qarrtsiluni

top picks

(scroll down for descriptions)
Born, Guernica, Linebreak, Terrain.org, Brevity, Words Without Borders and Coldfront

online magazines featuring original literary content

(includes a few without RSS feeds, alas)

• 14 by 14
  “Fourteen contemporary sonnets by fourteen different authors,” every other month. This journal is about as hip as you can get and still be publishing sonnets. Every sonnet gets its own illustration, too.
• 2River
  Poetry, art, and theory. Publishes 2River View and an electronic chapbook series.
• 3:AM Magazine
  Whatever it is, they’re against it. Except interviews, criticism, nonfiction, opinions, music writing, fiction, flash fiction, and poetry, in that order.
• Anti-
  Aims to provide “a single arena for a wide range of styles and ideas, so these different kinds of poets and poems can either fight it out or learn to coexist.”
• At Length
  “A venue for ambitious, in-depth writing, music, photography, and art that are open to possibilities shorter forms preclude.” We suspect, however, that if its editor ever enters the same room as the editor of Brevity (q.v.), both will disappear in a blinding flash.
• Autumn Sky Poetry
  An unpretentious quarterly that aims to make poetry “as accessible as possible.” Each issue features ten poems by ten different poets.
• Beltway Poetry Quarterly
  On the web since 2000, this is the model of a regional poetry magazine, devoted to the work of Washington, D.C. authors from all backgrounds and levels of experience.
• Big Bridge
  Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, reviews.
• BluePrintReview
  A beautiful, experimental space matching “texts and images from unrelated places” with a laid-back, collaborative approach we admire.
• Born Magazine
  “Born Magazine is an experimental venue marrying literary arts and interactive media. Original projects are brought to life every three months through creative collaboration between writers and artists.”
• Boxcar Poetry Review
  New and established poets rub elbows in this down-to-earth lit mag.
• Brevity
  A journal of concise literary nonfiction. Nonfiction bloggers should treat Brevity as if it were their Bible.
• Canopic Jar
  From Canopic Publishing, a journal of poetry and prose with an international focus that started life as a photocopied zine in 1986. Gotta respect that.
• Cerise Press
  A new (2009) journal that “builds cross-cultural bridges by featuring artists and writers in English and translations, with an emphasis on French and Francophone works.”
• Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
  An English-language magazine devoted to “Asian-themed creative work or work done by Asian writers and artists.”
• Cordite Poetry Review
  Very innovative poetry journal from Australia which is increasingly finding ways to incorporate reader-generated content — into renga, communally written epics, Creative Commons-licensed remixes, etc.
• The Cortland Review
  One of the most prestigious online literary magazines, and a pioneer in the inclusion of audio.
• Damselfly Press
  “Seeks to promote exceptional writing by women whose voices have not yet been heard.”
• Dark Sky Magazine
  “Feature[s] weekly issues in which 1 writer, 1 poet, 1 film review, 1 photographer, and 1 2D artist contribute to our goal of reaching a local and international audience.”
• Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
  “Southern Literature: Fiction, Essays, Poetry & more Since 1995,” which makes it pretty darn venerable on the internet.
• Drunken Boat
  Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photos, web art, video, sound.
• Ducts.org
  The webzine of personal stories. No duct tape needed.
• Escape Into Life
  A unique—and uniquely satisfying—marriage of visaul art and literature.
• Exquisite Corpse
  Despite the name, it does have fairly standard editorial oversight.
• failbetter.com
  For serious writers, failure is always a pretty attractive option.
• Fiddleblack
  New in 2011, a literary magazine with a special focus on writing about place (“antipastoralist, ecocentrist & existentialist creative writing”). Very browseable issues.
• Four and Twenty
  “All poems must be four lines or fewer in length and contain no more than twenty words.”
• Frank
  An international journal of contemporary writing and art.
• Guernica
  “A magazine of art and politics.” Great translations of poetry and fiction from around the world, along with essays, interviews, art and photography, and more.
• Hobble Creek Review
  Poetry and creative nonfiction that “highlight(s) the concept of place.”
• Jacket magazine
  Thousands of online pages of poetry, creative prose, reviews, interviews, author photos, and informative articles.
• Linebreak
  A new poem every week, accompanied by an audio recording of the poem read by a different poet.
• Literary Mama
  “Reading for the maternally inclined.” Creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and more.
• Memoir (and)
  Features “traditional as well as nontraditional forms of nonfiction allied with memoir,” including narrative poetry, diary, autobiographical fiction, and more.
• Persimmon Tree
  “An online journal of the arts by women over sixty,” including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews and more.
• No Tell Motel
  An excellent online poetry journal which features a different poet every week, with a new poem appearing each weekday.
• nth position
  A stand-out literary blogzine that mingles politics, reviews, travel writing — among other things — with the poetry and fiction.
• PANK
  Wildly popular (for a literary magazine) monthly. Includes audio for some posts.
• Poemeleon
  Rhymes with “chameleon.” The poems in this twice-yearly journal change their colors to match the theme, and are accompanied by brief introductions from the authors.
• Poetcasting
  British audio-poetry zine with a big-tent philosophy: “performance poets, published poets, new poets, established poets and everything in between.”
• Right Hand Pointing
  “Short poems and short fiction for smart people with short attention spans.”
• The Shit Creek Review
  A poetry journal with themed issues and content much more respectable that the irreverent title might suggest.
• Terrain.org
  A twice-yearly “Journal of the Built & Natural Environments” that includes art, literature, and journalism.
• tinywords: haiku and micropoetry daily
  The web’s best and oldest (since 2000) venue for very short-form poetry.
• tongues of the ocean
  “An online literary journal of Bahamian, Caribbean and related poetry.”
• Umbrella
  A quarterly “journal of poetry and kindred prose” with a soft spot for “literary poetry written by poets who do not have MFA’s and/or who work outside of academia.”
• Whale Sound
  A growing online anthology of beautifully read audio poetry, including a very innovative chapbook division.
• Wild River Review
  “A vehicle to spread the flame of understanding through powerful writing and graphics covering a wide range of subjects and geographical locations.”
• Words Without Borders
  “The online literary magazine for international literature.” A new themed issue every month. Excellent.

