“The Play’s the Thing”

This series is continuing with me rolling back the curtain (sorry) for another round of journals to submit to for a particular niche. I thought I would take a look at a genre I don’t typically see literary journals do a lot of. I’m talking about short plays.
Doing some digging, I realized a lot of publishers and theaters LOVE to accept unsolicited plays, but it doesn’t seem as prevalent in literary journals and other magazines. True, it’s a more difficult medium to present in a journal, but it’s still a magnificent form of writing that, if anything, demonstrates the versatility of writing in general.
So after scoping out a few places (I included some links below), here are journals that also accept short plays.

Azure: A Journal of Literary Thought
This respected journal is part of the Lazuli Literary Group and publishes poetry and fiction. However, they give you the opportunity to submit screenplays that can be broken up into regular contributions for the journal. You can find their guidelines and the style that they’re looking for here
Some Scripts
This is one of those rare journals that focuses on short plays (or as they say in their byline, “stage plays, screenplays, radio plays, monologues, Zoom plays, etc.”). Their reading period has just opened up this month, but it seems that their issues are themed, so be sure to check out their guidelines.
Hominum Journal
They accept one-act plays and screenplays on top of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. You can find their guidelines here.
Gemini Magazine
This lit mag publishes a variety of forms including plays. In their guidelines, they state “As jazz great Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker put it, ‘There’s no boundary line to art,'” which is pretty awesome. They also pay!
Silk Road
This journal is produced through Pacific University in Oregon. In addition to poetry and nonfiction, you can also send in one-act plays through their submission manager.
Molecule
If you think you can write a play in 50 words or less, try submitting to Molecule! They also accept poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and interviews with the same word count.
Links:
https://www.tckpublishing.com/play-publishers/
https://www.unsolicitedscripts.com/companies-accepting-unsolicited-scripts-2021/
Want to know more? Click the LEARN MORE button at home. You’ll find some helpful links to my work in journals, which I have started posting here too. You can find me in Ariel Chart, The Cedarville Review, Nailpolish Stories, Bluepepper, 50 Word Stories, The Aurora Journal, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, The Drabble, and Anti-heroin Chic. You can also now find me in Sledgehammer Lit!
Need help proofreading a story? You can find me on Fiverr!
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