Alcove Press is focused on publishing upmarket Book Club fiction that “explores family, friendship, and community”. They are actively trying to publish debut authors as well as established ones. You can see the books they’ve published so far here. You can learn more about their launch in this Publishers Weekly article.

They are distributed by Random House. They have also partnered with Dreamscape Media, to produce and distribute their titles as audiobooks.

Unlike most publisher websites they are not focused on selling books, because they are distributed through Random House, you actually have to buy their books elsewhere online. Instead they share detailed information about their editors and what each editor is seeking. You can learn more.

The editors all bring a great deal of experience to the table and that inspires trust as well. It’s very easy to get a feel for what they are looking to publish because of the detailed information involving what each editor is drawn to.

As always, only submit if your work seems like a good fit.

Alcove Press’s query tracker link is here. All the details you need are on query tracker  They ask that you send your query letter, along with the first two chapters of your manuscript directly in the body of an email. They only contact authors they are interested in working with. They do so within two weeks. If you haven’t heard from them by then, assume rejection.

They accept work inspired by all cultural backgrounds and time periods, and they publish a wide variety of styles and forms. They especially love writing that includes vivid, memorably imagery. You can get a sense of their aesthetic by reading the journal online.

Carmina is published twice a year online, in March and September. They accept submissions year-round, and submitting authors can expect a response within ten weeks.

Authors of short stories may submit up to three pieces, 3,000 words or fewer. Poets may submit up to five poems, 100 lines or fewer. To submit longer stories or poems, authors may query. Carmina accepts reprints, as well as unpublished writing.

Carmina reads submissions blind, so they’re a great venue for unpublished authors. Submitting authors should take care to remove any identifying information from their submitted writing.

Carmina accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions but ask that authors withdraw work published elsewhere.

Carmina only accepts submissions that adhere to the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Carmina, please visit their website at http://carminamagazine.com/submissions.html.

Writing poetry is just part of the process. After you write and edit, you have to think about—ya know—the publication process. Normally, you might group a series of poems and send them out to tried-and-true magazines. But not all of your poems fit neatly with what editors say they want.

That cross-genre poem scribbled on a postcard paired with a Smiths song still needs a home, and we’re going to help you find it!

STREETCAKE

Streetcake Magazine is all about experimental writing. Their most recent issues feature pieces like “my first kiss was with a computer” by Winston Plowes, poems in the shape of houses, poems hidden inside website source code, poems that look like city advisories, and pieces you might have not expected. This is the place to send your strange little creature poems that you have no idea what to do with.

FOUND POLAROIDS

Found Polaroids is exactly what it sounds like—it’s a website with a bunch of found Polaroids. You can creep on the website and find one that inspires you. Then write a 250-300 word narrative/story/piece inspired by the photo.

Found Polaroids wants to “breathe new life” into these images. In 2017, a collection of the best stories were collected and published by Aint Bad into a beautiful collection for sale here.

Remember, don’t be scared of writing stuff that’s outside of the norm. There’s a whole bunch of us (hi!) excited to read your work, and there are magazines ready to publish your nontraditional, nonconformist, Polaroid responses.

FOGLIFTER JOURNAL

Foglifter was created for groundbreaking queer and trans writers and it loves wild subject matter that “pushes the boundaries of what writing can do.”

They publish poets like Vianney Casas, whose bio reads like a story I want to purchase:

Vianney Casas was born in San Diego but raised in Tijuana. Before moving to San Francisco in 2013, she crossed the border every day for 6 years to go to school. She has been featured in Canto, Cipatli, Bossy, Chevere, Gentromancer, and Yerba Mala. Her work is a surrealist testimony where Spanish, psychoanalysis, visual art and artists like Garcia Marquez, Dali, Frida Kahlo, and Ana Mendieta join powers to create poetry. (From Foglifter)

Go on, submit your single poems or full-length collections to Foglifter.

MEEKLING PRESS

Meekling is a beautiful and strange press based out of Chicago run by Rebecca Elliot. They’re known for publishing poems on floppy disk, hand printing poems on postcards, and sending out zines—just like the ones you used to love in the early nineties. Meekling is great for those one-off scribbles on the back of a napkin a-la-Dickinson that you just can’t find a home for, your visionary poems begging for a press that pays close attention to detail AND can get down with your wildcards.

Their Google meta title says, “the vast labyrinthine bureaucracy of meekling press” and if that doesn’t give you a hint at what they’re excited about, their submissions guidelines might.

We are as interested in publishing a single sentence as something like a novel. What is more important is to find that sentence or that novel (etc) its most wonderful, thoughtfully-created nest. (From Meekling’s About Us page.)

So go on, submit your hybrid poems, your stories built from a single line, your work that can only be put on a floppy disk. Whatever you want to do, Meekling is probably excited about it. Please note, at the time of publication of this article, Meekling Press was not currently open to submissions.

TACO BELL QUARTERLY

This is a real magazine that says things like:

We’re freaks, slackers, punks, rule-breakers, people with weird ideas, writers, artists, and dreamers. We welcome writers and artists of all merit, whether you’re published in The Paris Review, rejected from The Paris Review, or DGAF what The Paris Review is. 

Their letter from the editor is more like a love letter than an editorial, and sometimes, it’s a love letter to Taco Bell:

Hell, maybe it ain’t that bad. There’s still Taco Bell. But even the Taco Bell menu—that rock-solid foundation of guilty pleasures and bacchanalian sustenance—could not escape this timeline. It began hemorrhaging beloved menu items.

They want Taco-Bell themed poems. Yep. You heard me right. Taco Bell poems, stories, essays, you name it. And, despite what you might think, their magazine is always full of pieces about You Know What.

Please note, at the time of publication of this article, Taco Bell Quarterly was not currently open to submissions.

Kallie Falandays runs Tell Tell Poetry. A poetry resource site helping secret poets publish their poems.