2014 Pushcart Prize Ranking of Literary Magazines — Fiction

Note: the 2015 Ranking for Fiction is now available. Go here.

It is time once again to present the annual Perpetual Folly Pushcart Prize Rankings for Literary Magazines. I’ll be rolling these out over the next three days, beginning with the Fiction ranking, which is below. (2014 Nonfiction Rankings appear here. Poetry rankings are here.)

If you find these lists useful, please make a donation by clicking on the link below. Or—even better—buy one of my books (from any source you like, including Amazon.com: In an Uncharted Country and What the Zhang Boys Know).

For comparison purposes, see the 2013 Fiction rankings here.

I feel compelled every year to offer a disclaimer for the list. I originally created it in order to aid my own efforts at targeting my submissions of short stories to literary magazines. I used the Pushcart Prize because I felt that it represented the broadest range of magazines among the annual prizes (including Best American Short Stories and the O. Henry Awards).

My method is straightforward. I use a ten-year rolling database and give points to magazines for the prizes awarded and fewer points for each special mention. I don’t go further back than ten years because it seems to me that what is relevant is the current success of the magazines, not their storied past. Also, the further back we go, the more defunct magazines we find, and that’s not terribly helpful. Some have argued that a five-year period should be chosen instead. That seems too small a sample. When only 19 or 20 prizes are awarded in fiction each year (even fewer this year), I think ten years provides a clearer picture of a magazine’s success.

Some people don’t like rankings at all, and I understand that. This ranking, however, is as objective as I can make it. The Pushcart Prize itself is subjective, of course, but that’s an entirely different question.

A note on symbols. I have marked magazines that I believe to have ceased publication with ©. Several magazines have a (?) by their name which means I can’t find a website for them. Please leave any corrections or updates in the comments and I’ll make changes as soon as I can.

What is notable about this year’s list? Here are some observations:

The gap between Ploughshares and the rest of the pack has closed a bit.
Gettysburg Review, Narrative, Iowa Review, Paris Review and Noon all made big jumps this year, winning 2 Prizes each.
Triquarterly and Shenandoah both continue to drop. Is this more punishment for their move online?
Granta debuts on the list, winning its first Pushcart Prize. How is that possible?

If you find this list useful, consider making a donation to help support this website. Thank you.

Fiction Rankings for 2014:

