Leisure Reading: Literary Magazines

At Fondren Library, you can access literary magazines through our print and database holdings. Print copies are easier to read, browse and enjoy, but databases greatly expand our access to these materials. Apart from library holdings, many literary magazines also put free materials on their websites.

Print Literary Magazines

Locations of current print holdings

The latest issues of the magazines listed below are shelved with Current Periodicals on the first floor. If you walk from the main computer lab through the passageway near the printers, then Current Periodicals will be in front of you, on your left. Use the call numbers below to find the magazines-- the A's are closest to the printers, and the P's are in the second shelf back near the window.

Current Print Subscriptions

Older issues of these magazines (and others that we no longer subscribe to in print) are usually bound in hardcover and can be found in the General Stacks or LSC (offsite storage). For the General Stacks, call numbers beginning with A are on the 4th floor; L's and PN's are on the 3rd floor, and PS's are on the 2nd floor. You can find all print subscriptions in OneSearch, which also gives you their location on a map (with "Map It").

Database Literary Magazines

Journals search

You can check library access to any literary magazine (or any other periodical) using the Journals A to Z list. Just search the magazine title. There are hundreds of magazines available this way, and we will not attempt a comprehensive listing here.

Database browsing tools

Several databases make it relatively easy to see the literary magazines they provide access to. Use the instructions below to browse these database holdings.

For magazines and texts not available through Fondren, you can make an Interlibrary Loan request.

To browse listings for literary magazines in the Humanities Source database, click on Publications in the database's top bar. Then select "By Subject & Description" below the search box. Then enter this precise search, including ampersand and punctuation (see screenshot below): Literature & Writing (General)

Click "Browse" and links for over 250 magazines will appear. Many will have full text; others will only offer bibliographic listings for the dates indicated.

You can use the exact same procedure with Academic Search Complete (87 results).

Copies of R2: The Rice Review, Rice's student literary magazine, are held in the General Stacks and at the Woodson Research Center. Archived copies may also be viewed at https://www.r2ricereview.com/

If you are interested in publishing your writing in a literary magazine, the recommended practice is to read magazines widely to learn which editors and magazines would be best for your work. Your favorite authors' acknowledgments pages are good places to discover new magazines. Before submitting to a magazine, be sure to read carefully their submission guidelines.

If you want to get a sense of the scope of available publications, the following resources may be useful.