Pushcart Prize Ranking (Poetry) for 2012

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By now, my ranking of literary magazines is well known among writers. I began the ranking several years ago as I attempted to prioritize my submissions of short stories. I analyzed ten years of Pushcart Prize anthologies and ranked the magazines based on how many prizes and special mentions they had earned using a simple formula to come up with a score. That was the only factor in my ranking, attempting to keep it as objective as possible. I updated the ranking each year when the new anthology was released, adding the new data while dropping the data that was more than ten years old.

At the end of 2011, when I updated the Fiction rankings, I did the analysis for Nonfiction as well, and came up with a separate ranking. Both of these lists, as well as the Fiction rankings from prior years, are linked in the sidebar at right.

And now, finally, I’ve applied the analysis to Poetry.

Some people don’t like rankings, and I can sympathize with their view. But I maintain that the Pushcart Prize is a reasonable proxy for quality, and I think many writers hope to place their work in the best possible magazine. If I were a poet, I’d want to see my work in Poetry, the clear “winner” in this ranking. But I also acknowledge that the Pushcart Press has been slow to recognize the work that is appearing in online magazines, and these magazines, some of which are excellent, are under-represented on the list. Writers should keep this in mind.

Are there any surprises here? You tell me. Poetry is clearly dominant, and American Poetry Review is a strong second. But many of the remaining top twenty-five also rank highly in the other genres.

For whatever it's worth to you, here it is:

