Submitting flash fiction requires a different map than submitting short stories. The general literary magazines — the big quarterlies, the university reviews — often accept flash fiction, but rarely with the depth of editorial engagement the form deserves. There is a whole ecosystem of journals built specifically around compressed prose and poetry, and that is where the serious flash fiction writer should be spending their submission energy.
This is not an exhaustive list. It is a curated one — the journals I have come back to repeatedly as a writer and as a reader, based on the quality of what they publish and how they treat the work.
The tier one journals
Smokelong Quarterly is the gold standard for flash fiction. It publishes pieces under 1,000 words exclusively, has been running since 2003, and features interviews with contributors about their process alongside each piece. The interview requirement means the editorial team is genuinely thinking about craft. Response times are typically under three months.
The Sun Magazine publishes flash and short fiction alongside essays and photography, with a very specific emotional register — direct, humanist, personal. Its readership is enormous by literary magazine standards and an acceptance carries real weight.
Wigleaf is essential — a long-running online journal publishing very short fiction with a sensibility that rewards emotional precision. Their annual Top 50 Very Short Fictions list is the closest thing to a canon of the contemporary form.
Journals with dedicated flash sections
Ploughshares publishes flash fiction through its Solos imprint — short works considered as complete literary objects. An acceptance here carries the full prestige of the Ploughshares name. Tin House accepts flash fiction in its open reading periods. PANK Magazine has been publishing innovative flash fiction since 2006, with a commitment to work that takes formal risks while remaining emotionally accessible.
International journals worth knowing
Litro Magazine (UK) publishes flash fiction with a particular openness to international voices and work that crosses cultural contexts. Given my own publications in London and Lisbon, it is a journal I return to consistently. 3:AM Magazine (Paris and London) publishes experimental fiction and poetry with a distinctly European literary sensibility.
A note on simultaneous submissions
Most journals now accept simultaneous submissions — you can send the same piece to multiple journals at once, as long as you withdraw it immediately upon acceptance. Submit simultaneously, always, unless a journal explicitly prohibits it. The average response time for a literary journal is three to six months. Your work deserves better than a one-journal-at-a-time queue.
The Pushcart Prize is awarded to work nominated by the journals themselves. The path to a Pushcart nomination runs through journal publication.
For the craft that gets you into these journals, read my guides on how to write flash fiction and minimalist fiction techniques.
I publish fiction and poetry on Substack — gritty, minimalist, written from trains and borrowed rooms. Over a thousand readers, free to subscribe.
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Internationally published fiction writer and poet. Pushcart-nominated. Writing from trains, borrowed rooms, and strange cities. Publisher of Tumbleweed Words on Substack for five years.
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