After finishing my recent novel, I needed a break from fiction. The thing about fiction is that you never know where you’re at, right? Literally anything could happen at any time. It could start out well and good like, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of–” and suddenly change to, “Holy Guacamole! Look at the eyebrows on that reactionary CBS anchor!” Who could say for sure this was “wrong”? But nonfiction, well, that’s different. You can’t just go anywhere with it. All you have is what happened and trim it down from there. And how you tell it. But no surprise Guacamole. Here are some literary magazines publishing good nonfiction:
5) Brevity
So Brevity, or dare I say, the Brevity Blog has been making non-fiction since before I made this list and years before that. They are, I think, the biggest by far micro nonfiction blog. The editor-in-chief also has a great name. I haven’t done a ton of research but based on the magazine, they are a good guy. Winner of the best name for magazine on this list, by far.
4) Blood Orange Review
Now before you get cynical, though the short name for this magazine is BOR, it is not BORing. This magazine is out of Washington State University, one of the northernmost states. They seem to have some solid nonfiction including this one.
3) Hobart
Hobart has a few different categories of non-ficiton as series, and this works well. There is a coherent voice and subjectivity to the pieces that makes them a bit more fun to read than some others. It’s not boring. They’ve been around as long as I remember looking into literary magazines. Also, they win 2nd best name for a magazine on this list.
2)The Florida Review
Orlando is a city where dreams come true and also some people go to college. And where there’s college, there’s English departments. And where there’s English departments, there’s a magazine with the name of the state they’re located in. BUT this one has been around for more than 40 years is one of the reasons they can attract some good nonfiction. They usually only have a couple of nonfiction pieces in each issue, so you know they’re getting the attention they deserve. Sorry, not the #1 best named magazine on this list.
1) Waxwing
“Crows can remember faces.”
Is there really anything more you need to know?
I really like the design of this one.
Non-fiction is fun. Hurrah.