Facebook page, and I ended up hosting a party to make friends with other members at my apartment.

That’s how I met Eric Allen Yankee, a newspaper hat-wearing, self-proclaimed revolutionary poet. I didn’t know at the time that he would be my “cultural broker” into the poetry scene in Chicago, inviting me to open mics, introducing me to movers and shakers like Vittorio Carli, who introduced me to yet other poets, and that in the span of nearly a decade, Eric Allen Yankee would become the publisher of my debut poetry collection.  Our literary friendship was fruitful. We collaborated on a political poem, “Too Balenciaga,” merging our styles together at an Andersonville coffeeshop one afternoon right before the Uber came, and later performed it before students at Harold Washington College, and then once again in front of 100,000 poets for peace for an international webinar last year.

Even though my first poetry collection took nearly a decade from the first poems I penned while spending the summer of 2014 at Stanford, to burning the oil at both ends grappling over fonts and pagination in the summer of 2023, I take pride in that journey. And, I recognize that Eric Allen Yankee’s support was the most valuable help I could have asked for as a new poet.

Who you know matters. And it’s not about having a huge following of people you’ve never really met or heard or touched, or rubbing elbows at the local golf club with your dad’s screenwriting friends, although that might help. There’s no denying the benefits of listening to jazz records with your friend’s dad who happens to work for LucasFilm, if screenwriting is your thing.  But, what I am talking about is the authentic nurturing of your network and building relationships that are deep and meaningful. Because those you know will speak your name in rooms where you are not present. They will champion your work when you are at your weakest—when you question every word, punctuation mark, your very sanity. And they will know someone who will love your work, and that person will invite you to a poetry reading, and someone else will invite you to a talk, and then a panel, and then someone in the audience will nominate you for an award you’ve never heard of, and then you’ll get an email, and you’ll stare in disbelief that someone read your work, and not only liked it but felt inspired by it, moved by it, and that they felt that was something to be recognized. You’ll barely catch breath thinking of this, and smile knowing it’s all because you knew somebody who knew somebody who told you to join the Chicago Writers’ Association.

In a world where the publishing world feels completely impenetrable by the masses of writers who stay awake long after the sun retires to bed, in a world where not everyone’s mother is a network or magazine executive, in a world where writing for the sake of writing is a revolutionary, humanistic act, the ability to build relationship continues to break barriers, move obstacles, and pave paths to opportunity that eludes everyday writers.  And I live for everyday writers, for I am one.  

Here’s my best advice to really build relationships, get out of your own way, and support your network as you build your brand, get published, and get read.

1. Get out of your own way. Attend conferences, spend money to go to a local event, buy a beer or a mocktail at an open mic and support your peers. Sending submissions out into the ether is a little like sending resumes these days.  You never know who will forward an Authors Publish email to you in time to apply for your next successful submission or who will introduce you to your future agent or publisher at a conference after-party. And they do exist. Few writers got lucky by sitting on the couch. No writer is an island, though we sometimes want to be.
2. Nurture those relationships with authenticity. Let people get to know who you really are. Don’t hide behind the ‘gram. After all, people judge people, people read people, and people write about people. I befriended one of my interviewers and she has become one of my biggest supporters. I also invite writing professors to my birthdays and family gatherings.
3. Still, don’t forget to write. You should always be writing, or reading, or writing. Write when something is begging to be told. Read when you can’t find the words or the fuel to keep writing.
4. You are your work’s best marketer and VP of Sales. If you aren’t on social media, if you aren’t effectively growing your brand as a writer, you are selling yourself short. Agents and publishers want to see writers who are self-advocating, who have following, who are able to grow their audience. So, you’ll want to build digital presence that is primed to “convert”.  There are a ton of tutorials and tips on this, but you know your audience best.
5. And finally, plan. For many years, I never quite had the presence of mind to earmark registration and scholarship deadlines. Post-its, no matter how colorful, would get lost or buried. This year I’ve managed to find the right apps and tools to keep me up to date on the opportunities that matter to me. Do that so you are more prepared for when opportunities pop up. Get out there. Develop that self-discipline. It is the biggest form of self-love.

Bio: Damiana Andonova is the author of black holes and gypsy hearts are forever (Honeybees for Peace Press, 2023), nominated for a Best New Poetry Collection in Chicago; and her second poetry collection, Baby Universes is forthcoming summer of 2024. She lives in Chicago with her Bernese Mountain Dog, Berlius.