Posted by Welcome to the first edition of Market Spotlight for 2022! I’m ringing in the new year with a review of the flash fiction journal, Vestal Review.
Before I delve into this week’s lit mag of choice, I’d like to remind you of the many opportunities remaining to submit this month:
77 Calls for Submissions in January 2022 – Paying markets
61 Writing Contests in January 2022
In Dec’21, my story Mother, Believing was published in Vestal Review. I count this as one of the greatest wins of my writing career. Vestal Review has the tagline ‘The Longest-Running Flash Fiction Magazine On The Planet’. It was established in the year 2000, and has been consistently publishing ever since.
I will state frankly that I have been trying to get published here for many years now, and came close a couple of times as well. When a few stories of mine earned personal rejections, I gave myself a little pat on the back for a job well done!
This time around, I wrote this little piece, and without much ado I dashed it off to Vestal Review after my revisions. Within a week I got a wonderful acceptance email. The only dampener was – I got the email in June and it was scheduled for publication in December! I wanted my story published immediately because I was so thrilled! But I bided my time and patiently waited. Soon I received the email with minor edits, and shortly afterwards Issue 59 came out with my story in it, a tiny pebble in a sea of gems that made up the issue.
But a surprise awaited me – just after my story was published, the editor gave me the best news that Vestal Review had nominated my story for consideration in the anthology Best Microfiction 2022! This was the first time I was honoured thus, so I will always treasure this opportunity.
Another major highlight of being published with them is that they pay $50 per piece on publication, and not just that – they actually paid extra to cover the Paypal fees such that I’d get the total amount without any cuts. This is indeed rare and highly commendable!
As per Duotrope, their acceptance rate is 3.57%, which is quite low, so its tough to get into. But once you do, as you can imagine, it’s totally worth it!
Take a look at their latest issue and the archives to get a feel of their asthetic, and then check out their submission guidelines. Please note they have a submission fee of $3, and they will open for submissions again in Feb’22. So you have until then to polish your pieces of flash and micro-fiction under 500 words!
I hope this was helpful! Let me know in the comments section if you have had anything published lately or if you have any questions!
Gargi's World 