Submit to the New Yorker

Background on the New Yorker :

Founded in 1925 by Harold Ross, The New Yorker continues to be one of the most venerated publishers of short fiction. As such, it has helped make the career of writers such as John Updike, Haruki Murakami, Raymond Carver, Janet Frame, Salman Rushdie, and Alice Munro. Novel & Short Story Writer's Market gives The New Yorker's circulation as 750,000.

The New Yorker Writing Style:

Though The New Yorker has contributed more than its fair share of short stories to the literary canon, that doesn't mean everything they publish is conservative. After all, they have also taken chances on some fairly experimental writers like George Saunders and Haruki Murakami.

Sample from the New Yorker:

"Sally will always believe that she knew at once -- even before she heard Peter’s voice, she knew what had happened. If an accident had happened, it would not be to her six-year-old, who was brave but not inventive, not a showoff." (From a recent story by Alice Munro)

Odds of Publishing Something in the New Yorker:

The odds, of course, all depend on who you are. If you've never published anything, the odds are very, very slim. The New Yorker publishes only one story per issue (devoting one issue per year to new fiction), and it's safe to say that pretty much every ambitious American writer tries them at some point or other. And while The New Yorker does take chances on new writers, it tends to draw from a stable of established writers, like Munro and Murakami.

That said, if you're one of the young writers they take a chance on, your career is made, so it's worth trying.

Submit to the New Yorker:

Email your submission to fiction@newyorker.com. Address your email to Deborah Treisman, the fiction editor; send one story at a time, and allow three months for a response. Do not send attachments. Submissions may also be sent by regular mail to the fiction department at The New Yorker, 4 Times Square, New York, NY 10036. The New Yorker does not accept simultaneous submissions.

But if you're going to send to them, do it right! Read more about how to submit short stories, and then return to the list of literary magazines for more research.