YA

Journals Accepting Short YA Fiction: Updated for 2020!

There are plenty of places to submit short fiction, as you can see from a quick scroll through Submittable, but it hasn’t always been so easy to find the perfect home for your shorts that truly fall under the YA umbrella. Back in 2017, I summed up a list of five journals accepting YA short fiction, but the landscape has definitely changed. Only two of the original five publications are still in operation. Even a new one suggested by a reader (The Passed Note) has since shut down. However! There is now a brand new YA journal! Voyage launched in the summer of 2020, and they not only have some great content up already, but they are also open to submissions!

In summary, the following journals are now open for YA:

  • Voyage is the latest YA journal on the scene. They are interested in quality work by writers from a variety of backgrounds, especially #ownvoices.
  • Lunch Ticket is the Antioch University literary journal, and accepts YA submissions. They also accept general submissions from authors aged 13 and up!
  • Writers aged 13-17 are also welcome to submit to the School Lunch feature at Lunch Ticket.
  • Hunger Mountain This is the VCFA literary journal, and accepts YA regular and contest submissions.

Any other favorite journals I missed that accept YA submissions? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Five Journals Accepting Short YA Fiction

Please note: I’ve updated this post for 2020! You can find the update here.

There are plenty of places to submit short fiction, as you can see from a quick scroll through Submittable, but it hasn’t always been so easy to find the perfect home for your shorts that truly fall under the YA umbrella, so here are five journals accepting short YA fiction.

  • YARN (Young Adult Review Network) As the Poetry Editor at this journal, I’m a little biased, but I absolutely love the stories we publish, which have included several award-winners over the years.
  • Lunch Ticket is the Antioch University literary journal, and accepts YA submissions. I might also be biased in being a fan of Lunch Ticket, since they recently published my YA short story in verse, “Car 393.”
  • Hunger Mountain This is the VCFA literary journal, and accepts YA regular and contest submissions.
  • Cicada Magazine Like YARN, Cicada publishes exclusively for the YA audience.
  • Foreshadow: A Serial YA Anthology This new endeavor is headed up by Nova Ren Suma and Emily X. R. Pan. Along with work from established authors, they plan to publish new voices as well.

Any other favorite journals out there that accept YA submissions? Please feel free to share in the comments!

book review: Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson)

I’ve wanted to read this, for a while years after all the hype. (I’m not one of those mid-hype readers.)

Finally I got my motivation, since the author is coming to speak at the NESCBWI conference this April. I’ve already read her historical fiction novel “Fever: 1793” about the yellow fever in Philadelphia – wicked good read.

But I wasn’t too excited about a contemporary high school story. Another girl on the outside, feeling left out etc. etc. etc. But that’s about all I knew about it, and man, was I intrigued as the story unfolded.

This one has it all – it’s an “issue” book, but totally character-driven,  and what characters indeed! Multi-dimensional and very realistic.

Makes me glad I didn’t grow up in Syracuse …