Electric Literature’s mission is to make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive. In addition to essays, criticism, and literary news, it publishes two renowned weekly magazines: Recommended Reading, which features short stories and novel excerpts with introductions by esteemed writers, and The Commuter, a home for flash fiction, poetry, and graphic narrative. EL has been widening who is included in the literary conversation since 2009, and everything it publishes is available online for free. It favors writing that is intelligent and unpretentious, and literature that fosters empathy with pathos, critical thinking, and humor. EL also offers an abundance of resources to readers and writers, including virtual salons that help demystify the craft of writing and the publishing industry.

American Chordata, a Brooklyn-based magazine, pairs emerging voices in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry with visual artwork carefully chosen to create a sense of dialogue between forms. Since it began publishing in 2015, American Chordata has built a reputation as a launching pad, often finding writers and artists their first audience, and as a home for work that is innovative and stylistically daring. As captivating to look at as it is to read, this singular publication appeals to habitual lovers and first-time readers of literary magazines alike.

Bennington Review brings together writing that is as playful as it is probing through a geographically broad and culturally rich array of voices, whether prominent, up-and-coming, or new. First published in 1966, it relaunched in 2016 as a faculty-edited teaching publication that gives undergraduate editorial assistants at Bennington College hands-on experience working on a distinctive national magazine. This biannual print journal publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and film writing that is at once innovative, intelligent, and moving, under wonderfully elastic themes such as “Misbegotten Youth,” “Kissing in the Future,” and “Return to a Meadow.” It celebrates the unique pleasures of a bound print journal as an intimate, immersive reading experience.

ZYZZYVA was founded in San Francisco in 1985 to give West Coast poets, writers, and artists – many of whom were overlooked by an East Coast-centric publishing world – a much-needed platform. Over 35 years later, it has established itself as an acclaimed, nationally distributed publication that showcases contributors from all over the world while staying true to its regional roots. Each issue offers audacious work across genres while amplifying emerging voices, and examines ethical concerns as urgent as labor, the environment, borders, and technology. A single artist’s work features throughout every issue and guides its overall design, to elegant and cohesive effect. ZYZZYVA also fosters community in the Bay Area by offering writing workshops, partnering with local bookstores and organizations on literary events, and hosting free public readings with the release of every issue.