During the Summer 2024 reading period, which will unfold in three stages as described below, submissions will be considered for two issues of MacQueen's Quinterly: 

MacQ-24 (launching no later than 31 August 2024), and 

MacQ-25 (launching no later than 30 September 2024). 

Stage One (23-29 June 2024) focused only on submissions from Folks New to MacQ; that is, those whose works have never appeared in MacQueen's Quinterly (2020-2024), or in KYSO Flash (2014-2019). 

Stage Two (7-13 July 2024) focused on Solicited Manuscripts (by invitation only). 

Stage Three (24-30 July 2024) will focus on entries in MacQ's Cheribun Challenge #2. 

One cheribun will be awarded $100 (USD), plus publication in Issue 24 of MacQueen's Quinterly at the end of August. And up to a dozen finalists (aka, the short list) will also be published in Issue 24, depending on the number and quality of entries received. 

If we receive a deluge of wonderful entries, then we will also publish several of the semi-finalists (from the long list) in Issue 25, at the end of September. 

For detailed guidelines, including links to information about and examples of the cheribun form, please visit the MacQ website: 

http://www.macqueensquinterly.com/Contests/MacQ24-Cheribun-Challenge.aspx 

About MacQ: 

MacQueen's Quinterly is the updated name for the journal we 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")

With the exception of Cheribun Challenge entries, which must be original and unpublished anywhere, please send us previously uncurated literary works.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 perspective, our publisher Clare MacQueen would love to see more pieces written in third person. 😊 

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.