19 Magazines and Contests Looking for Work by 40+ Writers (featuring Becky Tuch)
Plus an essay on aging with gusto and celebrating older writers in the literary world (Sub Club List #18)
This week's guest writer is Becky Tuch, creator of Lit Mag News-— a resource for all things lit mag! Below, find her essay on the vibrant lives of the individuals she meets her local YMCA, while contemplating the lack of representation of older perspectives in literary magazines.
One of my favorite places to hangout is the sauna at my local YMCA. I love the heat, I love the feeling of my pores opening up and releasing whatever my body has decided to get rid of. Also, I love the people.
My local Y has a wonderful cross-section of people from my neighborhood. Sometimes when I’m in the sauna, I’m there alone. I might read a book. Other times, there are one or two other people in there with me. We make small talk about the local public pools or the benefits of peppermint oil. More often, we sit in companionable silence. We just sit together, these strangers and I, and together we sweat.
Recently, I was there when an Aqua Fit class in the pool had just ended. I’d been sharing the space quietly with one other person when suddenly we found ourselves joined by six seniors who had just completed the class.
This particular sauna is small, and a big sign near the door says 3 PEOPLE MAX. But these seniors did not care one lick. They were giddy from their workout, they were ribbing each other non-stop—one had been late to class, another felt the water was too cold, that person always thinks the water is too cold, this one is always late to class…They were joking around and laughing wildly, like sweet and naughty little kids.
I wanted to stay in that crowded, noisy, very very hot little room with them all afternoon. And, even more than that, I felt a deep yearning to interview each one of them. They were various races, religions, genders, body types. But they all had one thing in common: they were all a certain age. From what I could tell, they had arrived at this age with no shortage of gusto, energy and spunk.
What I would have liked to ask in my imagined interview is, Tell me all about your life. What do you think is the secret to aging well? What do you do in your own life to keep yourself energetic, strong, buoyant, happy? In short, tell me everything about everything.
As I’ve watched my parents enter old age, and as I myself have become, as my mom likes to remind me, “no spring chicken,” I’ve been reflecting a lot on how, in our society we think about (or, more to the point, don’t think about) the elderly. In particular, how do we think about (or not think about) the elderly in the literary world?
In addition to spending a fair amount of time at my local sauna, I also spend a fair amount of time reading, thinking and writing about literary magazines. (I write a Substack dedicated to helping writers navigate them.) I’ll be honest. What I see in most lit mags is content that skews toward younger readers and writers. It’s good, often great, writing. I learn from and genuinely enjoy much of it.
But in terms of subject matter, what comes up most often is writing about children and their parents (from the perspective of the child or a teenager); people in their twenties navigating relationships and/or finding ways to heal from trauma; people dealing with marriage or divorce; people struggling with having or raising young children; people going on adventurous trips or dealing with socio-political crises; the latter bunch mostly told from the perspective of someone in their thirties or forties. When an older person’s perspective is featured, it tends to be from a writer who has already built up a name in the lit mag world.
Are there exceptions? Of course.
Might there also be reasons for this beyond aesthetic bias? Absolutely. One reasonable explanation is that older writers could very well be further along in their careers. Many may have switched to working on books rather than shorter work for lit mags. Even newer older writers might prefer to work on a novel or memoir rather than shorter works.
But I will say this: At my Substack, many people who comment on my articles, show up to listen to my editor interviews, and participate in information sessions are people over the age of sixty. Just last week, I ran an info session for writers. The very first question from an attendee was, “I’m over 50. Should I even try to publish in academic literary magazines?”
In the publishing world, honors for young writers abound. There’s Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. Here’s Lit Hub’s List of Best Young American Novelists. For a while, The New Yorker ran its 20 Under 40 fiction list. Here is Buzzfeed’s 20 Under 40 Debut Writers You Need To Be Reading. Here is Penguin’s List of 15 Authors Under 35 to Watch.
These sorts of lists, while depressing for many of us, perhaps make sense in the for-profit world of book and commercial magazine publishing. There is an investment to be made in younger writers, one which could pay off for decades to come.
Literary magazines, however, do not operate in this for-profit realm. That’s why I love them. They are an alternative to the pressures and constraints that define corporate business models. They have different sources of funding. In many cases, they have no funding at all. While presenting certain challenges, this also provides lit mags with a degree of aesthetic freedom.
Where, then, is a big lit mag prize for Best Debut Short Story Writer Over 70? Where is the award for Best Personal Essay by a Writer over 60? Where are the submission fee waivers for older writers, many of whom are likely no longer working and are on a very strict monthly budget?
And where are the lit mags actively cultivating work from this crowd? Where are the submission guidelines that say, We especially encourage work from older writers?
Many older writers might not want awards or submission calls specifically targeted toward them. I understand this completely. Sometimes you don’t want to be chosen because you’re in a certain category; you want to be chosen simply because your work is great, period.
Nonetheless, if you’re an editor reading this and you want to hear from older writers, I hope you will add your journal in the comments section. I know a whole lot of writers who want to hear from you and to know their work may find a good home in your magazine.
And, in my opinion, we should want to hear from these writers too. In the pages of literary magazines, in the sauna, or wherever it is, we find ourselves ready to listen.
Weekly Specials: Magazines Looking for Work only by 40+ Writers
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