Publisher’s description: Founded in 1974, Black Warrior Review is a biannual literary journal that centers and uplifts human beings and aesthetics historically excluded from mainstream publishing. We embrace work that is weird, challenging, and unconventional, valuing experimentation as an ongoing process rather than a final product. BWR has always leaned into work that takes risks—literature that surprises us, defies norms, and disrupts sense-making impulses. As a journal, we honor boldness over neatness and welcome work from emerging writers, especially those whose voices have been systematically silenced: Black and Indigenous writers, writers of color, queer and trans writers, disabled writers, and those who have historically been marginalized.

With a modest readership but a passionate commitment to its contributors, BWR aims to be a space of support, not only for publication but for elevating the careers and voices of those who may not find a home in more traditional literary spaces. Located in the South, we believe it is vital to publish boundary-pushing work in print, pay our creators more than token sums, and stand in opposition to all forms of prejudice, including racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism, and their intersections.

In addition, BWR was awarded the 2019 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize for being a “beacon for adventurous writing that dissolves convention and leaves possibility in its place.” We’ve been named one of the top 50 magazines to submit to by Every Writer Resource, ranked #30 by Bookfox, and included in Reedsy’s Top Literary Magazines of 2019.

Find more great literary magazines at the NewPages Guide to Lit Mags.