online literary reviews and other resources

(see our index of contributors for links to personal weblogs)

• 3quarksdaily
  A highbrow version of Boing Boing (which we also like), minus the geekery. Aims to bridge the gap between science and the humanities. Original columns on Mondays.
• Arts & Letters Daily
  A web portal from the Chronicle of Higher Education, encompassing ideas, criticism, and debate.
• Bookslut
  Essential book review blog.
• Coldfront
  “Exhaustive, expert, unbiased journalistic and critical coverage of contemporary poetry and lyricism for poets, musicians, publishing houses and the reading and listening public.”
• dumbfoundry
  Poetry-related news and resources for poets.
• Duotrope’s Digest
  An online database of markets for poetry and fiction. Includes a free submissions tracker for registered users, and author’s reports on turn-around times are incorporated into the listings for each market. We encourage all poets and short story writers who submit to qarrtsiluni to report their results to DD, in order to increase the accuracy of our listing.
• From the Fishouse
  “An audio archive of emerging poets,” some still with pieces of eggshell clinging to their hair.
• Inspiring Cities CityPoem World Index
  Great collection of posts on poetry in urban spaces from around the world.
• LitList
  “A dynamic list of literary journals, independent book publishers, and e-magazines.” And since November 2009, a social network for writers and publishers, too.
• Moving Poems
  This site, curated by qarrtsiluni editor Dave Bonta, aims to compile “the best video poetry on the web.”
• News & Notes from Poetry Worlds
  “A catalog of poetic news, releases, &c., a resource for lovers of poetry whether you write or only read it.” If you’re on Tumblr, be sure to follow it. It has an online submission form for news notes.
• PennSound
  Very large audio archive of writers reading their work.
• Poetry Archive
  Audio recordings of poets reading their work.
• Poetry Foundation
  These are the folks who publish Poetry magazine, which is actually pretty readable these days. The site includes an online journal and a blog, Harriet.
• Poetry Daily
  A new poem every day, chosen from print publications with little regard to school or style, reaching the internet masses through their inboxes.
• Poetry Hut Blog
  Daily round-up of poetry news, with occasional commentary.
• The Quarterly Conversation
  If there’s such a thing as an essential literary criticism zine, this is it.
• The Rumpus
  A deservedly popular arts and culture magazine with lots of book reviews, original poetry, and more.
• Viral Verse
  British-based video poetry site which both showcases other people’s videopoems and also produces some of their own.
• wood s lot
  World’s greatest literary commonplace blog.