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Manuscript matcher

Where should this piece go?

Describe your story, essay, or poems. Missa checks each magazine's recorded rules, scores fit, odds, payoff and cost, and builds a submission plan you can send today.

See major prizes and where their winners were published

Your piece

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Comparable writers

Magazines that published them rank higher. Search or browse 518 writers, including 209 prize winners, or type any name.

Often named for fiction

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Some prizes only take writers from certain countries. Missa uses this to show which prize routes are open to you.

Your piece

Fiction · 3,500 words · Fabulist · Lyric · Carmen Maria Machado

Magazines to consider

Compared with 500 magazines in the Missa index.

2 long shots, 4 good fits, all open now and judged a fit for this piece. Missa found fewer likely acceptances than a full plan asks for.

  1. Round 1 · Send together

    Send these at the same time. Withdraw the piece everywhere else as soon as one accepts. Missa hasn't recorded whether Tin House, McSweeney's accept simultaneous submissions: check before sending.

    1. West Branch

      Good fit
      Odds
      not recorded
      Payoff
      75
      Low cost
      85
      • Tier 3
      • Pays contributors
      • Free to submit
      • Replies in under 3 months
      • Reads until
      • Route to The Best American Short Stories: first published Vanessa Cuti’s 2021 pick · Entry rules: Stories by American or Canadian writers in North American magazines

      Pushcart Prize rank #85 in fiction (2026) · 1 story picked by the O. Henry Prize, Best American Short Stories or a major prize

      • “Our Children” by Vanessa Cuti · The Best American Short Stories, 2021
      Website(opens in a new tab)

    2. Boston Review

      Good fit
      Odds
      not recorded
      Payoff
      75
      Low cost
      75
      • Tier 3
      • Pays contributors
      • Free to submit
      • Reads all year
      • Route to AKO Caine Prize for African Writing: first published NoViolet Bulawayo’s 2010 pick · Entry rules: African writers, published stories of 3,000 to 10,000 words

      Pushcart Prize rank #118 in fiction (2026) · 1 story picked by the O. Henry Prize, Best American Short Stories or a major prize

      • “Hitting Budapest” by NoViolet Bulawayo · AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, 2010
      Website(opens in a new tab)

    3. Brilliant Flash Fiction

      Good fit
      Odds
      not recorded
      Payoff
      65
      Low cost
      85
      • Tier 3
      • Pays contributors
      • Free to submit
      • Replies in under 3 months
      • Reads all year

      3 pieces in Best Microfiction or Best Small Fictions

      • “Roofing in Warm Weather” by Corey Farrenkopf · Best Small Fictions, 2025
      • “Fish Woman Sea” by C. J. Erick · Best Small Fictions, 2023
      • “Breathless” by Paul Luikart · Best Microfiction, 2019
      Website(opens in a new tab)

    4. Lascaux Review

      Good fit
      Odds
      not recorded
      Payoff
      62
      Low cost
      85
      • Tier 3
      • Pays contributors
      • Free to submit
      • Replies in under 3 months
      • Reads all year
      Website(opens in a new tab)

    5. Tin House

      Long shot
      Odds
      36
      Payoff
      85
      Low cost
      not recorded
      • Tier 3

      Published writers like Carmen Maria Machado: Anthony Doerr (United States, fiction), Bryan Washington (United States, fiction), Ursula K. Le Guin (United States, fiction)

      • Route to The O. Henry Prize Stories: first published Anthony Doerr’s 2021 pick · Entry rules: Stories published in US and Canadian magazines, by writers of any nationality
      • Route to The Best American Short Stories: first published Ursula K. Le Guin’s 2019 pick · Entry rules: Stories by American or Canadian writers in North American magazines

      Pushcart Prize rank #33 in fiction (2026) · 6 stories picked by the O. Henry Prize, Best American Short Stories or a major prize

      • “The Master's Castle” by Anthony Doerr · The O. Henry Prize Stories, 2021
      • “Freedom from Want” by Joan Silber · The O. Henry Prize Stories, 2021
      • “610 North, 610 West” by Bryan Washington · The O. Henry Prize Stories, 2019
      Website(opens in a new tab)

    6. McSweeney's

      Long shot
      Odds
      20
      Payoff
      100
      Low cost
      60
      • Tier 3
      • Pays contributors
      • Replies in under 3 months

      Published writers like Carmen Maria Machado: Bryan Washington (United States, fiction)

      • Route to The O. Henry Prize Stories: first published Francisco González’s 2024 pick · Entry rules: Stories published in US and Canadian magazines, by writers of any nationality
      • Route to The Best American Short Stories: first published Selena Gambrell Anderson’s 2024 pick · Entry rules: Stories by American or Canadian writers in North American magazines

      Pushcart Prize rank #22 in fiction (2026) · 10 stories picked by the O. Henry Prize, Best American Short Stories or a major prize

      • “Serranos” by Francisco González · The O. Henry Prize Stories, 2024
      • “Jewel of the Gulf of Mexico” by Selena Gambrell Anderson · The Best American Short Stories, 2024
      • “Bears Among the Living” by Kevin Moffett · The Best American Short Stories, 2022

Opening later

Built by the Missa decision model, version 1.0.0, with reading periods checked on . The same brief on the same day always gives the same plan.

Scores and plans come from what Missa has recorded, not an eligibility check. Read each magazine's current guidelines before you submit. How Missa ranks magazines