Demystifying+Literary+Magazines+An+Editors%27+Panel+Thursday%2C+August+13+from+630pm-800+pm+FREE%21+RSVP+at+thebackstoryabove.com+%282%29.png
Demystifying+Literary+Magazines+An+Editors%27+Panel+Thursday%2C+August+13+from+630pm-800+pm+FREE%21+RSVP+at+thebackstoryabove.com+%282%29.png

Demystifying Literary Magazines: An Editors' Panel

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Literary magazines are a great destination for all sorts of work by authors, both new and experienced. Publishing in a lit mag brings more awareness of your work, exposure, a reputable byline on your resume, connection with community, and public validation of your work.

But what kind of work do lit mags want to see? What makes them accept or reject a submission? Why do some mags have submission fees? Why do some of them want flash fiction (and what is it)?

Join three editors-in-chief of different literary magazines for a panel discussion about lit mags and where flash fiction fits in.

Ever wonder what’s going on behind the scenes at your favorite lit mags? Curious about the world of flash and how to get your work out there? Learn from three veteran editors and flash fiction writers about the ins and outs of lit mag life. We’ll talk about submissions, the editing process, and some dos & don’ts for getting your work published. You’ll leave the panel discussion with a sense of how editors think about submissions and selecting work for publication.

Eric Scot Tryon is founding EIC of Flash Frog; Kim Magowan is the EIC and Fiction Editor of Pithead Chapel; D.E. Hardy is the founding EIC of Claudine.

Thursday, August 13 from 6:30pm-8:00 pm

FREE!

Seats are limited. Please RSVP by buying a $0 ticket below.

(Pay-it-forward tickets support The Backstory Above’s Sliding Scale Fund, which we use to help fund class fees for students who need it.)

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Literary magazines are a great destination for all sorts of work by authors, both new and experienced. Publishing in a lit mag brings more awareness of your work, exposure, a reputable byline on your resume, connection with community, and public validation of your work.

But what kind of work do lit mags want to see? What makes them accept or reject a submission? Why do some mags have submission fees? Why do some of them want flash fiction (and what is it)?

Join three editors-in-chief of different literary magazines for a panel discussion about lit mags and where flash fiction fits in.

Ever wonder what’s going on behind the scenes at your favorite lit mags? Curious about the world of flash and how to get your work out there? Learn from three veteran editors and flash fiction writers about the ins and outs of lit mag life. We’ll talk about submissions, the editing process, and some dos & don’ts for getting your work published. You’ll leave the panel discussion with a sense of how editors think about submissions and selecting work for publication.

Eric Scot Tryon is founding EIC of Flash Frog; Kim Magowan is the EIC and Fiction Editor of Pithead Chapel; D.E. Hardy is the founding EIC of Claudine.

Thursday, August 13 from 6:30pm-8:00 pm

FREE!

Seats are limited. Please RSVP by buying a $0 ticket below.

(Pay-it-forward tickets support The Backstory Above’s Sliding Scale Fund, which we use to help fund class fees for students who need it.)

D.E. Hardy's work has appeared in Pithead Chapel, Fractured Lit, X-R-A-Y, Lost Balloon, among others. Her work has been anthologized in Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction, and she won Baltimore Review's 2025 Short Forms Contest for flash fiction. D.E. lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find her online at dehardywriter.com.

D.E. is the Editor-in-Chief for Claudine, a free online literary magazine. Each issue presents two microfictions, two micro creative nonfictions, a micro by a new writer, and a prose chapbook review (or two).

Claudine’s mission is to rekindle readers' sense of humanness through original microprose and to highlight the breathtaking array of story and emotion captured in prose chapbooks produced by small, independent presses.

D.E. Hardy (she/her)

Eric Scot Tryon is a writer and editor from San Francisco, California. His debut novel I’m the Undertow is out now from Central Avenue (May 2026). His short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Mid-American Review, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Florida Review, Glimmer Train, The Los Angeles Review, and others. His work has also been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50 and the Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction anthologies. He is also the founding editor of the literary magazine Flash Frog. Eric is represented by Carleen Geisler at Britt Siess Creative Management. Find him online at ericscottryon.com.

Flash Frog is an online flash fiction magazine established in January 2021, featuring stories under 1,000 words. We like our stories like we like our dart frogs: small, brightly colored, and deadly to the touch. Our stories have been recognized and selected for the following lists and anthologies: Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, and the Wigleaf Top 50. And to ensure our stories are as vibrant as the the beautiful blue poison dart frog, each one is accompanied by original artwork created just for that piece.

Flash Frog pays $25 per story and publishes a new one every Monday. Subs are always open, so check the guidelines and send us stories that poison.

Eric Scot Tryon (he/him)

Kim Magowan is the author of four short story collections, The Last Day (2026), Don't Take This the Wrong Way (2025), co-authored with Michelle Ross, and chosen as one of LitHub's 100 Most Notable Books of 2025, How Far I've Come (2022), and Undoing (2018), and the novel The Light Source (2019). Her stories have been selected for Best Small Fictions and Wigleaf's Top 50. She is the Editor-in-Chief and Fiction Editor of Pithead Chapel. Find her online at kimmagowan.com

Pithead Chapel is an independent and volunteer-run literary journal and small press founded by Keith Rebec in 2012 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We publish art, fiction, nonfiction, and prose poetry online every month by emerging and established artists.

At Pithead Chapel, we’re looking for engaging art, fiction, nonfiction, and prose poetry. Most of all, we want your work to make us feel something. We want to reach the last word and immediately crave more. We want your work to leave a brilliant bruise. Send us your polished work and we’ll do our best to help your voice get heard.

Kim Magowan (she/her)