David McDannald’s 2024 Nonfiction Rankings

  • The table incorporates data from Best American Essays (8 years), Pushcart Prizes (7 Years), and National Magazine Awards (6 years, 2 categories), for winners and notables, to rank 200 journals who publish excellent nonfiction. (Journals who don’t accept submissions and those on hiatus or closed are excluded.) For an unweighted list of all publications cited in Best American Essays 2016 - 2023 click here.

  • The 1st column is overall rank, the 2nd column Best American Essays only, the 3rd column Pushcart Prizes only.

  • Weightings: Best American winners 12 points vs. 9 points for Pushcart. Best American Notables 1 point vs. 4 points for Pushcart. National Magazine Award winners 15 points vs. 7.5 points for finalists (for Features and Excellence in Literature, Science & Politics) with periodicals included only if they had at least one story noted by Pushcart or Best American Essays. More recent awards are ranked higher (data values have a slight but accelerating decay.)

  • Lists of journals accepting long prose & very short prose.

  • Please email me with comments or suggestions. Remember that there are countless great journals not listed here and many ways to slice data. My hope is to create a useful tool. - david

Overall Best 
Rank American Pushcart
New Yorker 1 1   -    
New York Times Magazine 2 3   -    
Virginia Quarterly Review 3 5 13
Granta 4 4 3
Harper's Magazine 5 2   -    
The Sun 6 17 1
Georgia Review 7 15 2
Threepenny Review 8 8 5
New England Review 9 6 12
Ploughshares  10 10 8
n+1 11 7 19
Sewanee Review 12 9 11
American Scholar 13 14 17
Gettysburg Review (closing) 14 20 9
Kenyon Review 15 12 18
Agni 16 18 10
River Teeth 17 39 4
Orion 18 41 6
Salmagundi 19 27 14
Yale Review 20 13 29
Creative Nonfiction (reopening) 21 45 7
Chicago Quarterly Review 22 16 28
Oxford American 23 24 26
The Point 24 23 21
The Atlantic 25 31   -    
Believer 26 25   -    
Longreads 27 34 20
NYRB 28 11   -    
Fourth Genre 29 44 15
Iowa Review 30 21 40
Paris Review 31 37 27
Raritan 32 19 61
Colorado Review 33 33 25
Narrative 34 66 16
Massachusetts Review 35 29 50
Baffler 36 30 44
Guernica 37 28 54
Michigan Quarterly Review 38 22 79
Harvard Review 39 26 98
Grist 40 75 109
Conjunctions 41 32 90
Ecotone 42 91 24
Brevity 43 103 22
New Letters 44 36 70
Aperture 45 482   -    
Alaska Quarterly Review 46 47 48
Electric Literature 47 61 39
Normal School 48 38 118
Missouri Review 49 50 57
Wired 50 42   -    
Prism International 51 35   -    
Ninth Letter 52 81 32
Water-Stone Review 53 43 79
Another Chicago Magazine 54 60 49
Image (closing) 55 49 70
New York Magazine 56 131   -    
Buzzfeed 57 54   -    
Prairie Schooner 58 56 67
Boulevard 59 40   -    
Hudson Review 60 102 35
Gulf Coast 61 62 61
Swamp Pink 62 76 47
Boston Review 63 55 90
Pinch 64   -     23
Transition 65 95 42
Southern Review 66 67 58
Southwest Review 67 46   -    
Lit Hub 68 48   -    
Catamaran 69 51   -    
Washington Post & Magazine 70 68   -    
Vanity Fair 71 52   -    
ZYZZYVA 72 73 68
Bomb 73 64 79
North American Review 74 53   -    
Common Reader 75 155 31
Bellevue Literary Review 76 80 66
Bennington Review 77 134 36
Hedgehog Review 78 135 37
Solstice 79 57   -    
A Public Space 80 65 85
World Literature Today 81 145 38
Under the Sun 82 58   -    
New York Times 83 59   -    
