Pretty excited to announce that I will have a short piece in this issue! First acceptance of 2026! 🥳

This call is for poems shaped by memory and loss — not spectacle, not sentimentality. If that sounds like your work, we want to read it. #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky #WednesdayWIPs #SpineEdicts #PoetryCommunity #SubmissionWindow #OpenCall #Poetry

This is happening tonight. Excited about it.

OK, this is not a proper ranking, but just a little fun I had with the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016-2025. 2 pts for every featured story, 1 pt for every notable. 2025 weight = 1, decreasing to 2016 weight = 0.1 Full list (67 journals) available from my website.

It's been a good year... Thanks so much to all the wonderful magazines that published my writing + everyone who read my work. Links to all stories below!

This morning: Paris doing Paris

OK, I wasn't expecting this 🤯 - I travelled to Rwanda in August - I wrote an essay about it in September - I started submitting in October - Only 3 lit mag responses in, and it's an acceptance from @chicagoqreview.bsky.social ! What a way to end the year 🥳🥂

Science fiction & fantasy writers: I am working on a special lit mag ranking for you... Question: would it be weird if I lumped together Fantasy Magazine / The Deadlands / Psychopomp?

Hi writer friends! Would you please give me your recommendations for online creative writing / poetry workshops for new writers? This would be a gift for my college-aged cousin. Thank you so much!

This is not the kind of elephant hunt you might be expecting. A tragic and tender story

Hey all - I think my story in the Missouri Review can be accessed for free! It's about a guy going on an elephant hunt... 🐘🙂 muse.jhu.edu/pub/48/artic...

This made me think: if any lit mag is interested in adding a badge to their website to signal their ranking or inclusion in the ranking (similar, I guess, to the Duotrope or ChillSubs badges), feel free to DM me!

I love this! And congrats to the Florida Review!

On 22 Dec at 5pm CET, I will run a small online event on how to use my lit mag rankings for submitting to journals. This event is for those: (i) new to submitting; and/or (ii) not comfortable with spreadsheets. The event will be FREE but there are only 10 spots - sign up below!

Really proud to land at #109 overall in these listings, and #87 in poetry! Not that bad out of almost 800 literary magazines! Thank you to @brechtdp.bsky.social for putting these metrics together.

The UK is busy submitting this morning...

Lovely to make #267 in the Top Poetry Magazine list for 2026. Inspired & and honour... lots to come in 2026-7! Watch for it.

Thank you so much for reading my story in @theforge.bsky.social ! 💙💙💙

It's an honor to make top 10 in flash fiction and in the top 100 overall! Thank you for your work, Brecht, and thank you to our amazing writers and readers who make this possible.

The 2026 lit mag rankings are now available from my website! They include an overall ranking, as well as separate rankings for fiction, flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry. If you find these helpful, please show your support by liking & sharing 🙏

A conversation with writer and economist @brechtdp.bsky.social at michellereneebrady.podbean.com!!

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This beauty landed in Paris today 💛

I received my first ever Pushcart nomination, and I'm over the moon!

Btw - for those interested - while my Missouri Review story is in print, you can also read it online if you have access to Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55696

I still can’t believe I have a story in the latest issue of the Missouri Review. I worked on this story for 2+ years and thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew. Then I thought it was unpublishable: who would read a story about an elephant hunt? Which just goes to show: NEVER self-reject!

Wow. Along with @smokelong.bsky.social's, this is my daughter's second Best of the Net nomination for 2026 😮 I have some serious catching up to do 😅 Big thanks to both! Mia is absolutely thrilled

The Fall 2025 issue of the Missouri Review is now at the printers and is set to go out in the next couple of weeks—here’s a peek at the marvelous cover: It’s going to be a true doozy, with new fiction from Brecht De Poortere, Seth Fried, Philip Hurst... Congrats, @brechtdp.bsky.social

Absolutely thrilled to have a story out in The Forge Literary Magazine today!

"The searing wind sweeps up the dust as we shut the door behind us." Looove this one by @brechtdp.bsky.social in @fracturedlit.bsky.social fracturedlit.com/the-flavours...

To wake to these words from a writer I admire as much as Patricia...

J. K. Rowling's claims about the transgender community are not supported by science. Her views are based on prejudice & stereotypes. They have no place in a society that values equality & respect for all people. Make Injustice Visible. Be a proud ally!

First look at the Annual Salon programme and it looks incredible! That venue filled with writers learning, thinking and sharing work...what a dream Thank you @deborahzafer.bsky.social @kplumhoff.bsky.social @robyntheauthor.bsky.social @norami.bsky.social @brechtdp.bsky.social for making it real✨

Incredibly happy to announce that my story Sand Penis” will be in Best Canadian Stories 2026! Thank you Biblioasis, for putting out these amazing short story collections. #biblioasis#shortstories#canadianfiction

So proud to see my daughter's art on the cover of the latest issue of @smokelong.bsky.social !

✨Meet us in Paris✨ 🗓️ 19 June Next week we’re teaming up with Paris Lit Up and nabbing spots at their popular open mic night! Get in touch at [email protected] if you want to meet up with our friendly Paris group

My daughter just told me her artwork will be on the cover of the next issue of @smokelong.bsky.social Quarterly 😱

So nice to finally hold my copy of the @hudsonreview.bsky.social

I realise that Best Small Fictions 2016, 2017 and 2018 are missing from my database. Does anyone have access to these books?

Very excited to announce now that one of my favourite short stories will be published by @theforge.bsky.social Literary Magazine in September! 🥳

This is so good I shared it with my writing group this week. Fabulous, heart breaking and a story which will linger with you long after you’ve finished reading it. A most wonderful piece by @brechtdp.bsky.social 🌟

Stories I like: The Rest is Silence by @brechtdp.bsky.social

You will want to read this fantastic flash by @brechtdp.bsky.social

So grateful to @mrbullbull.bsky.social‬ for publishing this weird little tale of mine! 🙏

I almost didn't dare to submit my story anywhere, and definitely not to a top journal. This just goes to show: NEVER SELF-REJECT!!!

Acceptance from the Missouri Review 😳

I wondered whether, if those hills could talk, they too would have chosen to say nothing; whether, after all they had seen and heard, they too would have withdrawn into themselves and surrendered to the silence of matter... —From “The Rest Is Silence,” by Brecht De Poortere @brechtdp.bsky.social

If there's one story you read today, let it be The Rest is Silence by @brechtdp.bsky.social made all the more resonant for me by the fact some dear ones are survivors of the events during which this riveting story is set #Revocate 😔👏💜 hudsonreview.com/2025/05/the-...

"The neighbor’s dogs barked, and the cicadas clicked as if nothing had changed, as if the phone call had been nothing but a dream, as if hell wasn’t about to be unleashed." @brechtdp.bsky.social takes on a daunting topic with a nuanced exploration of love, time & silence. @hudsonreview.bsky.social

"I get up when it’s still dark because, if I wait until after the Tuscan sun rises, it will be too hot to bake a cake." This shortie by @brechtdp.bsky.social in @fracturedlit.bsky.social stretched my heart. Recommended read. fracturedlit.com/the-flavours...