Hi. I'm a new writer and I want to challenge myself. I live in the UK in a town near Cambridge. I just read that people can send poetry into the New Yorker but that is is america! Guys, give me a challenge. Where I send writings too? I jsut wanna see if I can actually get into a magazine or newspaper but I dont know where to start.... I'll keep looking in the mean-time.
Yes, you will derive an 'incredible high' posting to the New Yorker. They might publish your poems. However, two months down the line you will read a copy of the New Yorker. It is pretty sober stuff, and the poetry half page amidst the Rolex commercials is kind of wank - like your Grandad might read in the dentist - so that's the challenge.
Start near and low. Climb up and go further. Think is as ladders or stairs. You go step by step and in every step you lear something about writing, yourself, markets, readers...
There is no need to publish small and work your way up. Some people do and think that which is fine for them, but it's not the only way to go about things and it's not the only way things are being done. However, It sounds like you haven't read much of The New Yorker and what they publish which will pretty much wipe out any shot of getting something picked up by them. You have to read where you want to publish and have a sense of what is being published among several popular magazines and journals if you want any real shot. I don't think any amateur writer ever made it into The New Yorker or the likes on a dare. Maybe take this more seriously if it's something you actually want to do.