The Santa Barbara Literary Journal, a small press founded in 2018, hosts an eclectic mix of short and flash fiction, poetry, interviews, and art.
Beautifully written narratives by imaginative storytellers and visionary poets fill the pages. Tales that push boundaries and reveal our potential and our fears. Stories and poems that keep us wondering long after reading.
Established authors and emerging voices from Santa Barbara and beyond have contributed adventures of wrestlers and renegades, dramas of captains and criminals, and fantasies of vixens and vampires.
A mix of genres from literary to phantasmic, magical realism and sci-fi to crime, mystery and suspense fill our pages. Within each narrative, imagery, plot and most of all, the structure where something happens and people transform, tempt readers to turn the page and discover new possibilities in themselves, others, and the world around us.
Poems of love and loss, of the beauty and cruelty of nature, of what it is to be human by expanding our awareness and understanding.
Art is the balm that soothes our souls in troubled times. It’s disturbing, enlightening and enthralling. It piques our interest and makes us wonder.
Pick up a journal and join us in this grand pursuit of the sublime.
Volume 15 Submissions are Open Through October 31, 2026 for Short Stories and Flash Fiction
Check out our Submissions page for more details.
Available Now!
Volume 13
Mysterious Ways
featuring the art of Diana Salas-Deitch
fiction by
Jenny Burman
B.J. Burton
Nick Deitch
Calla Gold
Jeremy Gold
Juyanne James
Nathan Loceff
Alyson MacInnis
Zach Murphy
Shira Musicant
Ted Olson
Mona Leigh Rose
B. Geren Sanford
Terry Sanville
Kirby Wright
poetry by
Kunal Basu
Christopher Buckley
Eugene Datta
William Doreski
Chynna Foster
Valerie Girard
Khris Golder
Samantha Grabler
Stella Ho
Christine Jackson
Naomi Bess Leimsider
Wendy Jean MacLean
Eddi Salado
Peter Schwartz
Michael Spivack
Caitlin Swalec
Veronica Tucker
Tom Tulloh
Reed Venrick
Thanks to our sponsor Lazarus Media
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