The Winter 2025 reading period for MacQueen's Quinterly will take place in two stages as described below. Submissions will be considered for Issues 27 and 28, with Issue 27 launching in late March and Issue 28 in late April.
Stage One (1-7 February 2025; or will close as soon as 30 submission files have been received): will focus only on submissions from "Folks New to MacQ"; that is, those whose works have never appeared in MacQueen's Quinterly (2020-2025), or in her sister journal KYSO Flash (2014-2019).
Stage Two (11-17 February 2025): will focus on Solicited Manuscripts (by invitation only).
About MacQ:
MacQueen's Quinterly is the updated name for the journal published as KYSO Flash from Fall 2014 through Summer 2019, for a total of 12 online issues (with six annual printed anthologies). Beyond the new name and a more frequent publication schedule, five times per year and only published online, our editorial focus at MacQ remains the same. (More about that below, under "What we're looking for" and "TIPs")
Please send us previously uncurated literary works. That is, those which have not appeared in any curated collection, whether in print or online—such as anthologies, books, chapbooks, journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.
(For more about the term "previously uncurated," see the essay by Rattle editor Timothy Green in Lit Mag News, 16 March 2023: "Uncurated: The Case for a New Term of Art.")
General submission files are read "anonymously" to help ensure impartiality, and thus should NOT include author's name, contact info, and bio. Many thanks for entering those details in the appropriate boxes provided by Submittable. (By the way, Submittable keeps track of everything by assigning an identification number to each submission file we receive.)
What we're looking for:
Polished, evocative literary works that balance “music and meaning” (to borrow from poet Richard Hugo) within a max of 1,000 words* (including the title and any epigraphs and author footnotes), and using forms and genres such as these:
⚡ Prose poems
⚡ Micro-fiction (up to 500 words each)
⚡ Flash fiction (501–1,000 words per piece)
⚡ Nonfiction such as CNF, essays, memoirs, book reviews:
* Critical and/or scholarly essays, interviews, reviews, and NaB essays (i.e., Nuts-and-Bolts, on the subject of writing or on the creation of hybrid artworks such as haiga) may be no longer than 5,000 words each, including title, quotations, footnotes, and any epigraphs. Note: MacQ's publisher strongly prefers to include author-provided footnotes and supplemental resource notes in order to attribute sources properly.
⚡ Poetic hybrids such as cheribun and cheribun stories, haibun and haibun stories, tanka prose and tanka tales, and chaiga, haiga, taiga, and photo-poems (aka shahai)
⚡ Poetry, both free verse and formal, that travels the middle way between transparency and obscurity; i.e., accessible but with a measure of mystery
⚡ Ekphrastic works, in every genre MacQ publishes: fiction, nonfiction, lineated and prose poetry, hybrids such as cheribun, haibun, and tanka forms, AND visual arts (such as haiga, etc.):
For specifics on the type of ekphrasis that MacQ is looking for, please see this essay by Jack Cooper and Clare MacQueen: Ephective Ekphrastics: A Guide to Verbalizing Art.
Robert L. Dean, Jr. also offers some excellent recommendations on ekphrastic writing, in his NaB essay published in MacQ-13 (May 2022): Finding the Door: One Writer’s Approach to Ekphrasis.
Tip 1: Because MacQ is saturated with poems and fiction from the first-person point of view, our publisher Clare MacQueen would love to see more pieces written from other perspectives. 😊
Tip 2: While considering submissions to MacQ, awards such as the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, Best Spiritual Literature (formerly the Orison Anthology), the Red Moon Anthologies, and The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun influence the decisions that Clare MacQueen makes. She continues to be guided by the philosophy described so beautifully by poet Jack Cooper, who was her co-editor at KYSO Flash:
“We look for works that knock our socks off, that is, prize-worthy material. Regardless of the genre, we cherish a unique voice, fresh language, and the sly use of literary devices such as metaphor and irony. We hope to be side-swiped, poked in the ribs, and otherwise smitten by an arresting idea, a compelling narrative, an exquisite lyric, or a moving account, all of which thread the perfect line between the personal and the universal.”
(More info is available in the Submission Guidelines at the MacQ website.)
Thanks so much for your interest in MacQueen's Quinterly! We look forward to seeing your works.
MacQ-27: Folks New to MacQ: Up to 10 Works for $4
This submission category is open ONLY to authors and artists whose works have not appeared in MacQueen's Quinterly (2020-2025) and/or have not appeared in KYSO Flash (2014-2019).
Just a tip: Because MacQ is saturated with poems and fiction from the first-person point of view, publisher Clare MacQueen would love to see more pieces written from other perspectives. 😊
Please do NOT include your name and bio within your submission file.
And please omit your name from the name of the file that you upload.
We would like to review your work as impartially as possible. Submittable provides text boxes in which you can enter your personal info. Many thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
Submissions for "Folks New-to-MacQ" will close either at 11:59 PM Eastern Time (US) on Friday, 7 February 2025, or when the maximum number of 30 (thirty) submission files in this category has been received, whichever occurs earlier.