2014	Magazine	2014 Score
1	Ploughshares	81
2	Conjunctions	71
3	Tin House	65
4	Southern Review	63
5	One Story	59
6	Paris Review	54
7	Zoetrope: All Story	51
8	A Public Space	49
9	Threepenny Review	48
10	Kenyon Review	47
11	Georgia Review	44
12	Noon	41
13	McSweeney’s	40
14	Gettysburg Review	38
15	New England Review	36
16	Missouri Review	35
17	Ontario Review ©	31
18	Iowa Review	30
18	New Letters	30
18	Virginia Quarterly Review	30
21	Agni	29
22	Boulevard	28
23	Shenandoah	27
24	Epoch	26
25	American Short Fiction	23
25	Antioch Review	23
25	Sun	23
28	Narrative	22
29	Ecotone	21
29	Five Points	21
29	Mississippi Review	21
32	Bellevue Literary Review	20
32	StoryQuarterly	20
32	TriQuarterly	20
32	Witness	20
36	Colorado Review	19
36	Glimmer Train	19
38	Prairie Schooner	16
39	Hudson Review	15
39	Michigan Quarterly Review	15
41	ZYZZYVA	14
42	Crazyhorse	13
42	Yale Review	13
44	Willow Springs	12
45	Alaska Quarterly Review	11
45	American Scholar	11
45	Idaho Review	11
48	Cincinnati Review	10
48	Third Coast	10
50	Image	9
50	Oxford American	9
52	Post Road	8
53	Chelsea ©	7
53	J Journal	7
53	Little Star	7
53	Manoa	7
53	Pen America	7
53	Speakeasy ©	7
59	Florida Review	6
59	Indiana Review	6
59	Massachusetts Review	6
59	New Orleans Review	6
59	News from the Republic of Letters	6
59	Sonora Review	6
59	Water-Stone Review	6
66	Black Renaissance Noire	5
66	Caribbean Writer	5
66	Harvard Review	5
66	Mid American Review	5
66	Pinch	5
66	Pleiades	5
66	Raritan	5
66	Salmagundi	5
66	Univ. of Georgia Press	5
66	Wigleaf	5
66	Granta	5
77	Beloit Fiction	4
77	Black Warrior Review	4
77	Fiction	4
77	Fiction International	4
77	Hopkins Review	4
77	New York Tyrant	4
77	Ninth Letter	4
77	North American Review	4
77	Sewanee Review	4
77	Southwest Review	4
87	Another Chicago Magazine	3
87	Appalachian Heritage	3
87	BkMk Press	3
87	Blackbird	3
87	Event	3
87	Fourteen Hills	3
87	Gulf Coast	3
87	Northwest Review	3
87	Notre Dame Review	3
87	Other Voices ©	3
87	River Styx	3
87	Western Humanities Review	3
99	[sic]	2
99	Akashic Books	2
99	American Letters & Commentary	2
99	At Length	2
99	Boston Review	2
99	Briar Cliff Review	2
99	Brooklyn Rail	2
99	Brooklyn Review	2
99	Calyx	2
99	Carve	2
99	Chautauqua	2
99	Cimarron Review	2
99	Columbia Review	2
99	Confrontation	2
99	Crab Orchard Review	2
99	Daedalus	2
99	Electric Literature	2
99	failbetter.com	2
99	Faultline	2
99	Fifth Wednesday	2
99	Inkwell	2
99	Paper Street © (?)	2
99	Passages North	2
99	Press 53	2
99	Redivider	2
99	Southampton Review	2
99	Sou’wester	2
99	The Journal	2
99	Timber Creek Review (?)	2
99	Turnrow	2
99	West Branch	2
99	Recommended Reading	2
131	Amazon Shorts ©	1
131	American Literary Review	1
131	Anomalous	1
131	Antietam Review ©	1
131	Artful Dodge	1
131	Arts & Letters	1
131	Ballyhoo Stories	1
131	Baltimore Review	1
131	Bamboo Ridge	1
131	Bellingham Review	1
131	Blue Earth Review	1
131	Blue Mesa Review	1
131	Bomb	1
131	Brain, Child	1
131	Callaloo	1
131	Carpe Articulum	1
131	Chariton Review	1
131	Chattahoochee Review	1
131	Common, The	1
131	Contemporary West	1
131	Copper Nickel	1
131	Cutbank	1
131	Dalkey Archive Press	1
131	Descant	1
131	Dogwood	1
131	Dos Passos Review	1
131	Dossier Journal	1
131	Doubletake ©	1
131	Eggemoggin Reach Review (?)	1
131	Epiphany	1
131	EWU Press ©	1
131	Exile	1
131	Five Chapters	1
131	Folio	1
131	Freight Stories	1
131	Fugue	1
131	Gray’s Sporting Journal	1
131	Graywolf Press	1
131	Grist	1
131	Hampton Shorts (?)	1
131	Healing Muse	1
131	Hotel Amerika	1
131	Hunger Mountain	1
131	Isotope ©	1
131	Jabberwock Review	1
131	Kelsey Review	1
131	King’s English ©	1
131	Kyoto Journal	1
131	Lake Effect	1
131	Laughing Fire Press	1
131	Laurel Review	1
131	Lit	1
131	Lynx Eye ©	1
131	Maggid ©	1
131	Margin (?)	1
131	McSweeney’s Books	1
131	Minnesota Review	1
131	Momotombo Press	1
131	Mythium	1
131	Nebraska Review ©	1
131	Nerve.com	1
131	New Ohio Review	1
131	Night Train	1
131	Nimrod	1
131	Open City	1
131	Orion	1
131	Pearl	1
131	Pegasus Books	1
131	Per Contra	1
131	Phoebe	1
131	Prism	1
131	Puckerbush Press ©	1
131	Puerto del Sol	1
131	Quarter After Eight	1
131	Quarterly West	1
131	Quick Fiction ©	1
131	RBS Gazette (?)	1
131	Relief	1
131	Rivendell ©	1
131	Rosebud	1
131	Salamander	1
131	Sarabande Books	1
131	Seems	1
131	Slice	1
131	Smoke Long Quarterly	1
131	Soft Skull Press	1
131	South Carolina Review	1
131	Southern California Review	1
131	Spork	1
131	Stolen Time Press (?)	1
131	Stone Canoe	1
131	Subtropics	1
131	Sycamore Review	1
131	Texas Review	1
131	Tiferet	1
131	Transformation (?)	1
131	Underground Voices	1
131	Upstreet	1
131	War, Literature and The Arts	1
131	Words of Wisdom (?)	1
131	World Literature Today	1
131	Crab Creek Review	1
131	Normal School	1
131	Salt Hill	1
131	Kweli	1
131	Enizagram	1
131	John Daniel & Co.	1
131	Little Fiction	1
131	Pear Noir	1
131	n+1	1
131	Consequence Magazine	1
131	Outpost 19	1
131	Asian American Literary Review	1
131	North Carolina Literary Review	1
131	Collagist	1
131	Austin State University Press	1

Comments

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The magazine Maggid seems to have ceased publication in 2005, with its second issue. I’m not sure why it is on the list as active.