Pushcart Prize Ranking (Poetry) for 2012

2012	Magazine	2012 Score
1	Poetry	108
2	American Poetry Review	74
3	Kenyon Review	65
4	Ploughshares	59
5	Georgia Review	46
6	Southern Review	45
7	New England Review	42
8	Threepenny Review	41
9	Gettysburg Review	40
10	Virginia Quarterly Review	36
11	TriQuarterly	33
12	Field	32
13	Five Points	30
14	Yale Review	25
15	BOA Editions	21
15	Shenandoah	21
15	Tin House	21
18	Alice James Books	20
19	Agni	19
20	American Scholar	17
20	Barrow Street	17
20	Cincinnati Review	17
23	The Journal	16
24	Literary Imagination	15
24	New Ohio Review	15
24	Notre Dame Review	15
27	Image	14
28	Colorado Review	13
28	Copper Canyon Press	13
28	Crazyhorse	13
28	Iowa Review	13
28	Michigan Quarterly Review	13
33	jubilat	12
33	North American Review	12
33	Rattle	12
33	Runes ©	12
37	Blackbird	11
37	Canary	11
37	Chelsea ©	11
37	Epoch	11
37	Lake Effect	11
37	Missouri Review	11
37	New American Writing	11
37	New Criterion	11
37	New Letters	11
37	Rivendell ©	11
37	Southern Poetry Review	11
37	West Branch	11
49	Alaska Quarterly Review	10
49	Cue Editions	10
49	Eastern Wash. Univ. Press ©	10
49	Great River Review	10
49	Green Mountains Review	10
49	Lyric (?)	10
49	New Orleans Review	10
49	Orion	10
49	Spillway	10
49	Turnrow	10
49	Water-Stone Review	10
49	Western Humanities Review	10
61	Massachusetts Review	8
61	Paris Review	8
61	Pleiades	8
64	5 a.m.	7
64	Connecticut Review	7
64	Hotel Amerika	7
64	Ninth Letter	7
64	Paper Street © (?)	7
64	Salamander	7
64	Sarabande Books	7
64	Seneca Review	7
72	Atlanta Review	6
72	Bloom	6
72	Cimarron Review	6
72	Crowd © (?)	6
72	Gulf Coast	6
72	Margie ©	6
72	Mid American Review	6
72	New Issues Poetry and Prose	6
72	Perugia Press	6
72	Poems & Plays	6
72	Poetry Review	6
72	Salmagundi	6
72	Smartish Pace	6
72	Sun	6
72	Tupelo Press	6
72	Wave Books	6
88	Anhinga Press	5
88	Arroyo Literary Review	5
88	Bellingham Review	5
88	Blueline	5
88	Chattahoochee Review	5
88	Chautauqua	5
88	Cleveland State Univ. Poetry Ctr.	5
88	Court Green	5
88	Curbstone Press	5
88	Cypher Books	5
88	Denver Quarterly	5
88	Dogwood	5
88	Ecotone	5
88	Eleven Eleven	5
88	Epiphany	5
88	Fence	5
88	Five Fingers Review	5
88	Grand Street ©	5
88	Graywolf Press	5
88	Hollyridge Press	5
88	Idaho Review	5
88	Laurel Poetry Collective	5
88	Little Patuxent Review	5
88	Manoa	5
88	Meridian	5
88	MIZNA	5
88	National Poetry Review	5
88	New South Books	5
88	OCHO	5
88	Painted Bride Quarterly	5
88	Parnassus: Poetry in Review	5
88	Partisan Review ©	5
88	Pebble Lake Review	5
88	Pleasure Boat Studio	5
88	Poetry Atlanta Press	5
88	Poetry Northwest	5
88	Post Road	5
88	Provincetown Arts	5
88	Quiddity	5
88	River Styx	5
88	Sixth Finch	5
88	Snake Nation Review	5
88	Sugar House Review	5
88	Think Journal	5
88	Third Coast	5
88	Tikkun	5
88	Toadlily Press	5
88	Triplopia (?)	5
88	Utah State University Press	5
88	Vallum: Contemporary Poetry	5
88	Verse Wisconsin	5
88	World Literature Today	5
88	Zone 3	5
88	Verse Press ©	5
88	Northeastern Univ. Press	5
88	Chicago Review	5
144	Beloit Poetry Journal	4
144	Raritan	4
144	Southwest Review	4
147	Black Warrior Review	3
147	Boulevard	3
147	Hudson Review	3
147	Prairie Schooner	3
147	University of Pittsburgh Press	3
152	Four Way Books	2
152	Greensboro Review	2
152	Healing Muse	2
152	Nimrod	2
152	PMS	2
152	Quarterly West	2
158	"88"	1
158	Arsenic Lobster	1
158	Autumn House	1
158	Barefoot Muse	1
158	Bat City	1
158	Bellevue Literary Review	1
158	Blue Earth Review	1
158	Bomb	1
158	Boston Review	1
158	Brilliant Corners	1
158	Brooklyn Review	1
158	Callaloo	1
158	Cape Cod Voice (?)	1
158	Columbia Poetry Review	1
158	Crab Creek Review	1
158	Daedalus	1
158	Drunken Boat	1
158	Eleventh Muse	1
158	First Intensity	1
158	Formalist ©	1
158	Fort Hemlock Press	1
158	Free Lunch ©	1
158	Frostproof Review ©	1
158	Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review	1
158	Hanging Loose	1
158	Harpur Palate	1
158	Harvard Review	1
158	Haven Chronicles (?)	1
158	Hayden's Ferry	1
158	Hollins Critic	1
158	Hopkins Review	1
158	Hunger Mountain	1
158	Indiana Review	1
158	InDigest	1
158	Iris	1
158	Kentuckians for the Commonwealth	1
158	Leaping Dog Press	1
158	Live Mag!	1
158	Long Island Quarterly	1
158	Lost Hills Books	1
158	Lynx House Press (?)	1
158	Main Street Rag	1
158	McSweeney's	1
158	MS.	1
158	Natural Bridge	1
158	New Delta Review	1
158	New Haven Review	1
158	November 3rd Club	1
158	Omnidawn Publishing	1
158	Pearl	1
158	Phoebe	1
158	Poetry 180	1
158	Poetry Flash	1
158	Pool	1
158	Rhino	1
158	River City (?)	1
158	Seattle Review	1
158	Sentence	1
158	Sewanee Review	1
158	Speakeasy ©	1
158	Specs	1
158	Spoon River Review	1
158	Thunder's Mouth Press ©	1
158	TriQuarterly Books	1
158	University of Akron Press	1
158	Upstreet	1
158	Valparaiso Poetry Review	1
158	War, Literature and The Arts	1
158	Willow Springs	1
158	Wordcraft of Oregon	1
158	Xantippe (?)	1
158	ZYZZYVA	1
158	The MacGuffin	1
158	Poetry International	1
158	St. Ann's Review	1
158	Yale University Press	1
158	Southern Humanities Review	1
158	Portland Review	1
158	Sixteen Rivers	1
158	Rattapallax	1
158	Bucknell University Press	1
158	Roundhouse Press (?)	1
158	Michigan State Univ. Press	1