How the rankings work

What the index is for

A writer choosing where to send a story or a set of poems wants to know two things: whether a magazine’s work is noticed, and how it treats the people who send it work. The Missa Literary Magazine Index puts both in one place. It weighs a magazine’s recognition alongside what it pays, what it charges, how long it takes to reply and how it handles submissions.

Every number comes from a source you could check yourself. When no source records a fact, the index says so.

What we count

Each magazine is scored out of 100, across six measures.

• Honours, up to 40 points. A magazine’s Pushcart Prize recognition over the past ten years, with recent years counting more. The most recognised magazine in each index earns the full 40; others earn points in proportion, on a curve that keeps a single honour visible. Pieces chosen for Best Small Fictions (2.5 points) and Best Microfiction (2 points) add up to 10 more in fiction.
• Pay, up to 15 points. Full points for professional rates: 5¢ a word, $50 a poem or $100 a piece. Less for smaller payments, two points for contributor copies, none for unpaid work.
• Reply time, up to 15 points. Full points for a reply within a month, falling as the wait lengthens, to none for more than a year.
• Fees, up to 15 points. Full points when submitting is free. Fewer as a reading fee rises, with credit kept for magazines that waive the fee for some writers.
• Submission policy, up to 10 points. Points for welcoming simultaneous submissions and for telling writers when they may ask after their work.
• Archive and ethics, up to 5 points. Points for keeping published work available, for reading blind and for making room for writers who have not yet published.

When something is not on record

• We never guess. A fact no source records is shown as “Not recorded”.
• A missing fact earns half the points it could have earned, so it neither lifts a magazine nor holds it back.
• When a source gives only part of the answer, such as “pays in cash” without an amount, the magazine earns the middle of what that answer allows.
• Each magazine’s page shows which of its facts are recorded, so you can see how much of its score rests on the record.

Where the facts come from

• Pushcart Prize recognition, 2024 to 2026, as tallied each year at cliffordgarstang.com.
• The flash anthologies: the published contents of Best Microfiction (2019 to 2026) and Best Small Fictions (2023 to 2025).
• The magazines’ own submission pages for what they charge, and for pay and reply time when no listing records them. Each fact taken from a magazine’s guidelines was checked word for word against its page. Prizes, paid fast-track reading and art calls are set aside; the fee we use is the cheapest way any writer can send work.
• Poets & Writers listings for pay, reply time and submission policy, used from the year each listing was last updated.
• Writers’ own reports. Once a magazine has 5 reports, their typical reply time becomes its recorded one. Reports are kept without names or accounts.

The index checks its sources every month and begins a new year each January. It last checked them on 3 October 2026.

Tiers

The total score places each magazine in one of four tiers.

• Tier 1Flagship LuminaryScore 75 and above
• Tier 2High DistinctionScore 60 to 74.9
• Tier 3Distinguished ContemporaryScore 45 to 59.9
• Tier 4Emerging & CommunityScore below 45

A tier is a summary, not a verdict. A magazine with few facts on record can sit lower than its reputation, because the index will not assume what it cannot confirm.

Four indexes

The 2026 index ranks 580 magazines overall, 313 in fiction, 310 in poetry and 167 in nonfiction. A magazine joins a genre’s index when it has been recognised in that genre.

What the numbers show

• Recognition gathers at the top. The ten most honoured magazines hold 21% of all Pushcart recognition in the index, and the fifty most honoured hold 56%.
• The long tail is real. 208 of the 496 magazines with any Pushcart recognition have a single one to their name.
• Honour and access pull in different directions. Among the fifty most honoured magazines, 65% charge a reading fee; among the rest, 46%. Where we know the amount, it is usually $3.
• The most honoured magazines are also more likely to pay: 81% of them pay contributors in cash, against 51% of everyone else.
• They can be slower to answer. 22% of the most honoured take more than six months to reply, against 11% of the rest.
• Flash fiction keeps its own company. 114 magazines have had work chosen for the flash anthologies since 2022; only 38 of them also appear in the Pushcart record.
• Honours outlast magazines. 45 magazines in the Pushcart record have closed and 34 are paused or quiet. They stay in the index, marked, so their record is not lost.

of Pushcart recognition held by the ten most honoured magazines

21%

of Pushcart recognition held by the ten most honoured magazines

held by the fifty most honoured

56%

held by the fifty most honoured

of 496 recognised magazines have a single honour

208

of 496 recognised magazines have a single honour