February 6th, 2012 / 11:30 am
 Haut or not

“The Hottest Litmag” as determined by everyone who has ever read HTMLGIANT

—or at least those who responded a while back when I asked folks to name “the hottest litmag in the room.” As of that moment. And now, after the jump, I’ve compiled the responses.

By far the clear number one was …

But first, a note on my method/ I counted every time the litmag was mentioned; I also counted every “like” a comment received, because this is a popularity contest.

Also, I didn’t check the spellings of any of these journals—whether there’s technically a “the” in front or not, or whether it’s supposed to be Init-capitalized or in ALL CAPS or in all lowercase, or whether there’s supposed to be an equal sign or a plus sign between each of the letters, etc. Also, I didn’t include links to any of these journals unless the URLs were provided in the thread. Life’s too short, and you can just google them, anyway. And I didn’t check to see whether the journal is real, or was voted for only “ironically”; I trust you to determine such for yourselves. And I didn’t check whether the mag still exists or not; I think we all know that this will probably all end tomorrow? You’re lucky that I even compiled this, let alone italicized the titles. (And I didn’t check whether the title should not be italicized.) (All of this reminds me—Blake, the intern you promised me hasn’t reported in yet—check on that?)

So, bearing all this in mind, by far the clear number one hottest litmag in the room was:

  1. LIES/ISLE: 32 votes

…which is a journal that I myself was unaware of; shows how hip I am.

Rounding out the rest of the top ~ten were:

  1. The Paris Review: 25 votes
  2. The Collagist: 23 votes
  3. Artifice: 22 votes [tie]
  4. New York Tyrant: 22 votes [tie]
  5. Caketrain: 16 votes [tie]
  6. Kill Author: 16 votes [tie]
  7. Birkensnake: 15 votes
  8. Untoward: 14 votes
  9. Forklift, Ohio: 13 votes
  10. Asymptote: 12 votes [tie]
  11. PANK: 12 votes [tie]
  12. Fence: 11 votes [tie]
  13. Octopus: 11 votes [tie]
  14. Conduit: 10 votes [tie]
  15. Unsaid: 10 votes [tie]

Votes for The Paris Review generated some argument, with there being several votes against it that could have been read as meaning that it should be lower … but that I instead chose to read as a sign that folks feel passionately about it, and that it’s therefore “hot” (whatever that means—I deliberately left it vague).

Beyond that, there were multiple votes for:

  1. Annalemma: 9 votes
  2. DIAGRAM: 8 votes
  3. Poor Claudia: 8 votes
  4. The Milan Review: 7 votes
  5. The New Yorker: 7 votes
  6. Alice Blue Review: 6 votes
  7. Corium: 6 votes
  8. Pop Serial: 6 votes
  9. Sports Illustrated: 6 votes
  10. ABJECTIVE: 5 votes
  11. Midwestern Gothic: 5 votes
  12. Uncanny Valley: 5 votes
  13. Filter: 4 votes
  14. No Colony: 4 votes
  15. One Story: 4 votes
  16. Red Lightbulbs: 4 votes
  17. shallow: 4 votes
  18. Black Clock: 3 votes
  19. Electric Literature: 3 votes
  20. Gargoyle: 3 votes
  21. Triple Canopy: 3 votes
  22. 3:AM Magazine: 2 votes
  23. Abraham Lincoln: 2 votes
  24. The Brooklyner: 2 votes
  25. Camera Obscura: 2 votes (Issue 3 got singled out)
  26. Canteen: 2 votes
  27. Copper Nickel: 2 votes
  28. Dear Navigator: 2 votes
  29. Kenyon Review: 2 votes
  30. Kitty Snacks: 2 votes
  31. LPZ (la petite zine): 2 votes
  32. Metazen: 2 votes
  33. Mud Luscious Online: 2 votes
  34. NOON: 2 votes
  35. Notnostrums: 2 votes
  36. P-Queue: 2 votes
  37. Rattle: 2 votes
  38. Sixth Finch: 2 votes
  39. TRNSFR: 2 votes
  40. Tuesday: 2 votes
  41. US Weekly: 2 votes
  42. Wobbling Roof: 2 votes

Finally, the following litmags all received one vote: A Public Space, adj noun (“Brass Sopaipilla”, “Digital Hamper”), Ballard Street, Barcelona Review (“from time to time”), Bartleby Snopes, Bat City Review, Black Warrior Review, Brain Harvest, Cabinet, Cerise Press, Cream City Review, The Crystal Gavel, Dark Sky Magazine, Dragnet, Everyday Genius, Glimmer Train, GUD, Gulf Coast, The Gut, Harper’s, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Her Royal Majesty (“Paris-based, bi-annual print, but new stuff online too”), hermano cerdo, Hobart, Joyland, Juked, lamination colony, Locus Solus, London Review of Books, minus times, Missouri Review, The Moose & Pussy, Needle, Nether Magazine, New York Review of Books, [out of nothing], Pear Noir!, Pearl, The Pinch, Pyrta Journal, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Safety Pin Review, Sidebrow, Sleeping Fish, The Society On Da Run, Sous Les Paves, Staccato, Super Arrow, Tarpaulin Sky, Tin House, Twelve Stories, Used Furniture Review, and Versal.

