2011 Pushcart Prize Rankings

[Note: The 2012 Rankings are now available. Go here.]

It’s that time of year again. The 2011 volume of the Pushcart Prizes arrived in my mailbox today, and I’m pleased to present for the sixth year my Literary Magazine Rankings. (All previous years’ rankings are linked in the sidebar, should you want to compare.) There are several developments this year that I want to point out, but first I need to make my customary disclaimer. Rankings of literary magazines are of questionable value. Most such rankings are subjective. Others depend on data that may not be available for all magazines, such as circulation or payment to authors, or response time. These are important factors to some and I don’t discount them. It’s just that diversity in these areas, and the advent of high-quality online magazines, make such factors problematic.

This ranking, on the other hand, is extremely simple. I look at the annual volume of Pushcart Prize winners and the list of Special Mentions included in the back of the volume. I award a certain number of points for a winner and fewer points for a special mention. I add up the points and make a list.

There are two important factors to note. I began this list six years ago using data from the volumes beginning with 2001. My theory was that older volumes included too many defunct magazines and, perhaps more importantly, most magazines have evolved along with literary tastes, so that the most relevant recognitions would be the most recent. This year, for the first time, I am shifting forward in time and have dropped the points awarded for 2001. This year’s ranking, then, includes 2002-2011, and I plan to keep using a ten-year rolling system. Next year I’ll drop 2002. As a result of this shift, a few magazines and presses that have been on the list thanks to points earned in 2001 have now dropped out. So that readers will know which those magazines those are, I’ve left them on the bottom of the list with zero points and designated them with a “DO”.

The second factor, as I’ve noted in the past, is that my ranking uses only the Pushcart Prize—not BASS, not O. Henry. The reason for this is that there is overlap among these different anthologies, so that some stories may appear in all of them or two of them. The “glossy” magazines are considered for BASS, but not Pushcart. Online magazines are not considered for O. Henry but are beginning to be recognized by Pushcart. While I admire both BASS and O. Henry, the Pushcart Prize anthology seems to me to best reflect the literary magazine world in which I participate.

Which brings me to the purpose of this list. I began the rankings as a way of prioritizing my submissions of short stories to magazines. I still use it that way, and I think many other writers do also. If Ploughshares wins the most Pushcart Prizes and Special Mentions, then that’s the magazine I want to publish my stories. If One Story is on the rise, I might target them before a magazine that is lower on the list. It’s as simple as that.

Note that I’ve referred to short stories. This ranking is only about the fiction prizes and special mentions. It would be a productive exercise to look at Poetry and Nonfiction, but I have not yet done so. I think these would need to be separate lists, since not all magazines publish in all three genres, and then it would be interesting to see where a particular magazine sits on each of the lists. Maybe soon I’ll get to that.

Now, what observations can I make about this year’s list?

• Ploughshares lost ground, having earned only one Special Mention this year, but still holds a commanding lead.
• Online magazines are more evident this year — notably Narrative, but there are several others on the list, as well. Kenyon Review is represented by both its print and online components, although I’ve combined them here.
• Tin House jumped into 4th spot and Paris Review slipped to 6th
• Ontario Review, which is defunct, actually moved UP in the rankings because Georgia Review lost points when I dropped 2001
• One Story leaped from 23rd to 15th on the strength of two Pushcarts and two Special Mentions, the most of any magazine this year
• A Public Space also made a nice move, entering the top twenty.

For more comparisons, take a look at last year’s rankings: 2010 Pushcart Prize Rankings 

Now, for some other innovations.

• This year, the list is hyperlinked to the magazines’ websites, which I hope will be helpful.
• I have again used the symbol © to indicate that a magazine is closed, but I think I’ve been more diligent this time around in discovering which magazines have disappeared. Two of the dead magazines are actually making their first appearance on the list.
• I’ve also used a question mark (?) where I’m unsure about a magazine—if I can’t find a website, for example.

I welcome feedback. Do you have a correction? An updated web address? News of a dead (or resurrected) magazine? Send me an email or leave a comment below.

