Poetry Journal Rankings

Top Literary Magazines (print format) Publishing Poetry

(May 1 2008)

Here is yet another list to rate journals, rate reviews, rate magazines, and list the best poetry journals, the best poetry magazines, the best poetry reviews. Enjoy!

Please notify if there are spelling mistakes or a name is written incorrectly or if you just have suggestions as to a better method of rating these magazines. Keep in mind that I may have included some magazines that are no longer around or do not print poetry or they are online only; if this is the case, please notify me and I will try to keep up with everything!

Also I am really interested in your opinion and what magazines you think should be included on the list, or maybe you think a magazine is either ranked too high or too low. Please tell me!!!

How to rank something of this nature when there is a subjective aspect to it as well as both name recognition and longevity to factor into it? As far as the objective measurement, what does one go with?

The requirements of Jeffery Bahr (http://www.jefferybahr.com/Publications/PubRankings.asp) include: size of the publication's press run, acceptance ratios of the submissions each receives, number of occurrences in Best American Poetry, Pushcarts, other anthologies and awards, and the poets who are regularly represented in recent issues.

The requirements of http://www.everywritersresource.com/topliterarymagazines.html include: date established, number of submissions, and the number of inclusions in national anthologies, and circulation.

However, using occurrences in anthologies and awards is flawed in itself in that one is using a system that is already heavily biased toward a poet’s name recognition and not necessarily a poet’s quality.

I am trying to create a ranking list (yes, one that is far from perfect!) that will rate the magazine as a whole and not just the number of big names. I think Pushcarts is a good factor over other more biased anthologies, but even then the big names factor into more than it should. In “ranking” these magazines, I am taking into consideration if the magazine gives out an award and if it is a pleasure to read. While this requires subscriptions to these magazines, I am only human so thus I am limited to the number I can read; however, I subscribe to 25-50 journals per year and rotate out more than half every year!

For me, both the magazine and the cover should be aesthetically pleasing to my eye. Some of my favorite magazines include both art and fiction, but for the purposes of my knowledge and to limit this list, I am only going to examine the magazine’s interior based on its poems, and at this time, print journals only! Thus, I will “rank” these journals for poetry based on the magazine’s name recognition which should include date established, the subjective pleasurable factor (see above), and the award factor (including Pushcart prizes and nominations, other awards and recognition, and whether they give out some sort of award for “best poem” either through a contest or editors’ prize).

Again, I am open to suggestions and will rethink any entry, so feel free to submit your own list, or a general critique, or make a case for a magazine, or whatever!

Caveat:
As mentioned previously, this is NOT meant to be the ultimate measurement of literary journals publishing poetry today. There should NOT be an assumption of one publication is "better" than another publication as this “ranking” is more subjective than objective as fitting to the subject matter.
I fully admit that this ranking system, as is any ranking system evaluating any subject matter, is flawed and approximate.

