Friends of the Dodo
Below is a list of literary journals and magazines we especially love. This serves a few purposes: to help guide you when submitting work to Dodo Eraser, to provide alternative submission options when we sadly have to pass on good work, and to just shout out other projects we love.
BRUISER, established in 2022 by Mark Wadley and featuring an editorial team including Josh Shepard, Z.H. Gill, and others, is a respected independent mag with a punk edge. They operate out of the Baltimore area, where they produce their own zine series, run a book store, and frequently set up events. They publish each weekday and every piece is accompanied by a custom graphic. They don’t send acceptance or rejection letters, but if they choose to publish your work, it will go up within a month of submission, and simultaneous submissions are still permitted. If Dodo Eraser had to pick a favorite mag, it’d be BRUISER.
Burial Magazine, established in 2025 by BRUISER editor Z.H. Gill as a solo project, is a rapidly rising publication hosted on Neocities. A selective but inviting publication, Burial publishes one poem (20 lines or fewer) and one story each week. Gill has managed to cultivate an incredibly engaged reading community around this project, primarily through Twitter, and Burial was listed by multiple Hobart editors as one of the best things about 2025.
Citywide Lunch, established in 2025 by Kevin Richard White, is a striking Philidelphia-based publication: minimalist, black backgrounds, red font, like the site itself wants you to know it’s a place for writing that’ll cost you a little blood. This one is for writer’s writers and the vibe is “stubborn, but respected.” Clout-chasers need not apply, but if you’re about this stuff, this is a great home for your fiction and CNF. Citywide doesn’t take poetry – KRW claims to not understand it – but you might be able to sneak a prose poem by him if you let him call it a micro for his own sanity. No regular schedule, but they publish frequently.
HAWKEYE, established in 2025 by a mysterious individual, is a mag with a M*A*S*H theme. Don’t worry, your work does not need to be M*A*S*H-themed. This is a fun one: while HAD acceptances are skulls and Dodo Eraser acceptances are dodos, HAWKEYE acceptances are martinis. HAWKEYE leans more towards prose than poetry (but is open to both) and doesn’t seem to follow a set schedule, but they publish frequently. One of Dodo Eraser‘s personal favorites based off of both concept and quality consistency.
Michigan City Review of Books, established in 2025 by Bobby Vanecko, is another Neocities publication. MCRB is poetry-focused, but Vanecko is wonderfully flexible with the definition. A very inviting publication that has still managed to create an engaged readership, MCRB has published several first-time poets alongside names such as Ben Niespodziany, Tom Snarsky, Sam Pink, and Nathaniel Duggan, among others. To any currently unpublished poet, MCRB is an excellent first byline and established poets should still probably aim to add this publication to their credits. They publish poems each weekday and recently added a Saturday story feature.
Some Words, established in 2025 by Justin Carter, is a new publication hosted on a message board. Leaning ever so slightly more academic in part due to Carter’s impressive academic publishing credentials, Carter still appreciates the odd and creative, recently placing his own work in more scrappy, independent publications. Some Words strikes a great balance: a little tougher than MCRB but a little more accessible than Burial. Also, the concept of a message board lit mag is very cool. Some Words aims to publish each weekday.
Stanchion, established in 2020 by Jeff Bogle, is a publication based out of Philadelphia that primarily deals in print issues. Stanchion is an attractive byline for several reasons: they pay $20 per acceptance in addition to a free copy of the issue your work is placed in, they are selective enough for a Stanchion byline to really mean something without being completely impenetrable (acceptance rates seems to ebb somewhere between 5% and 10%), and they’ve had work selected for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net (they more recently began publishing on the web). Print issues are both high quality and affordable at $10, which means a lower barrier to reader entry than many print journals. They also accept full manuscripts for print publications and put on events. Maybe the only downside is you have to keep an eye out: Stanchion issue submission windows only open a few times a year, and only for 24 hours.
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