Cincinnati Review 84 71 98
Southern Indiana Review 85 78 79
The Rumpus 86 79 79
Esquire 87 181   -    
Terrain.org 88 256 33
Mother Jones 89 482 52
Subtropics 90 63   -    
Southampton Review 91 114 55
Harvard Advocate 92   -     30
New Ohio Review 93 89 73
Chautauqua 94 92 85
Room 95 90 109
Liberties 96 69   -    
Texas Monthly 97 287   -    
Vice 98 70   -    
Southern Humanities 99 72   -    
Emergence Magazine 100 200 43
About Place Journal 101   -     34
Runner's World 102 482   -    
California Sunday Magazine 103 285   -    
Cimarron Review 104 74   -    
Tahoma Literary Review 105 94 109
GQ 106 188   -    
Reed Magazine 107 250 41
The Audacity 108 77   -    
Consequence 109 240 45
Slate 110 82   -    
West Trade Review 111 83   -    
Ruminate 112 103 109
Florida Review 113 84   -    
London Review of Books 114 85   -    
Los Angeles Times & Magazine 115 86   -    
Your Impossible Voice 115 86   -    
Harper's Bazaar 117 88   -    
Copper Nickel 118 111 90
The Common 119 146 63
Arrowsmith Press 120 158 59
Potomac Review 121 109 98
McSweeney’s 122 415 46
Hopkins Review 123 230 51
Sport Literate 124 93   -    
Shenandoah 125 116 73
Five Points 126 112 118
Bookforum 127 96   -    
Notre Dame Magazine 128 97   -    
Under the Gum Tree 129 98   -    
Southeast Review 130 99   -    
Witness 131 165 69
Zone 3 132 100   -    
North Dakota Quarterly 133 101   -    
The Nation 134 197   -    
High Country News 135 213   -    
TriQuarterly 136 199 60
Tampa Bay Times 137 105   -    
Mount Hope 138 125 118
South Dakota Review 139 106   -    
Indiana Review 140 107   -    
Passages North 141 132 109
Hobart 142 108   -    
Tikkun 143   -     52
Willow Springs 144 143 90
Brick 145 110   -    
Bat City Review 146 248 65
Hayden's Ferry Review 147 113   -    
StoryQuarterly 148 149 98
Denver Quarterly 149 144 109
Manhattan Review 150   -     56
Baltimore Review 151 152 98
Black Warrior Review 152 154 98
The Offing 153 197 72
Pleiades 154 389 64
Slice 155 151 118
New Hibernia Review 156 115   -    
New Atlantis 157 117   -    
December 158 118   -    
Event 159 119   -    
Bloomberg Business Week 159 482   -    
Alpinist 161 120   -    
Epiphany 162 161 118
Lake Effect 163 121   -    
Smithsonian 164 389   -    
Ascent 165 122   -    
ESPN.com 166   -       -    
MIT Technology Review 166   -       -    
Chronicle Review 168 123   -    
Los Angeles Review of Books 169 124   -    
Apogee 170 126   -    
Tampa Review 171 127   -    
Dogwood 172 128   -    
Marshall Project 173 415   -    
Pembroke 174 129   -    
New Republic 175 130   -    
Columbia Journal 176 214 85
The Trace 177   -       -    
Literary Review 178 133   -    
Alta 179 136   -    
Jabberwock Review 180 137   -    
TMC Pulse 181   -       -    
Outside 182 138   -    
Off Assignment 183 139   -    
Post Road 184 140   -    
Appalachian Review (Heritage) 185 141   -    
Tusculum Review 186 142   -    
Oregon Humanities (Oregon only) 187 283 73
Hypertext   Review  188 147   -    
West Branch 189 274 85
Hunger Mountain 190 148   -    
High Desert Journal 190 240 98
American Poetry Review 192 150   -    
CutBank 193 153   -    
New Orleans Review 194 364 73
Bayou Magazine 195 156   -    
Gold Man Review 196 157   -    
Forge Literary Magazine 197 159   -    
Gargoyle 198 160   -    
Upstreet  199 161   -    
Booth 200 163   -    
Juked 201 164   -