Waxwing

ABOUT

Waxwing is an online literary magazine that has been publishing since the early 2010s, built around the premise of setting contemporary American poets and prose writers alongside international writers in translation. Each issue mixes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction with a substantial reviews section, and past issues have included folio-style features and dedicated translation clusters. The current issue (issue 36) reflects the magazine's usual mix: a slate of poets (including established names like Kelli Russell Agodon and Rosebud Ben-Oni alongside emerging writers), short fiction, lyric essays, and book reviews, all free to read online with no paywall.

The journal reads as a rolling, issue-based online publication rather than a rolling-submissions model — content is organized by numbered issue (currently in the mid-30s) rather than by date, suggesting a steady but not overly frequent release schedule of a few issues per year. The site itself doesn't surface submission guidelines, fees, or pay rates on the pages scraped here, so poets should check the magazine's own submissions page directly before sending work, and shouldn't assume free entry or payment without confirming current terms. Contributor lists skew toward writers with MFA-adjacent or small-press publishing credits, and the journal's translation and international-writer focus is a distinguishing feature worth tailoring a cover letter around.