Only one submission file per person will be considered during this reading period. But of course each file may contain multiple works.
In this category, "Up to 10 Works for $4," a single submission file may contain up to ten pieces—and the total word count of the file must be no more than 5,000 (five thousand), including the title of each piece, and any epigraphs and/or author footnotes.
Please note:
1. MacQ does not count lines in poetry, only the words. The majority of lineated poems submitted to MacQ are fewer than 500 words in length, and thus considered micro-works.
2. Short stories will not be considered. Works of fiction must be no longer than a thousand words each, including the title (and any epigraphs and/or author footnotes).
Themes are open, and subject matter may be eclectic, ranging from mundane to marvelous, from serious to humorous (even "Something Silly" if you would like).
First scenario: You may want to submit a single nonfiction piece of 5,000 words, such as CNF, memoir, critical essay, an in-depth book review, or interview, etc. Max word count of 5,000 includes title of the piece, author-provided footnotes, and any epigraphs or quotations. Extra points for including links to your sources!
Second scenario: You may want to include in your single submission file up to five flash-length works, each of which runs no longer than a thousand words (including title, etc.).
In this second scenario, multiple genres and flash-length forms are welcomed, including fiction, nonfiction (CNF, memoir, personal essays, mini reviews, etc.), prose poetry, lineated poetry, and poetic hybrids such as cheribun, haibun, and tanka prose. As well as sequences.
A sequence of linked pieces is considered a single work at MacQ, even if it includes multiple short poems or half a dozen hybrid pieces like haibun. Max word count for the sequence itself is 1,000 (one thousand), including a sequence title, and any epigraphs and/or author footnotes.
Three examples of micro-poem sequences published in MacQ:
"2020 Hindsight" (119-word sequence of 12 haiku by Margaret Dornaus);
"Born Again" (83-word sequence of five cherita and variations by Cynthia Anderson); and
"Country Ku" (47-word sequence of five haiku by dl mattila).
See also this pair of flash-length sequences in MacQ:
"Scribble Away: Notes from Bahrain, March 2022" (968-word sequence of nine haibun by Bob Lucky); and "Memento Mori" (709-word sequence of five cheribun by Daryl Scroggins).
Third scenario: You may want to include in your single submission file up to 10 micro-works, each of which is no longer than 500 words, including any title, epigraphs, and/or author footnotes. Multiple genres and forms are welcomed.
Tip: Most lineated poems fall into the category of micro-works at MacQ, as most of the poems we receive are fewer than 500 words long.
The micro-works category also includes hybrid artworks such as haiga, chaiga, taiga, and shahai (aka, photo-poems)—with the exception of digital artworks created by image-synthesis generators such as Stable Diffusion, Dall-E 2, and MidJourney. See note about digital art below.*
And last but never least: If your submission file also contains ekphrastic work(s), awesome! Please be sure to include links to the visual art, music, sculpture, etc. which inspired your work(s). Thanks so much!
For specific tips and examples of the kind of ekphrasis MacQ publishes, see the essay by Jack Cooper and Clare MacQueen: "Ephective Ekphrastics: A Guide to Verbalizing Art"
Robert L. Dean, Jr. also offers some excellent recommendations on ekphrastic writing: "Finding the Door: One Writer's Approach to Ekphrasis"
To reiterate: Submissions for "Folks New-to-MacQ: Up to 10 Works for $4" will close either at 11:59 PM Eastern Time (US) on Friday, 7 February 2025, or when the maximum number of 30 (thirty) submission files in this category has been received, whichever occurs earlier.
We look forward to seeing your works soon -- thanks so much! 😊
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* Note re digital art generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI):
Please do not submit any digital art created by image-synthesis generators such as Stable Diffusion, Dall-E 2, and MidJourney (as well as Adobe Photoshop with AI features). Such generators include databases of millions of images, as well as image metadata, that have been harvested online, typically without the permission of the original artists and copyright holders.
“Last year, there were thirteen new copyright-related lawsuits alone filed against AI companies—the majority of which were filed as class-action lawsuits. At the heart of these complaints, visual artists, book authors, songwriters, and other creators and copyright owners are alleging infringement of their copyrights resulting from the ingestion of protected works to train AI models. The sheer number of these lawsuits and the pace at which they were filed are not surprising. This is in part because the capabilities of AI technologies have exploded, and AI companies have failed to meaningfully address or remedy the harms to creators and copyright owners related to the mass scraping and unauthorized use of expressive works to train commercial AI models.” [From “AI and Copyright in 2023: In the Courts” by Rachel Kim at Copyright Alliance (4 January 2024).]
Until these issues are legally resolved in the United States, Clare MacQueen cannot in good conscience publish AI-generated artworks in MacQ—even though she may think they look amazing.