Smart Search List of the Day

Fee-Free Literary Essays

Smart Search is one of several search options for our members. It enables you to search for publishers and agents using the most common options and provides a short list of results that's curated and updated daily. This helps you find that gold nugget in the stream with as little effort as possible. Although you aren't a member yet, we are giving you a free preview of our Smart Search below. Read our Guide to Smart Search for more information about this feature.

Note: These are the results of a previous Smart Search List of the Day. Today's Smart Search is General Literary Flash Fiction.

Instructions: Select at least one bolded (asterisk) option below and click Search. To include some lesser-known publishers, select "Include Wildcards."

Piece:

Clear

Poetry Form:*

Topic:*

Include Scholarly publications

Genre:*

Style:*

Medium:*

Type/Length:*

Include literary agents as well as publishers

Max. Results:

Fees:

Include Fee-Based Submissions

Pay:

Paying Projects Only

Include 'Unknown' Payscale

Refinements:

Include Wildcards

Wildcards are listings that are lesser-known and don't have enough data yet for complete statistics.

Exact Matches Only

Sort By:

Today's Smart Search List of the Day is: Fee-Free Literary Essays. Check back tomorrow for a new list.
Color Coding: Purple indicates a Wildcard, Green indicates a paying publication, and Blue is everything else.

The Apple Valley Review

The Apple Valley Review is an online literary journal. Each issue features a collection of beautifully crafted poetry, short fiction, and essays.
Topics: Open to all/most topics.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 21.4 days.
Acceptances: Unknown. None reported yet in nonfiction.

Select

Jump to Actions

Apricity Press

Apricity Press is an online publication of poetry, prose, short fiction, visual art and dance works. Embodying the obsolete word it was named after, Apricity aims to manifest the feeling of the warmth of the sun in the winter in all that it publishes. Established in 2015, Apricity Press was created to fill an immense void in the publishing world. While there are a myriad of presses, literary journals and magazines, many lack the ability to publish multi-genre works, especially dance works…
Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Other.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 20.0 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 6.3% of nonfiction submissions accepted.

Select

Jump to Actions

The Drop Wildcard

The Drop is published four times a year and includes short form fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. We are also very open to genre/form blends and mixed media. The Drop is the digital journal of Petrichor Art & Literary, a nonprofit indie press.
Topics: Open to all/most topics.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.

Select

Jump to Actions

The Gilded Weathervane

The Gilded Weathervane is looking for poems, stories, essays, artwork, and photography grounded in the beauty of spring/summer and the experience of rural living in its various expressions.
Topics: Other.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment. Free copy(ies).
Avg. Response: Average responder. 65.7 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 26.3% of nonfiction submissions accepted.

Select

Jump to Actions

Hibiscus Magazine

Hibiscus is a literary and arts magazine with sweet and tangy content that warmly feeds the soul. We seek the sweetest poem or the tangiest essay. We seek authenticity and raw diction, quirky creativity, and literary chaos. We want beckoning art, and anything that seems too weird to submit anywhere. We honestly won’t know what we’ll like until we see it. So send us your weird, your best, your worst, and your in-betweens. We welcome all! Ultimately, we just want our souls fed.
Topics: Open to all/most topics.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Slower than average responder. 292.5 days.
Acceptances: Unknown. None reported yet in nonfiction.

Select

Jump to Actions

The Itch Lit

Why The Itch? Some stories entertain. Some stories explain. The stories we love most do neither. They linger. They follow us into grocery stores and waiting rooms. They wake us at three in the morning. They demand another draft. Another reading. Another look. The Itch exists for writing that refuses to leave. We publish work that burrows beneath the skin—flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid forms that surprise, unsettle, delight, or haunt…
Topics: Open to all/most topics.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 46.1 days.
Acceptances: Unknown. None reported yet in nonfiction.

Select

Jump to Actions

The Missouri Review

The Missouri Review, founded in 1978, is one of the most highly regarded literary magazines in the United States. For the past four decades we’ve upheld a reputation for finding and publishing the very best writers first. We are based at the University of Missouri and publish four issues each year. Each issue contains approximately five new stories, three new poetry features, and two essays, all selected from unsolicited submissions sent by writers throughout the world.
Topics: Open to all/most topics.
Lengths: Essay, Book Excerpt.
Payment: Professional. Details: USD $25 per page.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 31.4 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 1.8% of nonfiction submissions accepted.

Select

Jump to Actions

Redivider

Redivider is run by graduate students at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. We are passionate about creating space for both emerging and established authors and artists to showcase their work. The journal was founded in 1986, originally as the Beacon Street Review, and renamed as Redivider in 2004. We currently publish online twice per year, as well as a yearly Blurred Genre summer mini issue. We do not publish work from current Emerson College students, faculty, or staff…
Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Other.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment. Free copy(ies).
Avg. Response: Average responder. 74.3 days.
Acceptances: Unknown. None reported yet in nonfiction.

Select

Jump to Actions

The Spotlong Review Wildcard

The Spotlong Review, founded in 2021, is a New York- and Philadelphia-based literary journal dedicated to championing innovative work that packs a punch, questions conventional mores, and, most of all, explores human connection from surprising angles. Our greatest aim is to reserve a space for all kinds of exceptional writing and visual art regardless of form, intent, or subject matter.
Topics: Open to all/most topics.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 13.0 days.

Select

Jump to Actions

Sugared Water Wildcard

If we could candy words, we’d eat them to bellyaches every afternoon. We carry journals and collect chapbooks like Smaug ripping through a gold-sequin disco. If we’re lucky enough to leave something behind that enriches the dialogue of writerly types around the world, so much the better. Yes, we love the lyric essay. We adore character sketches, journal entries, letters, and flash nonfiction…
Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Other.
Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.

Select

Jump to Actions

Bulk Actions: Select all | Deselect all

Jump to Top

Add selected to Favorites
Add selected to Ignore List (Ignored listings will be hidden from you across the site.)

Cookie Consent: This site uses secure first-party cookies for essential, preference-setting, and statistical purposes. We do not use any marketing, advertising, or third-party cookies. Read our full cookie policy.

Accept All Cookies

Allow Essential Cookies Only