Best Lit Mags of 2023: Chill Subs Community Favorites # 6-10
“Transparency, quick response, easy vibe.” / “There’s nothing else like it.” / “Wonderful editors, diverse authors, and beautiful presentation.”
One of our favorite reasons we got for nominations was how passionate, kind, helpful, supportive, dedicated each and every editor was. Each magazine in these next 5 was nominated for their innovative styles, inclusive communities and badass editorial teams. That is the kind of thing we want to celebrate. That is what we’re setting out to draw more attention to with this “Best Of” countdown. That is what these five magazines are doing every damn day.
Each of these magazines will be given a Top 10 Best Lit Mag of 2023 badge on their Chill Subs profile. Whenever we mention them, we will bring it up worse than a grandparent whose favorite grandchild just won a soccer tournament. If you have the means, please consider supporting these editors and their publications. They go above and beyond to try and make indie lit a better, more inclusive, more innovative place for writers.
We are fully funded by our premium users and paid subscribers. If you like the work we are doing and have the means to support us, you can sign up on our website or upgrade to a paid subscription here on Substack.
Each of these magazines will SOON have a Top 10 Lit Mag of 2023 badge added to their listing pages on Chill Subs! Check it out:
10th - Bullshit Lit
“great writing, deeply cool”
To say that Bullshit Lit champions its writers is to say that Beckett wrote some odd plays—it just isn't enough. From the jump, Bullshit Lit has not only published some of the most exciting and engaging work from emerging artists on its site, but prints some of the most eye-catching and attention-grabbing chapbooks in the game. Veronica Bennett taken the DIY Lit crown as they continually pedestal the shit other mags just aren't ready for. If you're an artist just trying to get your head above water in the all-too-exclusive ocean of publishing, BSL is the hand that pulls you ashore. New York punks had CBGB's, Lit-Twitter dorks have Bullshit Lit.
Veronica works so hard to run everything and ship everything and does it all in a generally timely manner and is super sweet in the process
This mag has been a life force for poetry in Philly in the past year. They deserve to be nominated for their role in bringing poetry together, creating community and uplifting queer voices.
Their timing and organization of submissions and publishing’s are well thought. They have a horny imprint that lets others explore other parts of themselves. Diverse subject matters.
EIC is incredibly passionate about every aspect of BULLSHIT, very thoughtful about submissions, hypes up authors and does a lot of social media promo, no fees. I have nothing but good experiences with BULLSHIT!
BULLSHIT LIT MAG is a US-based magazine founded in 2021 that is fee-free, responds within 20 days.
online lit mag, based in Philadelphia. new shit every W/T/F. lovers of bad poems, ugly prose, + lazy lore.
They accept simultaneous submissions.
Submit via email.
Genres [Fiction. Flash. (3) Nonfiction. Poetry. (3)]
They nominate work for Pushcart Our records show that they are active on social media.
They are in the Top 2% of most popular magazines on Chill Subs.
Visit them: BULLSHIT LIT MAG
9th - HAD
“HAD continues to change the game.”
Their unique sub model is fun and refreshing and gives me an adrenaline shock, which saves me coffee money! The pieces they publish are so particular and the voices they curate are so strong and unusual. Really beautiful work featured there that I think sometimes would be overlooked by more traditional mags.
They do such a great job of making the normally agonizing process of submission and rejection fun.
Innovative, Inviting, and frequently communicative with their community, HAD is everything a litmag shroud be. And the pieces themselves are always fantastic
The pure insanity and anxiety of HAD's model is next level. 60 seconds to get a piece submitted before the submissions are capped. Exhilaration and frustrating all in one, and you're dying to read the pieces the made the cut.
Quirky, feels kinda culty, love the short submission windows that panic you into action
HAD is a US-based magazine founded in 2020 that is fee-free, usually responds within a day or so.
We had an idea for a journal that, like most things Hobart-related, started as something of a joke... until it became a real thing. If submissions are open, we've probably had a couple drinks. We're Hobart After Dark. Best source of parenting content on the internet.
They accept simultaneous submissions.
