Send to journals you respect.  If you are serious about writing poetry, fiction, essays, book reviews, or conducting interviews, you likely would be reading or at least following several literary journals.  If not, stop reading now.

*  Read, read, read the journals, online or in print, to see if the editors share your aesthetic values.  Local and regional journals are good places, always: I-70 Review, New Letters, 105 Meadowlark Reader, and others. 

*  I also look for journals where writers whom I respect are getting published.  What magazines published B.H. Fairchild, Maryfrances Wagner, Kooser or Komunyakaa?  Follow them.  My former students often know good journals I had not heard of.  I have sent work to those.  That’s nice, because my former students and friends then see my work when (and if) it comes out. 

* I investigate journals new to me and always look to see what other writers the journal has published, even if I had not known those writers. I read their work online and their bio notes to assess the journal.

*  Poets & Writers offers a good database of information about magazines and presses, with lots of information for where to send work.  https://www.pw.org/literary_magazines 

—Robert Stewart