And now for the list:

    

2011	Magazine	2011 Score
1	Ploughshares	113
2	Conjunctions	82
3	Zoetrope: All Story	77
4	Tin House	74
5	Southern Review	69
6	Paris Review	56
7	Threepenny Review	55
8	New England Review	48
8	Ontario Review ©	48
10	Epoch	47
11	Georgia Review	45
12	TriQuarterly	40
13	Kenyon Review	39
13	Missouri Review	39
15	One Story	38
16	McSweeney's	37
17	Five Points	36
17	Shenandoah	36
19	Witness	35
20	A Public Space	31
20	Boulevard	31
22	New Letters	30
23	Agni	29
23	Noon	29
25	Antioch Review	28
26	Virginia Quarterly Review	27
27	StoryQuarterly	25
28	Mississippi Review	24
29	Iowa Review	21
30	Gettysburg Review	20
31	Idaho Review	18
31	Sun	18
33	Chelsea ©	16
33	Michigan Quarterly Review	16
33	Prairie Schooner	16
36	Colorado Review	15
37	Crazyhorse	14
37	Glimmer Train	14
37	Third Coast	14
37	Yale Review	14
41	Doubletake ©	13
41	Ecotone	13
41	Oxford American	13
41	Willow Springs	13
41	ZYZZYVA	13
46	Alaska Quarterly Review	12
46	Manoa	12
48	American Scholar	11
48	Bellevue Literary Review	11
48	Harvard Review	11
48	Hudson Review	11
48	Salmagundi	11
53	Narrative	10
54	Image	9
55	Calyx	8
55	Cincinnati Review	8
55	Post Road	8
58	Graywolf Press	7
58	Massachusetts Review	7
58	Pen America	7
58	Speakeasy ©	7
58	Water-Stone Review	7
63	Caribbean Writer	6
63	Fence	6
63	Fiction International	6
63	New Orleans Review	6
63	News from the Republic of Letters	6
63	North American Review	6
63	Sonora Review	6
63	Southwest Review	6
71	American Short Fiction	5
71	Black Renaissance Noire	5
71	Black Warrior Review	5
71	Bridge ©	5
71	Coffee House Press	5
71	Dalkey Archive Press	5
71	Grand Street ©	5
71	Indiana Review	5
71	Mid American Review	5
71	Other Voices ©	5
71	Parkett	5
71	Pleiades	5
71	Univ. of Georgia Press	5
84	Another Chicago Magazine	4
84	Beloit Fiction	4
84	Daedalus	4
84	Gulf Coast	4
84	Hopkins Review	4
84	Northwest Review	4
84	Raritan	4
91	Appalachian Heritage	3
91	Event	3
91	failbetter.com	3
91	Fiction	3
91	New York Tyrant	3
91	Ninth Letter	3
91	Pinch	3
91	River Styx	3
91	Sewanee Review	3
91	West Branch	3
91	Western Humanities Review	3
102	[sic]	2
102	American Letters & Commentary	2
102	American Literary Review	2
102	Bamboo Ridge	2
102	Bellingham Review	2
102	BkMk Press	2
102	Blackbird	2
102	Bomb	2
102	Boston Review	2
102	Briar Cliff Review	2
102	Brooklyn Rail	2
102	Brooklyn Review	2
102	Carve	2
102	Chautauqua	2
102	Columbia Review	2
102	Crab Orchard Review	2
102	Faultline	2
102	Fifth Wednesday	2
102	Fourteen Hills	2
102	Hotel Amerika	2
102	Inkwell	2
102	J Journal	2
102	Lit	2
102	Literal Latte	2
102	Meridian	2
102	Paper Street © (?)	2
102	Passages North	2
102	Redivider	2
102	Sarabande Books	2
102	Sou'wester	2
102	The Journal	2
102	Timber Creek Review (?)	2
102	Turnrow	2
102	University Press of New England	2