Submit via Submittable.
Genres [Fiction. Nonfiction. Poetry.]
They have a solid social media presence with 10K+ followers.
Visit them: HAD
8th - Cosmic Daffodil
“Wonderful editors, diverse authors, and beautiful presentation.”
Fun new journal that should be better known. Cool vibe and welcoming editors.
Beautiful presentation of writers' work, GREAT variety of work, awesome team
Transparent editors. Very organized. The journal is growing with every new issue.
Variety of work published, ease to submit, as a one-time contributor (so far, anyway) communication with editors was timely and my work felt appreciated and taken care of.
They are beautiful, chill, lovely to work with!
Cosmic Daffodil Journal is a US-based magazine founded in 2022 that is fee-free, responds within 21 days.
This journal is born out of love for art; poetry, fiction & non-fiction, short stories, paintings, sculptures, everything, and anything creative.
No simultaneous submissions.
Submit via Duosuma.
Genres [Fiction. Nonfiction. Poetry. (5)]
Visit them: Cosmic Daffodil
7th - After Dinner Conversation
“There’s nothing else like it.”
Excellent content, editor who is passionate about his magazine and communicates in a prompt and frank way with writers.
The editor is so compassionate with acceptances and declines. He cares about providing a thought provoking magazine.
They make me think outside of the box... except it's not outside the box, it's every day thoughts presented in a different way. My friends and I love discussing the short stories.
It has high publication standards and makes ethical issues more accessible to readers both familiar and unfamiliar with the subject matter. It publishes a variety of genres, and it takes deep thought as well as a level of sophisticated coherency to write an ethical dilemma into any story (its rejection rate is roughly 2/3 or 3/4). In a society where Thanksgiving is ground for heated political and ethical discussion, it's good to get ethical questions into less personal, fictional grounds that bring up universal problems in specific parameters that are enjoyable as art.
Fast response time. Lovely editors. Very prompt payment. Great communication. Very careful editing. Proofs provided before publication. Good publicity for story. Free digital 1-year subscription for contributors, as well as payment.
After Dinner Conversation is a US-based magazine founded in 2019 that is fee-free, pays writers and responds within 90 days.
A monthly magazine that publishes short fiction stories that ask interesting ethical or philosophical questions.
They accept simultaneous submissions.
They are open to some previously published works.
Submit via their form.
Genres [Fiction. (Pay: $75]
They nominate work for Pushcart
They are in the Top 2% of most popular magazines on Chill Subs.
They are well-established on social media (20K+ following)
Listed in Erika Krouse's Top 500 Fiction Magazines
Visit them: After Dinner Conversation
They also have a Substack!
6th - ONE ART
“Transparency, quick response, easy vibe.”
Stellar poetry. Clean design. The one poem a day model keeps it from being overwhelming; I don't feel daunted by reading the journal. I can check in, read a great poem, and go one without feeling like I'm shortchanging the journal.
The editors care about your work and respond within days. They publish diverse voices and styles. Good editors to work with.
I love the content. I love the appearance of the journal, and I really love the speedy response time. The editor is kind and sometimes offers really helpful feedback.
ONE ART, even when they send rejections, takes pains to be kind, answer questions, communicate with their contributors. It's a rarity amont journal editors
Good poems, some brilliant, delivered every day, plus and editors as welcoming to poets as he is to poems. This journal links many communities into one sprawling community held together by poems an love for them.
ONE ART: a journal of poetry is a US-based magazine founded in 2020 that is fee-free, responds within 7 days.
ONE ART is a home for good poems. We aim to publish poetry that adds value to the life of our readers. We hope to offer, sustain, and nourish a kind, inviting, and thoughtful community.
They accept simultaneous submissions.
Submit via email.
Genres [Poetry. (5)]
They nominate work for Pushcart, BOtN.
Our records show that they are active on social media.
They are in the Top 10% of most popular magazines on Chill Subs.
I took a dozen Bullshit Lit stickers and now I get to smile at them everyday on my way to work. I put them up on all the parking signs between here and my station here in Seattle. “Write more bullshit”
Yay!