Markets for your essays, short fiction, and poetry ~ most of them pay, some pay well

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The New YorkTimes Modern Love column. It’s also a book, a podcast and a television show about relationships, feelings betrayals, and revelations. 

The editors of Modern Love are interested in receiving deeply personal essays about contemporary relationships, marriage, dating, parenthood...any subject that might reasonably fit under the heading “Modern Love.” Ideally, essays should spring from some central dilemma the writer has faced in his or her life. It helps if the situation has a contemporary edge, though this is not essential. Most important is that the writing be emotionally honest and the story be freshly and compellingly told.

Length: 1500-1700 words. Pays: $300

Guidelines here.

 

Slate magazine publishes News & Politics, Culture, Human Interest, Business, Technology, Sports, and Health and Sciences pieces. Pays 23 cents/word (=$230 for 1,000-word piece.) 

Guidelines on pitching Slate here.

 

DAME takes “an unabashed look at issues our readers are really talking about. And like our readers, DAME is smart, quick-witted, opinionated, and unapologetic. Pays $150 for essays; $300 - $400 for reported features. Along with current news and opinion pieces, publishes a First Person column. These are often memoiristic, sometimes semi-reported essays.

Guidelines here.

 

The Christian Science Monitor seeks upbeat, personal essays and short poems for The Home Forum. “All material must be original and previously unpublished. For seasonal material, be aware that if you submit something that is about a particular month, holiday, event (back to school, graduation), or season, we need to receive it a minimum of six weeks ahead. 

“These are first-person, nonfiction explorations of how you responded to a place, a person, a situation, an event, or happenings in everyday life. Tell a story; share a funny true tale. The humor should be gentle. We accept essays on a wide variety of subjects, and encourage timely, newsy topics. However, we don't deal with the topics of death, aging and disease.

Length: 400 to 800 words. Pays $75-$150

“Poetry that appears in The Home Forum explores and celebrates life. It provides a respite from the bleakness that appears in so much contemporary verse. We are particularly interested in poetry that has an international flavor or that offers some global or cultural insights. Short poems are more likely to be accepted (because of space constraints) than poems that are more than 18 lines long.”

Submission guidelines here.

 

Kveller is a parenting magazine that accepts personal essays about parenting and women’s issues as seen through a Jewish lens.

Length: 500-1000 words. Pays $25

Guidelines here.

 

Good Old Days magazine tells the real stories of the people who lived and grew up in “the Good Old Days” (about 1935–1960). 

“We like stories to sound informal and conversational, as if you’re sitting around the kitchen table reminiscing with your friends and family. However, we are open to any way you choose to write your story, as long as it is true and falls within our targeted period of time. We prefer the author’s individual voice, warmth, humor and honesty over technical ability. We do not accept fictional manuscripts."

Length: 500 to 1,500 words; Pays $15 to $75

Guidelines here.

 

Quick Brown Fox Quick Brown Fox welcomes your book reviews and your short stories, poems, and essays about reading, writing, favourite books, and libraries. Read a few essays on the blog to get a taste of what other writers have done (see here and scroll down).

Quick Brown Fox also welcomes reviews of any kind and of anything, anywhere or anybody. If you want to review your favourite coffee shops or libraries, babysitters or lovers (no real names please), go for it. See examples of book reviews here (and scroll down); other reviews here  (and scroll down).

Submit to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Include a short bio at the end of your piece and attach a photo of yourself if you have one that’s okay.

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