2010 Pushcart Prize Rankings

NOTE: The 2011 rankings are now available. Go: here

I am pleased to share with you the 2010 Pushcart Prize Rankings. As I have noted in years past, the following list looks only at the Pushcart Prizes awarded and Special Mentions in Fiction since 2000. Awards before that date are less relevant, it seems to me, in determining the relative quality of magazines publishing today. In fact, beginning with next year's list I will start dropping older years out of the formula, in order to keep the list truly current. Note, also, that I am not considering Non-fiction or Poetry in this analysis. A similar list for those genres would be interesting (some magazines seem to be stronger in those areas), but I leave that to someone else. Or I'll tackle it at a later date. But not right now.

I'm also not looking at other fine volumes such as the O. Henry Prizes or the Best American Short Stories. Appearing in either of those collections is a high honor, but the selection process isn't comparable to the Pushcarts, and so I don't believe mixing is appropriate, and, besides, many stories appear in two or more of the annual anthologies and that would skew the index. So: just Pushcarts and Special Mentions in Fiction since 2000.

A word about methodology: it isn't complicated. My formula counts a certain number of points for a prize and a smaller number of points for a special mention. Someone could figure it out if he or she wanted to. It's pretty simple. As I have in the past couple of years, I've listed the total number of points using this formula so readers can see, for example, how far ahead of the pack Ploughshares is.

A couple of things to note about this year's list. There have been some big moves--both One Story and Michigan Quarterly Review jumped in the rankings thanks to Prizes and Special Mentions. Otherwise, not much has changed from last year. Conjunctions moved into the second spot, edging past Zoetrope.

Magazines that have ceased publication (such as Ontario Review) are marked on the list with ©. (If you happen to see others on the list that have closed, please leave a comment to that effect.) There are about 15 magazines appearing the list for the first time, most toward the bottom.

Finally, to borrow a note of caution from last year's post on this subject:

One final word: What good is this list anyway? I'm a fan of the Pushcart Prize Anthology and I happen to think that it is a good indicator of magazine quality. It isn't perfect, and it doesn't mean a whole lot, frankly, but when I'm making my decisions of where I want to submit, I look at this list and aim as high as is realistically possible.

