As part of its mission to promote new literature, Scholars & Rogues has developed a suite of resources devoted to helping creative writers hone their craft and find the right home for their work. The Scholars & Rogues LitJournal is always looking for great new fiction, nonfiction and poetry, of course (submission guidelines can be found here) and there are literally thousands of other print and online publications out there seeking to bring the best possible creative writing they can find to their readers. It isn’t always a simple process, but most writers with talent and a willingness to work can be optimistic about their chances of finding a publisher.

But how to find the right journal? Where can a developing writer look for the resources he or she needs to improve? How do they find out about writing programs, conferences, calls for manuscripts, contests, and so on?

The list below isn’t comprehensive (it’s hard to imagine any list that truly is), but it provides a vast array of resources that can benefit both the new and established writer. We hope you find something of value here. Also, if you know of a site or service that might be of use for a creative writer, please drop us a line by clicking the Contact tab at the top of this page.

Literary Magazine Publication Lists and Databases

New Pages: An extensive list of literary journals and alternative magazines, creative writing programs, writing conferences, writer blogs, contests (books and magazines), calls for submissions, publishers, book reviews and more.

Louie Crew’s List of Poetry Publishers Who Accept Electronic Submissions: Dr. Crew is an emeritus professor of English at Rutgers and his continuously updated list includes over 800 (at present) publishers. Outstanding resource.

Poets & Writers: “…the primary source of information, support, and guidance for creative writers. Founded in 1970, it is the nation’s largest nonprofit literary organization serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers.” A broad range of tools for writers, including a database of more than 500 literary journals. Valuable, but a caution – some of their criteria for listing journals are on the archaic side (S&R’s lit journal doesn’t qualify by their standards), so it’s possible that their listings will be of more limited utility than other resources noted here.

LitLine: Affiliated with Spoon River Review and the Illinois Writer’s Directory, this site features a huge compilation of print and online publications, plus creative writing related organizations, presses and independent bookstores.

Every Writer’s Resource List of Best Online Literary Magazines: One site’s informed opinion, supplemented by a much larger list of online magazines.

Canadian Literary Journals: Places for Writers offers up a compact, high-quality guide to lit mags above the 49th Parallel.

Submission and Tracking Tools

Duotrope’s Digest: In their own words, “an award-winning, free writers’ resource listing over 3300 current Fiction and Poetry publications.” In our words, DD is one of the most absolutely indispensable services that any publishing writer can have. They include a huge database of journals, searchable on a wide range of criteria, plus an integrated submission tracker that lets you keep detailed track of exactly what has been submitted where and what the working status is. On a scale of 1-10, Duotrope’s Digest rates an 11.

Submishmash.com: Submishmash is a popular online submission tool used by over 1000 publishers. If you’re submitting your work via the Web and don’t have a Submishmash account yet, you will before long. So go ahead and sign up now.

Other Resources

The Review Review: A handy review of literary reviews, designed to help the publishing writer better understand the journals to which they’re submitting and the processes surrounding content selection.

Online Literary Journals: How To Determine Quality And Reputation: From Writer’s Relief, a set of criteria aimed at helping writers decide where to submit and where to avoid.