The world of literary journals is truly thriving -- there are endless literary journals available for free, online, and run by passionate teams of volunteers. M

The world of literary journals is truly thriving -- there are endless literary journals available for free, online, and run by passionate teams of volunteers. Many of them, despite being free, are still able to pay contributors. The demise of some university funded literary journals is a different issue; costly staffing, print, and management costs are not necessary, and remnants of a different era. Yes, they can provide a lot of value, meaning, and career payoff, but they are not as necessary as they used to be, as the proliferation of online journals has only accelerated. Of note, Ycombinator funded company Submittable used literary journals to fuel their successful start, by providing a service for literary journals to manage submissions. I really hate the role of money that Submittable has injected into the literary journal world, though. They've made the practice of "submission fees" incredibly easy to implement, and encouraged literary journals to charge submission fees to writers. A practice that, unfortunately, has proliferated under their influence.