Last Resort Literary Review: Defunct, Non-Response Offender
We suspect that Last Resort Literary Review is defunct, but has been taking paid submissions for at least one year past their last known correspondence with a writer (that we could verify). We were made aware of Last Resort through a writer who submitted to their Fiction Contest in 2022, and were notified that they were a finalist along with four other writers. However, they never heard back after thanking them, nor after a follow-up query a few months later. Last Resort Literary Review hasn't updated their website or social media accounts with any news about the winners or finalists from this contest.
In the picture above, you can see the notification letter that the writer shared with us. They responded to Last Resort Literary Review in November 2022 with a thank you and query about an update. When they received no response, they queried about the status of the contest again in January 2023. Last Resort never got back to them.
As recent as December 2023, Last Resort Literary Review still has a number of open submissions on Submittable, with fees ranging from $3.99 for art, poetry, and fiction, to $9.99 for an expedited response. The expedited response category is particularly worrisome if the operation is indeed defunct and not responding to writers. It is unethical to take submission fees from writers with no intention of responding nor publishing any work.
Last Resort Literary Review's Twitter account last tweeted on October 2022. Their Instagram page hasn't been updated since April 2022. Finally, their Facebook page last shared a post in April 2021. Last Resort Literary Review does not qualify for a listing with Duotrope, reason given below:
This is the information we found about who runs Last Resort Literary Review, which is clearly available on their website:
Kylee Webb is involved with Nathaniel Buckingham, who you might remember from our post about Suburbia Journal. We mention this connection because Kylee Webb also runs Tree House Literary along with Nathaniel Buckingham (you might also remember that Nathaniel Buckingham runs two other operations which are also suspected of being defunct non-responders). Tree House Literary also has open, paid submissions on Submittable (with a very similar set up to Last Resort), with submission fees ranging from $3.99 to $9.99 for an expedited response. It appears that Tree House Literary has not posted since their initial issue released in "Winter 2022."
This means that Kylee Webb is involved in two potentially defunct, non-responsive literary magazines, both of which have open, paid submission fees with no deadline. Nathaniel Buckingham is allegedly involved in at least four defunct, non-responsive literary magazines, one of which he shares with Kylee Webb.
Did you submit your work to Last Resort Literary Review, or any of the other magazines mentioned in this post? If so, please share your experience in the comments below, or fill out our contact form. Anything you submit can remain anonymous if you wish, but it helps us share literary magazines, publishers, journals and writing retreats that are suspected of treating writers poorly, whether that be through unethical, rude correspondence, or simply never responding to a writer at all.
