Smart Search List of the Day Fee-Free Literary Nonfiction 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 Paying Fee-Free Literary 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:* Any Topic Agriculture/Agricultural Sciences Anthropology Architecture and Planning Astronomy/Astrophysics Business/Finance Chemistry Children/Family Communications Demography Earth Sciences Economics Education/Pedagogy Ethics Film/Television Folklore/Mythology Geography Health/Medicine History Humanities Language/Linguistics Law/Juridical Science Life Sciences Lifestyle Literature/Books Logic Mathematics Memoir Music Nature/Environment Performing Arts Philosophy Physics Place/Regions Politics/Political Science Psychology Religion/Spirituality Science Seasons/Holidays Sexuality/Gender Social Sciences Society/Culture Sociology Sports/Recreation Style/Beauty Technology Travel Visual Arts Other Include Scholarly publications Genre:* Style:* Any Style Academic Critical Experimental Humorous Literary Mainstream Minimalist Personal Quirky Satirical Technical Medium:* Type/Length:* Any Type/Length Interview Review Article Essay Narrative Nonfiction Book Excerpt Nonfiction Collection Book Include literary agents as well as publishers Max. Results: 10 20 30 40 50 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: Acceptance Pct (high to low) Acceptance Pct (low to high) Avg Response Time (low to high) Number of Submitters (reporting to Duotrope) Title Today's Smart Search List of the Day is: Fee-Free Literary Nonfiction. Check back tomorrow for a new list.Color Coding: Purple indicates a Wildcard, Green indicates a paying publication, and Blue is everything else. AC | DC AC|DC is a one-man operation, based in Brooklyn, NY, that aims to feature a diverse collection of queer voices - virgins, veterans, and everyone in between. AC|DC currently publishes new short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry by LGBTQIA+ authors on (most) Tuesdays. Beginning Fall 2025, we will publish an annual print edition featuring select works from the website.Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Sexuality/Gender.Lengths: Narrative Nonfiction.Payment: No monetary payment.Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 12.2 days.Acceptances: Challenging. 4.9% of nonfiction submissions accepted. Banshee Wildcard Banshee is a journal of exciting, accessible, contemporary writing from Ireland and around the world.Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Other.Lengths: Essay.Payment: Professional. Free copy(ies). Details: EUR €250 for an essay.Avg. Response: Slower than average responder. 112.6 days. Claudine Claudine is free, online monthly literary magazine. Each issue presents two microfictions, two micro creative nonfictions, a micro by a new writer, and a prose chapbook review (or two). Just like Claudine the cat, the prose we publish is curious, clever, and quick. Our mission is to rekindle each reader's sense of humanness through original microprose and to highlight the breathtaking array of story and emotion captured in prose chapbooks produced by small, independent presses…Topics: Open to all/most topics.Lengths: Narrative Nonfiction.Payment: Professional. Details: USD $25.Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 4.7 days.Acceptances: Challenging. 6.1% of nonfiction submissions accepted. 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. Mud Season Review Mud Season Review is an international literary journal run by members of the Burlington Writers Workshop, a free writing workshop based in Vermont. We seek to celebrate the full process of artistic creation, from inspiration to publication—welcoming into our open and collaborative community wide-ranging voices that tramp and track in the mud of human experience. Our staff is dedicated to creating a journal that mirrors the openness of these workshops…Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Memoir.Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.Payment: to Semi-pro to Professional. Details: USD $50.Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 45.0 days.Acceptances: Challenging. 5.0% of nonfiction submissions accepted. Orison Books Today, a significant gap exists between literary publishers and strictly religious publishers. Literary publishers occasionally publish books of spiritual depth, but few, if any, set out to do so as a mission and raison d’être. Religious publishers, on the other hand, tend to publish work that offers little appeal to readers outside a particular ideological group…Topics: Religion/Spirituality.Lengths: Nonfiction Collection, Book.Payment: + Unknown advance. Unknown royalties.Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 63.4 days.Acceptances: Challenging. 2.7% of nonfiction submissions accepted. Reckoning Wildcard Reckoning: an imperfect means of navigation by which one determines where they’re going using only where they’ve been. Reckoning: a settling of scores; justice. Environmental justice: the notion that the people responsible for shaping the ways humanity collectively values and interacts with all ecosystems, forms, and sources of life have not historically been the people who suffer the consequences of those choices, and that needs to change…Topics: Nature/Environment, Other.Lengths: Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.Payment: Professional. Details: USD $0.15/word.Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 30.6 days. Short Reads Short Reads is a free literary magazine emailed every Wednesday morning featuring flash nonfiction. Each edition of Short Reads is a snack in your inbox, an invitation to take a little break but not to open yet another tab in your browser. The world throws a lot of information and noise at us, a lot of the time, and flash can be an antidote for that: a brief time-out that can take you out of yourself…Topics: Open to all/most topics.Lengths: Narrative Nonfiction.Payment: Professional. Details: USD $100 for original pieces; $25 for reprints.Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 50.7 days.Acceptances: Challenging. 5.6% of nonfiction submissions accepted. The Sunlight Press Wildcard The Sunlight Press is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, digital literary journal that provides a home to new and established voices. We welcome creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, book and film reviews, photography, and reflections by artists on their craft. We want to hear the ways people turn toward light and hope, whether it is through the arts, culture, spirituality, or humor, and also how they respond to darkness and navigate unknown spaces…Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Literature/Books.Lengths: Review, Article, Essay.Payment: to Semi-pro to Professional. Details: USD $50.Avg. Response: Average responder. 68.3 days. Willows Wept Review Willows Wept Review is a literary journal that publishes writing that explores, celebrates, interrogates, and/or problematizes the relationship between human beings and the natural world. WWR has featured poetry, creative nonfiction, and short fiction by Richard Garcia, Christopher Kennedy, William Doreski, Shane Jones, Kim Chinquee, J. C. Hallman, Donora Hillard, Darby Larson, Scott Owens, Sasha Fletcher, and many others.Topics: Open to all/most topics, including: Nature/Environment.Lengths: Essay.Payment: No monetary payment.Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 47.0 days.Acceptances: Challenging. 6.7% of nonfiction submissions accepted. 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