Personal Essays

bioStories offers word portraits of the people surrounding us in our daily lives, of the strangers we pass on the street unnoticed and those intimate to us who have been most influential and most familiar but who remain strangers to others. We feature essays from an eclectic variety of writers…
Topics:   History, Memoir.
Lengths: Essay.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 33.9 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 20.0% of nonfiction submissions accepted.

In Short: A Journal of Flash Nonfiction is an independent literary magazine for flash nonfiction at every length. We publish creative nonfiction of 1,000 words or fewer, micros of 400 words or fewer, and short-shorts of 100 words or fewer. By publishing short-form creative nonfiction, we aim to provide a platform for writers who lack the time and resources typically needed for publication…
Topics:   Open to all/most topics, including: Memoir.
Lengths:   Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 44.6 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 2.9% of nonfiction submissions accepted.

Lake Effect is a publication of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Lake Effect is looking for well-crafted and lively literary or personal essays. We are not looking for literary criticism, but essays that engage literature in the context of a lived life are certainly welcome.
Topics:    Open to all/most topics, including: Literature/Books, Memoir.
Lengths:   Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment. Free copy(ies).
Avg. Response: Faster than average responder. 9.4 days.
Acceptances: Unknown. None reported yet in nonfiction.

The Manifest-Station was created by Jennifer Pastiloff as a place where people could come to have hard conversations about being human. Over the years it has evolved into a literary blog that is a safe space for words.
Topics:   Open to all/most topics, including: Other.
Lengths:   Interview, Essay.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Average responder. 72.1 days.
Acceptances: Approachable. 33.3% of nonfiction submissions accepted.

We strive to publish creative nonfiction (as well as poetry, photography and art) that explores the human experience as it relates to mortality. Why dedicate a journal to writing about death? Contemplating mortality – be it by a terminally ill patient, a hospice nurse, a bereaved person, a recovering cancer patient – sparks profound and compelling writing rich in insights about the human condition. It seems it is nearly impossible to contemplate dying without also reflecting on how to live well.
Topics:     Health/Medicine, Memoir, Psychology, Other.
Lengths:   Essay, Narrative Nonfiction.
Payment: No monetary payment.
Avg. Response: Average responder. 56.6 days.
Acceptances: Unknown. None reported yet in nonfiction.

The mission of New Letters magazine is to discover, publish and promote the best and most exciting literary writing, wherever it might be found. We publish and serve readers and writers worldwide. In recent years, New Letters has won a National Magazine Award, the industry’s highest honor, plus multiple Pushcart Prizes, and is reprinted often in the Best American anthology series…
Topics: Open to all/most topics.
Lengths:   Review, Essay.
Payment: Unknown. Free copy(ies).
Avg. Response: Slower than average responder. 105.6 days.
Acceptances: Challenging. 3.5% of nonfiction submissions accepted.