The Jesmyn Ward Prize will be awarded annually by the Michigan Quarterly Review to one short story submitted for consideration. The Michigan Quarterly Review has established this prize in honor of Helen Zell Writers’ Program Alumna Jesmyn Ward and her significant contributions to the literary arts.

Submissions to the Jesmyn Ward Prize include a one-year digital subscription for four issues of MQR beginning with the Winter 2027 issue.

Please submit one unpublished short story of up to 7,000 words. Simultaneous submissions are welcome but please withdraw your submission as soon as it is accepted elsewhere.  

We ask entrants not to include their names or contact information within the document they upload to Submittable, its title, or its file name.

First readers for the prize will be the Helen Zell Writers’ Program students who currently review submissions on behalf of the journal. 

Submissions will go through two rounds of consideration by graduate students before 10 finalists are passed on to the judge.

Current faculty and students and recent graduates (in the past 3 years) of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program are barred from submitting. Close friends, relatives, and current and former students (in the past 3 years) of the Judge are barred from submitting. MQR’s staff and editorial board, as well as their immediate family members, are also excluded from the contest.

The 2027 Judge is Bruna Dantas Lobato . The winning story will be published in the Summer 2027 issue of MQR.

The prize will be in the amount of $2,000 and publication. All submissions will be considered for publication in MQR.

Michigan Quarterly Review invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to creative and critical work focused on the global influence of basketball. We seek scholarly articles, personal and reflective essays, memoirs, short stories, novel excerpts, poetry, and translated works that consider the sport across regions and disciplines.

We welcome contributions about basketball at all skill levels, across recreational, collegiate, amateur, professional, and international environments. Writers are encouraged to send work that engages with basketball in unexpected ways and in particular work that offers perspectives beyond American basketball culture. Hybrid work will also be considered.

Please submit original, unpublished works up to 8,000 words by October 1, 2026. The folio will be published as part of our Summer 2027 issue.

Edited by Aram Mrjoian

General submissions for the print journal will be accepted in 2026 from January 1 to April 1 and August 1 to November 1. Average turnaround time is six months, but we may take longer and ask that you do not query us until a year has passed. All queries should be directed by email to mqr@umich.edu.

Prose submissions: Manuscripts should be double-spaced, right margins not justified; preferably under 7,000 words. All nonfiction submissions will be automatically considered for publication in MQR Online. All stories accepted for publication will be passed on to a judge as finalists for the $2000 Lawrence Prize. There is no additional fee for the prize beyond submission.

Poetry submissions: Please submit up to 6 poems in one document, not to exceed a total of 12 pages. Poems published in MQR by early career writers (those who have not yet published a full-length collection) will be considered as finalists for our Page Davidson Clayton Prize.

Translations: Please submit translations in the appropriate genre and include biographical information for both the author and translator.

Upon publication, MQR takes a nonexclusive license to publish work in print and online in perpetuity, and requests that MQR is formally acknowledged as the first publisher in any reprints.

Our online-only companion to the print journal, MQR Online, publishes book reviews, essays, arts and culture features, and author interviews. We accept pitches for MQR Online features year-round in these genres. Please submit your brief pitch or submission and tag it in the submission form accordingly. Our Online Editor will invite selected pitches to submit a full piece (up to 3,000 words) for consideration.

MQR pays $50 for all MQR Online contributions.

Please submit up to five previously unpublished poems with a total page count of no more than 10 pages. Poets at all stages of their careers are encouraged to submit. Multiple submissions are permitted with multiple fees. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable but please leave us a note to withdraw individual poems if they are accepted elsewhere. All submissions will be considered for publication. This year's final judge will be Geffrey Davis. The prize is $1,000 and the winning submission will be published in the Summer 2027 issue of the journal.

Submissions for the Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize include a one-year digital subscription for four issues of MQR beginning with the Winter 2027 issue.

Goldstein Prize Guidelines

1. We accept submissions via Submittable and use its tools to ensure that all identifying information is hidden from our contest readers throughout the selection process.
2. We ask entrants not to include their names or contact information within the document they upload to Submittable, its title, or its file name.
3. Up to 20 submissions will be passed on, without identifying information within them, to the judge.
4. Close friends, relatives, students, and former students of the judge, are excluded from the contest. Likewise, the current Editorial Board and staff of MQR, as well as their immediate family members, are excluded from the contest. Graduates of the Helen Zell Writers Program in the last 3 years and current faculty and staff of that program are also excluded.  If any of the selected authors fall under these categories they will be disqualified, and a replacement will be chosen from among the finalists.          We feel acquaintance and/or participation in a workshop (outside of semester-long academic settings) taught by the judge should not be a disqualifying factor, so long as none of the poems in a manuscript is recognizable to the judge.          For the purposes of this contest, we'll call a “close friend” anyone with whom we have regular direct correspondence. And please remember that if a poem is recognizable to the judge, it will be disqualified.