Have a penchant for writing? Share your work with these top four magazines

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‘TIS that time of the year again, when avenues open up for the writer in you to make a debut. Come January, a lot of literary magazines open up their doors for aspiring and budding writers to submit their fiction and poetry. As a lover of fiction himself, this writer decided to do his fellow writers a solid and, apart from a quick curation, also include a few easy tips to ensure your submissions are accepted
The best way, says Tanuj Solanki, founder-editor of the Bombay Literary Magazine, is to just read the guidelines. Do people not do that, we ask?

"Well," he laughs, "our fiction submissions, for examples, are supposed to be between 2,000 to 7,000 words but people end up sending entire novellas. As a result, their entries are never read." Fair, we think. What else? "It never helps to choose topicality over quality," he adds. "We had stories around the COVID 19 lockdown when it was in effect, and about the Me Too movement before that, but in the effort to make it topical, the story itself was undercooked. "Go on, then. Here are some lit mags you can send your submissions to. Thank us later.

The Bombay Literary Magazine
This ten-year-old publication publishes stories, poetry, essays, photo-essays, and more, in the months of April, August and December. Entries for the April issue are open till January 31.

Hammock
Hammock accepts contributions in fiction, narrative non-fiction, interviews, recommendations, personal essays and culture from all over South Asia. They are currently taking submissions till March 10 for their next issue.

Out Of Print
Out Of Print is an online platform that accepts short fiction from and about the Indian subcontinent. You can email them your pitches, in keeping with their guidelines, through the year, but they publish quarterly so you'll have to be patient for their response.

Gulmohur Quarterly
The quarterly magazine describes itself as "an urgent attempt at rescuing voices that are lost in the abundance of digital texts," interested in original Indian writings and translations in English. They are accepting submissions for their next issue till February 10.