Cliff says:

November 4, 2013 at 6:51 pm

I’ll look into it. Thanks.

Reply
Cliff says:

November 5, 2013 at 9:27 am

Although the magazine ceased publication, Maggid Books, an imprint of Toby Press, which published the magazine, appears to continue. I’m not sure the distinction between the magazine and the imprint is important. Nonetheless, I’ll add a note that the journal has ceased publication.

Reply

Absolutely fantastic resource!

I have a question I’m not sure there’s a good answer to. The top fifty places or so seem well-sorted with the great magazines followed by some really good ones. But past fifty, where journals are getting less than 10 points and there are a lot of ties, things seem more hazy.

Without singling out magazines for negative attention, there are journals like Granta and Black Warrior Review (which I’ve seen cited as excellent up-and-comers in interviews and blogs) alongside some journals that seem a little less, um, shall we say, prestigious, often paying nothing and sometimes even charging for submissions. Then near the bottom you have New Ohio Review which pays reasonably well (though I understand that isn’t necessarily related to quality editorial decisions).

So, my question is, to people who may know better, just how accurate is this list at the bottom end in terms of ranking the prestige of these journals among editors, agents, and other literati? Again, without picking on any journals, would it be better to take the rankings at face value or to research the journals below the top 50, skipping a fair number altogether, prioritizing a few that seem to deserve a better ranking, and leaving the remainder where they stand?

Cliff says:

November 11, 2013 at 11:41 am

Please keep in mind what this list is–it is purely a ranking by the number of Pushcart Prizes and Special Mentions received over the last 10 years. It is, therefore, as objective as I can make it. It doesn’t measure prestige (which is subjective and, perhaps, illusory), payment, circulation, or other factors. So the list is perfectly accurate for what it is, but it’s nothing more than what it purports. You might be interested in rankings that incorporate these other factors, but most don’t go beyond the top end of the list.

Reply

Cliff, are any of these magazines strictly online publications? Or are they all print publications? How many online publications are included, if any?

Cliff says:

January 31, 2014 at 2:17 pm

A few are online. Not many. I haven’t counted, but may add that as a feature for the next version of the list.

Reply

Thanks for answering, Cliff. Noting whether the magazines listed are strictly online or print would be interesting.

This list has really helped me. Thank you for doing it!

Cliff says:

February 8, 2014 at 11:17 am

You’re welcome! Please feel free to share the link with others.

Reply

Thank you for putting together this list. Very helpful.

Northwestern pushed out the storied editor of TriQuarterly a few years ago and put the journal into the hands of graduate students, to save money. That’s the reason its ranking has fallen. It’s a different magazine now.

Thank you for creating your lists! I find it incredibly useful.

This is an amazing resource. I’m just starting my writing career and was overwhelmed trying to work out which of the 1200+ literary journals I should put in my sites. Thanks for helping communicate the lay of the literary journal land!

PS I think the Ontario Review link is pointing to the wrong site – this is the correct link: http://www.usfca.edu/jco/ontarioreview/

Cliff says:

June 25, 2014 at 5:47 pm

Thanks for the correct link for Ontario Review. I didn’t realize that USF had taken it over. I’ll correct it soon.

Reply

Hi Cliff,

The link for the Southampton Review is the old one. Here’s the new one:
http://www.stonybrook.edu/southampton/mfa/publishing/tsr.html. Great list!

Best,
Travis

Cliff says:

August 28, 2014 at 10:40 am

Thanks! I’ll update.

Reply

The new site for The Southampton Review is actually this one:

http://thesouthamptonreview.com/

Cliff says:

September 7, 2014 at 10:28 am

Oh. Okay, thanks.

Reply

I recently did something similar for my own blog, using data from five years each of the Best American Short Stories series and the O. Henry Prize collections. I came across your Pushcart-centered number-crunching, and included a link to it in my own post: http://undulantfever.blogspot.com/2014/10/through-lit-fic-jungle-with-pen-and.html

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