And there were also votes for “any in the pile on fire behind the Winn-Dixie” and “yo mama,” but I’ve never heard of those organs (although the first would make a great title for a journal).

Well, there you go. This should keep us busy for a while?

Tags:

56 Comments

  1. February 6th, 2012 / 11:36 am Yumi Mi Tummi—

      ugh of course Happy Dog Mom wouldn’t be on a list made by HTMLGiant

  2. February 6th, 2012 / 11:45 am Helen—
  3. February 6th, 2012 / 11:47 am A D Jameson—

      I am merely the messenger. (I also abstained from voting in that thread, as I was more curious to see what others thought.)

  4. February 6th, 2012 / 12:00 pm Stephen Tully Dierks—
  5. February 6th, 2012 / 12:06 pm Helen—

      I am not aiming my big guns at you, just puffing a bit of smoke around and abound.

  6. February 6th, 2012 / 12:37 pm A D Jameson—

      Hi, Stephen!

  7. February 6th, 2012 / 12:38 pm A D Jameson—

      Bullets I can dodge. Smoke cannot be avoided.

  8. February 6th, 2012 / 12:39 pm A D Jameson—

      It kind of is now.

  9. February 6th, 2012 / 12:40 pm A D Jameson—

      Incidentally, Necessary Fiction has published me twice, and ran a very nice review of my first book, so I am deeply in their debt!

      Hobart, the checks Aaron sent me all bounced.

  10. February 6th, 2012 / 12:44 pm Helen—

      Conflict of interest on my part for NF – a bit of my novel is going to (hopefully) be published by them soonish. Hobart I like because I keep catching on to links that lead there, and always to good things.

  11. February 6th, 2012 / 12:58 pm Matt Rowan—

      What this really shows is there just a lot of excellent publications at work these days. I don’t really think of them in terms of their standing on this list. I love them all. Also, there is a curious lack of Happy Dog Mom Lit Journal here. Once again.

  12. February 6th, 2012 / 1:17 pm Mason Johnson—

      Needs more dogs and more moms.

  13. February 6th, 2012 / 1:34 pm Anonymous—

      The entire list is a gangbang of conflict.

  14. February 6th, 2012 / 1:49 pm postitbreakup—

      A D J, I don’t think you spend enough of your time tabulating results & making lists. I really think you should work on that

  15. February 6th, 2012 / 1:52 pm Anonymous—

      What’s up with the random linking?

  16. February 6th, 2012 / 1:57 pm herocious—

      Bikini Magazine

  17. February 6th, 2012 / 2:07 pm Walter Mackey—

      What about Screaming Seahorse?

  18. February 6th, 2012 / 2:08 pm postitbreakup—

      idgaf

  19. February 6th, 2012 / 2:15 pm postitbreakup—

      yes

  20. February 6th, 2012 / 3:40 pm reynard—

      sorry but i don’t see what function this list serves, us weekly is clearly the best

  21. February 6th, 2012 / 4:23 pm Anonymous—

      I’m excited to have Artifice included in such great company. & while I imagine that putting up links to this entire list would be a tremendous pain, I’m going to go ahead and slip in a link to Artifice, right here, in case y’all want to check our hotness: http://artificebooks.org/

  22. February 6th, 2012 / 4:37 pm postitbreakup—

      what criteria do y’all use to decide if something is actually a litmag or just someone’s blog that their friends post on?

      i used to think it was if they had a print edition or not, but this  doesn’t seem as relevant anymore, so i don’t know what is

  23. February 6th, 2012 / 4:44 pm Frank Hinton—

      48 are you fistfucking me? we run 5 stories a week and regularly give bjs to male contributors. 

  24. February 6th, 2012 / 4:48 pm Matt Rowan—
  25. February 6th, 2012 / 4:51 pm Matt Rowan—

      If it’s any consolation, Frank, your endorsement of Untoward’s hotness got us the lion’s share of our votes. I don’t know if that’s a consolation, but I hope it is. 

  26. February 6th, 2012 / 4:59 pm Matt Rowan—

      I never know what’s a consolation. 

  27. February 6th, 2012 / 5:07 pm M. Kitchell—

      liesisle.com

  28. February 6th, 2012 / 5:08 pm Mason Johnson—

      Would be interesting to see how these numbers correlate with traffic/hits of the websites for these individual journals. (Especially for the journals that are exclusively-online.)