136	Amazon Shorts ©	1
136	Antietam Review ©	1
136	Art and Understanding	1
136	Artful Dodge	1
136	Arts & Letters	1
136	Ascent	1
136	At Length	1
136	Ballyhoo Stories	1
136	Baltimore Review	1
136	Blue Earth Review	1
136	Blue Mesa Review	1
136	Brain, Child	1
136	Callaloo	1
136	Canio's Editions (?)	1
136	Carnegie Mellon Univ. Press	1
136	Carpe Articulum	1
136	Chariton Review	1
136	Chattahoochee Review	1
136	Cimarron Review	1
136	Confrontation	1
136	Contemporary West	1
136	Copper Nickel	1
136	Cutbank	1
136	Denver Quarterly	1
136	Descant	1
136	Dos Passos Review	1
136	Dossier Journal	1
136	Eggemoggin Reach Review (?)	1
136	Epiphany	1
136	EWU Press ©	1
136	Exile	1
136	Florida Review	1
136	Folio	1
136	Frank	1
136	Frieght Stories	1
136	Fugue	1
136	Gray's Sporting Journal	1
136	Green Mountains Review	1
136	Grist	1
136	Hampton Shorts (?)	1
136	Happy (?)	1
136	Healing Muse	1
136	Helicon Nine Editions	1
136	High Plains Literary Review (?)	1
136	Hunger Mountain	1
136	Iron Horse Literary Review	1
136	Isotope ©	1
136	Jabberwock Review	1
136	Kelsey Review	1
136	King's English ©	1
136	Kyoto Journal	1
136	Lake Effect	1
136	Laughing Fire Press	1
136	Laurel Review	1
136	Lynx Eye ©	1
136	Maggid	1
136	Margin (?)	1
136	McSweeney's Books	1
136	Mid-List Press	1
136	Minnesota Review	1
136	Momotombo Press	1
136	Mythium	1
136	Natural Bridge	1
136	Nebraska Review ©	1
136	Nerve.com	1
136	New Ohio Review	1
136	New Renaissance	1
136	Night Train	1
136	Nimrod	1
136	Northern Lights (?)	1
136	Notre Dame Review	1
136	Open City	1
136	Orion	1
136	Partisan Review ©	1
136	Pearl	1
136	Per Contra	1
136	Phoebe	1
136	Pindeldyboz ©	1
136	Prism	1
136	Puckerbush Press	1
136	Puerto del Sol	1
136	Quarter After Eight	1
136	Quarterly West	1
136	Quick Fiction	1
136	RBS Gazette (?)	1
136	Relief	1
136	Rivendell ©	1
136	Rosebud	1
136	Salamander	1
136	Seems	1
136	Slice	1
136	Small Town (?)	1
136	Smoke Long Quarterly	1
136	Soft Skull Press	1
136	South Carolina Review	1
136	Southampton Review	1
136	Southern California Review	1
136	Spork	1
136	Stolen Time Press (?)	1
136	Stone Canoe	1
136	Subtropics	1
136	Sycamore Review	1
136	Tampa Review	1
136	Tiferet	1
136	Transformation (?)	1
136	Underground Voices	1
136	University of Pittsburgh Press	1
136	Upstreet	1
136	War, Literature and The Arts	1
136	West Wind	1
136	Worcester Review	1
136	Words of Wisdom (?)	1
136	World Literature Today	1
136	Xconnect (?)	1
DO	American Fiction (New Rivers Press)	0
DO	American Voice (?)	0
DO	APA Journal (?)	0
DO	Clackamas Literary Review	0
DO	Flyway	0
DO	Heart (?)	0
DO	Joe ©	0
DO	Larcom Review (?)	0
DO	Lilith	0
DO	Louisville Review	0
DO	Milkweed Editions - Press	0
DO	North Atlantic Review	0
DO	Oasis ©	0
DO	Press (?)	0
DO	SMU Press	0
DO	Story ©	0
DO	Two Girls Review (?)	0
DO	WordWrights (?)	0