2010 Magazine 2010 Score
1 Ploughshares 130
2 Conjunctions 82
3 Zoetrope: All Story 81
4 Paris Review 69
4 Southern Review 69
6 Tin House 63
7 Threepenny Review 59
8 Georgia Review 52
9 Ontario Review © 50
10 Epoch 48
11 New England Review 46
11 TriQuarterly 46
13 McSweeney's 41
14 Missouri Review 40
15 Witness 39
16 Shenandoah 36
17 Kenyon Review 34
18 Five Points 33
19 Antioch Review 28
19 Boulevard 28
19 New Letters 28
22 Agni 27
23 Gettysburg Review 26
23 One Story 26
23 Virginia Quarterly Review 26
26 StoryQuarterly 25
27 A Public Space 24
27 Noon 24
29 Mississippi Review 22
30 Chelsea 21 (c)
31 Idaho Review 20
31 Oxford American 20
33 Doubletake 19 (c)
34 Third Coast 18
35 Glimmer Train 17
36 Iowa Review 16
37 Michigan Quarterly Review 15
37 Yale Review 15
39 Willow Springs 14
39 ZYZZYVA 14
41 Colorado Review 13
41 Harvard Review 13
43 Crazyhorse 12
43 Hudson Review 12
43 Manoa 12
43 Prairie Schooner 12
47 American Scholar 11
47 News from the Republic of Letters 11
47 Pleiades 11
47 Salmagundi 11
47 Sun 11
52 Alaska Quarterly Review 10
53 Bellevue Literary Review 9
53 Image 9
53 North American Review 9
56 Ecotone 8
56 Post Road 8
58 Bomb 7
58 Boston Review 7
58 Calyx 7
58 Fence 7
58 Graywolf 7
58 Southwest Review 7
58 Speakeasy 7 (c)
65 Black Warrior Review 6
65 Caribbean Writer 6
65 Fiction International 6
65 New Orleans Review 6
65 Other Voices 6 (c)
65 Sonora Review 6
65 Story © 6
65 Water-Stone 6
73 Another Chicago Magazine 5
73 Bridge 5
73 Cincinnati Review 5
73 Coffee House Press 5
73 Dalkey Archive Press 5
73 Grand Street 5
73 Indiana Review 5
73 Massachusetts Review 5
73 Milkweed 5
73 Parkett 5
73 Pen America 5
73 Univ. of Georgia Press 5
85 American Short Fiction 4
85 Beloit Fiction 4
85 Daedalus 4
85 Gulf Coast 4
85 Mid American Review 4
85 Nebraska Review 4
85 Northwest Review 4
85 Raritan 4
93 Appalachian Heritage 3
93 Bamboo Ridge 3
93 Event 3
93 failbetter.com 3
93 Hopkins Review 3
93 Literal Latte 3
93 Narrative 3
93 Pinch 3
93 River Styx 3
93 Sewanee Review 3
93 University Press of New England 3
93 Western Humanities Review 3
93 New York Tyrant 3
106 [sic] 2
106 American Fiction 2
106 American Letters & Commentary 2
106 American Literary Review 2
106 American Voice 2
106 Bellingham Review 2
106 Blackbird 2
106 Briar Cliff Review 2
106 Carve 2
106 Chautauqua 2
106 Columbia Review 2
106 Crab Orchard Review 2
106 Faultline 2
106 Fiction 2
106 Green Mountains Review 2
106 Lit 2
106 Meridian 2
106 Natural Bridge 2
106 Ninth Letter 2
106 Open City 2
106 Paper Street 2
106 Passages North 2
106 Redivider 2
106 Sarabande 2
106 Timber Creek Review 2
106 Turnrow 2
106 West Branch 2
133 Amazon Shorts 1
133 Antietam Review 1
133 APA Journal 1
133 Art and Understanding 1
133 Artful Dodge 1
133 Arts & Letters 1
133 Ascent 1
133 At Length 1
133 Ballyhoo Stories 1
133 Baltimore Review 1
133 BkMk Press 1
133 Brain, Child 1
133 Callaloo 1
133 Canio's Editions 1
133 Carnegie Mellon Univ. Press 1
133 Chattahoochee Review 1
133 Cimarron Review 1
133 Clackamas Literary Review 1
133 Confrontation 1
133 Contemporary West 1
133 Cutbank 1
133 Denver Quarterly 1
133 Descant 1
133 Dos Passos Review 1
133 Eggemoggin Reach Review 1
133 EWUP 1
133 Flyway 1
133 Folio 1
133 Fourteen Hills 1
133 Frank 1
133 Fugue 1
133 Hampton Shorts 1
133 Happy 1
133 Healing Muse 1
133 Heart 1
133 Helicon Nine Editions 1
133 High Plains Literary Review 1
133 Hotel Amerika 1
133 Hunger Mountain 1
133 Inkwell 1
133 Iron Horse Literary Review 1
133 Joe 1
133 Kyoto Journal 1
133 Lake Effect 1
133 Larcom Review 1
133 Laurel Review 1
133 Lilth 1
133 Louisville Review 1
133 Lynx Eye 1
133 Margin 1
133 McSweeney's Books 1
133 Mid-List 1
133 Minnesota Review 1
133 Nerve.com 1
133 New Renaissance 1
133 Night Train 1
133 Nimrod 1
133 North Atlantic Review 1
133 Northern Lights 1
133 Oasis 1
133 Partisan Review 1
133 Pearl 1
133 Per Contra 1
133 Phoebe 1
133 Pindeldyboz 1
133 Press 1
133 Prism 1
133 Puckerbush Press 1
133 Puerto del Sol 1
133 Quarter After Eight 1
133 Quarterly West 1
133 Quick Fiction 1
133 RBS Gazette 1
133 Relief 1
133 Rivendell 1
133 Rosebud 1
133 Salamander 1
133 Seems 1
133 Small Town 1
133 SMU Press 1
133 Soft Skull Press 1
133 South Carolina Review 1
133 Southampton Review 1
133 Sou'wester 1
133 Spork 1
133 Stolen Time Press 1
133 Stone Canoe 1
133 Subtropics 1
133 Sycamore Review 1
133 Tampa Review 1
133 Tiferet 1
133 Transformation 1
133 Two Girls Review 1
133 Underground Voices 1
133 University of Pittsburgh Press 1
133 War, Literature and The Arts 1
133 West Wind 1
133 Worcester 1
133 Words of Wisdom 1
133 WordWrights 1
133 Xconnect 1
133 Brooklyn Rail 1
133 Brooklyn Review 1
133 Epiphany 1
133 Exile 1
133 Fifth Wednesday 1
133 Grist 1
133 Laughing Fire 1
133 Momotombo Press 1
133 Notre Dame Review 1
133 Southern California Review 1
133 The Journal 1