      Anyone willing to provide numbers? Say, average hits per day for the last month maybe? It’s fine if you don’t want to share this, I can understand everyone not wanting to.

  29. February 6th, 2012 / 5:10 pm Erik Stinson—
  30. February 6th, 2012 / 6:32 pm Mason Johnson—
  31. February 6th, 2012 / 8:18 pm Michael J. Martin—

      I’ve yet to receive my bj Frank.

  32. February 6th, 2012 / 8:30 pm Anonymous—
  33. February 6th, 2012 / 8:33 pm Anonymous—

       that would be interesting…………………not

  34. February 6th, 2012 / 9:40 pm A Depressed Hamster—

      where is the list of “the hottest lists”?

  35. February 6th, 2012 / 10:03 pm Anonymous—

      New game for determining hottest lit mag contributors: reverse rankings. Add up each of your publications. Throw all data away. Everyone is disqualified except that black dot girl with the bewbz.

  36. February 7th, 2012 / 8:51 am Andrew.—

      Let’s do a “The Hottest Publishing House” now!

  37. February 7th, 2012 / 9:11 am Michael J. Martin—

      I do. I’m at the site now. I haven’t left it in 10hrs. Life ruiner. DJ KAY SLAY is the truth, sometimes.

  38. February 7th, 2012 / 9:35 pm Mike—

      From “About” LIES/ISLE: “While acknowledging that our work is influenced by the systems under which it operates, we also believe that it possesses the agency to affect change.” And to what causes do they attribute this “affect”? A Gershwin tune? Who am I kidding? It’s obviously Lady Gaga. Fucking illiterates.

  39. February 8th, 2012 / 2:31 pm Afternoon Bites: Chris Andrews on translation, Hot Lit Mags, James Sturm on Jack Kirby, and more | Vol. 1 Brooklyn—

      […] The readers of HTML Giant offer their take on today’s hottest lit mag. […]

  40. February 8th, 2012 / 3:20 pm Mean Penguin—

      Ya know, normally Slice is really good about blatantly cheating at games like this. It must’ve finally come to pass that every single staffer got preggo.

  41. February 9th, 2012 / 3:41 am Darby Larson—

      this is the most important list in the history of lists

  42. February 9th, 2012 / 11:22 am Anonymous—
  43. February 9th, 2012 / 2:00 pm Anonymous—

      submit submit submit submit! rejection rejection rejection

  44. February 9th, 2012 / 3:22 pm barry graham—

      the idea that hobart and everyday genius only got one vote is mind boggling. and storyglossia not getting even one, thats just disgusting… especially considering some of the journals that received multiple votes. 

  45. February 9th, 2012 / 5:38 pm Banango—

      red lightbulbs should be higher, guys

      also happy dog mom. happy mom dog. whatever, i love those guys.

  46. February 10th, 2012 / 4:12 am Anonymous—

      Not a single mention of Do Not Look at the Sun? Surely the hottest thing out there… so hot the latest issue was actually illegal. http://www.donotlookatthesun.com/

  47. February 10th, 2012 / 5:41 pm leapsloth14—
  48. February 13th, 2012 / 5:04 pm Anonymous—

       happy dog mom didn’t “break” until after this poll was taken

  49. February 13th, 2012 / 5:11 pm Anonymous—

       I don’t believe it existed yet when this poll was taken?

  50. February 15th, 2012 / 8:16 pm Anonymous—

      Los Angeles Review of Books

  51. February 15th, 2012 / 8:18 pm Anonymous—

      Los Angeles Review of Books, Berfrois, Full-Stop, New Inquiry…

  52. February 15th, 2012 / 8:20 pm Anonymous—

      Los Angeles Review of Books

  53. February 15th, 2012 / 8:20 pm Anonymous—

      Berfrois, Full-stop

  54. June 30th, 2012 / 4:31 pm Short Stories and Literary Journals: The Resources « The Outsider—

      […] Garstang’s list is based upon journals winning Pushcart Prizes. Bookfox also made a list. HTMLGIANT commenters also came up with a cool rundown. In terms of payment for short stories, see my recent […]

  55. October 22nd, 2012 / 11:01 am PANK Blog / This Modern Writer: An Interview with Vaughn Simons and Joseph Scapellato—

      […] no surprise for me when, last year, I saw that your magazine was voted #7 “hottest lit mag” at HTMLGIANT. To what degree do you think that the editorial anonymity—and the mystery this evoked—increased […]

  56. April 16th, 2014 / 1:34 pm This Modern Writer: An Interview with Vaughan Simons and Joseph Scapellato | [PANK]—

      […] for me when, last year, I saw that your magazine was voted #7 “hottest lit mag” at HTMLGIANT. To what degree do you think that the editorial anonymity- and the mystery this evoked- increased […]