Tier 1 = 1 – 50 Tier 2 = 51 – 125 Tier 3 = 126 - x

1. Poetry
2. The Paris Review
3. Prairie Schooner
4. Ploughshares
5. Virginia Quarterly Review
6. Greensboro
7. New Letters
8. Gettysburg Review
9. Kenyon Review
10. Iowa Review
11. Georgia Review
12. Yale Review
13. SW Review
14. Black Warrior Review
15. Crazyhorse
16. Indiana Review
17. Triquarterly
18. Southern Review
19. Tin House
20. Mid American Review
21. Malahat Review
22. Hudson Review
23. Missouri Review
24. Colorado Review
25. Antioch Review
26. Hanging Loose
27. New England Review
28. Conjunction
29. Michigan Quarterly Review
30. American Poetry Review
31. Chelsea
32. Callaloo
33. Salmagundi
34. Shenandoah
35. North American Poetry
36. Water-Stone Review
37. Crab Orchard Review
38. Literary Review
39. Atlanta Review
40. Marlboro Review
41. AGNI
42. Boulevard
43. PRISM
44. Rattle
45. Poerty NW
46. Painted Bride Quarterly
47. Notre Dame Review
48. Nimrod
49. The Journal
50. Tampa Review
51. National Poetry Review
52. Antietam Review
53. Another Chicago Magazine
54. Artful Dodge
55. Hunger Mountain
56. Columbia Review
57. Five Points
58. Three Penny Review
59. Hambone
60. Witness
61. Alaska Quarterly Review
62. Florida Review
63. SE Poetry Review
64. The Sun
65. Poetry East
66. Antigonish Review
67. South Carolina Review
68. Gulf Coast
69. FIELD
70. Sewanee
71. Harvard Review
72. Homestead Review
73. Georgetown Review
74. Parnassus
75. Tar River Poetry
76. Asheville Poetry Review
77. Bellingham Review
78. Spoon River Poetry Review
79. Zone 3
80. River Styx
81. Diner
82. Hayden’s Ferry
83. American Literary Review
84. New Criterion
85. Southern Humanities Review
86. Texas Review
87. Third Coast
88. Minnesota Review
89. The Pinch
90. Chicago Review
91. Connecticut Review
92. Ontario Review
93. Southern Poetry Review
94. Cutbank Literary Magazine
95. Meridian
96. Pacific Review
97. Seattle Review
98. Quarterly West
99. Margie
100. Cincinnati Review
101. Chattahoochee Review
102. A Public Space
103. Neon / Volt
104. Western Humanities Review
105. Carolina Quarterly
106. Jubilat
107. The Lyric
108. Cream City Review
109. Seneca Review
110. Poetry International
111. Epoch
112. William and Mary Review
113. Subtropics
114. Baltimore Review
115. North Atlantic Review
116. Silk Road
117. Rosebud Magazine
118. Puerto del Sol
119. New York Quarterly
120. Berkley Poetry Review
121. Denver Quarterly
122. Cider Press Review
123. Idaho Review
124. American Poetry Journal
125. Yemassae
126. MAKE
127. Hiram Poetry Review
128. Barrow Street
129. Kalliope
130. The Ledge
131. Coal City Review
132. Sycamore Review
133. Wisconsin Review
134. New Hampshire Review
135. Portland Review
136. Louisville Review
137. Isotope
138. Pleiades
139. New South
140. Hotel Amerika
141. New Delta Review
142. Many Mountains Moving
143. Evansville Review
144. New Madrid
145. Measure
146. Slant
147. New Ohio Review
148. Oyez Review
149. Blue Mesa Review
150. Prairie Fire
151. Five Fingers Review
152. Cold Mountain Review
153. Arkansas Review
154. New Orleans Review
155. Dos Passos Review
156. Grove Review
157. New Formalist
158. First City Review
159. South Dakota Review
160. Southern Indiana Review
161. Hawai’i Review
162. Caketrain
163. Beloit Poetry Journal
164. Packingtown Review
165. Potomac Review
166. Manhattan Review
167. Lake Effect
168. NW Review
169. St Petersburg
170. Bat City Review
171. Fog City Review
172. Willow Springs
173. Midwest Quarterly
174. Gihon River Review
175. Edinburgh Review
176. emerson review
177. Talking River
178. Borderlands
179. Hazmat Poetry Review
180. New Zoo Poetry Review
181. Verse Magazine
182. ZYZZVA
183. Laurel Review
184. Red Mountain Review
185. Red Rock Review
186. Chiron Review
187. Copper Nickel
188. North Carolina Literary Review
189. Oregon Review
190. Rio Grande Review
191. Noon
192. Backwards City
193. Green Mountain Review
194. North Dakota Quarterly
195. Xavier Review
196. Red Wheelbarrow Review
197. Briar Cliff Review
198. Crab Creek Review
199. Red Cedar Review
200. Tar Wolf Review
201. River Oak Review
202. Tusculum Review
203. Red Clay Review
204. Slipstream
205. Redwood Coast Review
206. Santa Clara Review