Submissions are scheduled to open in October 2026 in two stages as below, and will be considered for Issue 35 of MacQueen's Quinterly, as well as Issue 2027.1 (Series 2) of the streamlined MacQ.
Stage One (3-4 October): Folks New-to-MacQ
Stage Two (11-17 October): Solicited Mss.
"Folks New-to-MacQ" refers to those whose works have not appeared in MacQueen's Quinterly, 2020 to the present, nor in her predecessor journal, KYSO Flash, 2014 through 2019. Please note that submissions for this category will close as soon as submission cap has been reached.
Launch Dates: Issue 35 is scheduled to launch in late November 2026, and Issue 2027.1 (Series 2) in mid-January 2027.
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 name change 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With the exception of writing for MacQ Challenges—which should be original and unpublished anywhere—please send us previously uncurated literary works: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.
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 500 words* (including the title and any epigraphs and author footnotes), and created in these forms:
⚡ Prose poems
⚡ Literary hybrids such as cheribun, haibun forms, and tanka forms; for specific guidelines and tips, please see: MacQ Needs Cheribun, Haibun, and Tanka Tales!
⚡ Micro-poems no more than 51 words long, such as these forms:
cheribun; cherita; duostitch and duostitch sequences; gembun and gembun terbalik; haibun; haiku and haiku sequences; halfaku; hay(na)ku chain; one-bun; OWP haibun; OWP tanka prose; pantoubun; split sequences; tanka doha; tanka prose; tanka sequences; and tan-ku.
For links to examples of these and additional forms, please see Item 8 of MacQ's Guidelines.
⚡ Ekphrastic works no longer than 500 words each, including title as well as any epigraphs and/or author footnotes. In particular, MacQ needs ekphrastic prose poetry, microfiction, CNF, and poetic hybrids such as cheribun, haibun, tanka prose, etc.
Please, no ekphrastic free verse, but ekphrastic micro-poems such as the forms listed above will be gladly considered. Links to examples are included in MacQ's Guidelines.
For details about the kind 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.
⚡ Flash-length book reviews and NaB essays (i.e., Nuts and Bolts essays on the process of writing or the creation of hybrid artworks such as haiga and shahai) may be no longer than one thousand words each, including title and any epigraphs and/or author footnotes. Links to examples of essays and reviews are available at MacQ.
Tip 1: Because MacQueen's Quinterly is saturated with poems and fiction from the first-person point of view, Clare 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, the Red Moon Anthologies, and The Touchstone Award 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-35: Folks New to MacQ: Up to Ten Works for $4
This submission category is open ONLY to authors and artists whose works have not appeared in MacQueen's Quinterly (2020-2026) or in KYSO Flash (2014-2019).
Submissions for "Folks New-to-MacQ" will close either at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time (US) on Sunday, 4 October 2026, or as soon as the maximum number of 25 (twenty-five) submission files in this category has been received, whichever occurs earlier.
Just a tip: Because MacQueen's Quinterly 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 and bio. Many thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
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.
(Word count of any Author’s Commentary is listed separately, and should not exceed 500 words. To reiterate, total word count of the single submission file must be no more than five thousand.)
Please note:
MacQ does not count lines in poetry, only the words.
Short stories will not be considered. Works of fiction must be no longer than 500 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).
Multiple genres and micro-length forms are welcomed, including prose poems; literary hybrids such as cheribun, haibun forms, and tanka forms; micro-poems no longer than 51 words each (see MacQ's list of forms); microfictions (up to 500 words each), especially ekphrastic; and micro-CNF (up to 500 words each), especially ekphrastic.
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"
A sequence of linked pieces is considered a single work at MacQ, even if it includes multiple micro-poems or half a dozen hybrid pieces like haibun. Max word count for the sequence itself is 500 (five hundred), including a sequence title, and any epigraphs and/or author footnotes.
Three examples of micro-poem sequences published in MacQueen's Quinterly:
"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).
Last but never least, hybrid artworks will be gladly considered, 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. Please see note about AI-generated artworks below.*
To reiterate: Submissions for "Folks New-to-MacQ: Up to 10 Works for $4" will close either at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time (US) on Sunday, 4 October 2026, or as soon as the maximum number of 25 (twenty-five) 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 artworks to MacQueen’s Quinterly that were created by image-synthesis generators such as Stable Diffusion, DreamStudio, MidJourney, DreamUp, Photoshop with AI features, etc. This is because AI technology includes the use of databases of millions of works, as well as related metadata, that have been harvested online, typically without the permission of the original writers, artists, and copyright holders. In other words, plagiarized.
Trial is scheduled for 5 April 2027 in the litigation case of Andersen v. Stability AI:
“Visual artist plaintiffs allege direct and induced copyright infringement, DMCA violations, false endorsement and trade dress claims based on the creation and functionality of Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion and DreamStudio, Midjourney Inc.’s eponymous generative AI tool, and DeviantArt’s DreamUp” (in Case Tracker: Artificial Intelligence, Copyrights and Class Actions edited by Theresa M. Weisenberger at BakerHostetler law firm, which monitors copyright issues related to generative AI technology).
See also “Who Owns the Future? Why the AI Copyright Wars of 2026 Will Define Creativity Forever” (2 April 2026) by Kesser Karim, engineer at the University of Portsmouth, UK:
“Over 25 copyright infringement cases are currently pending in US federal courts against some of the most powerful companies in the world—GitHub, OpenAI, Stability AI, and Meta among them. Artists claim their work was scraped without consent to train AI models. Writers say their books were fed into systems that now compete with them commercially. Musicians allege their entire catalogues were ingested without a single licensing fee paid. [Ed. note: See Top Noteworthy Copyright Stories from February 2026 by Rachel Kim at Copyright Alliance (4 March 2026).]
"In March 2026, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a dispute [Thaler v. Perlmutter] over copyrights for AI-generated material, leaving a dangerous legal vacuum at the very top of the American judicial system. There is no definitive ruling. There is no clear framework. There is only uncertainty—and billions of dollars of AI development charging forward through it.”
Until these issues are legally resolved in the United States, Clare cannot in good conscience, and will not intentionally, publish AI-generated artworks in MacQueen’s Quinterly—even though she may think they look amazing.