I conceived of Journal of the Month in 2012 when I could no longer find a bookstore that carried stacks of national literary journals through which I could sift to find publications that spoke to my writing and my sensibility. How do new writers, wanting to publish in a book they can bring home for thanksgiving, research publishing outlets? Even now that print journals extend their reach with an online counterpart, the best way to learn what a journal is about is to subscribe to it. I didn’t want to subscribe to one journal. I wanted to subscribe to them all. 

Journal of the Month is a curation service included annually in “Best of” literary gift lists provided by The Millions, The Write Life, and other literary sites, and written about in Poets & Writers Magazine, The Writer Magazine, and The Review Review. We gather the best print literary journals published in the US that feature fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and send a different, current journal to our readers on a regular basis. What the journals that participate in our program have in common, regardless of whether they are established stalwarts like The Missouri Review, A Public Space, or Kenyon Review, or promising upstarts, like Booth and f(r)iction is quality and staying power. Readers never receive the same journal twice.

Comprised of over 3 dozen participating journals, Journal of the Month has distributed more than 19,000 literary journals to 4100 readers. With our classroom program, we coordinate with instructors of writing and publishing classes to bring to their students 4 literary journals, which provide material for lessons in writing, publishing, book and brand-making, reviewing, working in the writing field, and literary citizenship. Over 50 instructors teach in our program and can share tips and tricks with each other through our Creative Writing Instructors Who Teach With Lit Mags facebook group. Editors of the literary journals they study are available for class-wide video conference calls.