General Guidelines for the Print Journal
General submissions for the print journal will be accepted in 2023 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.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately via Submittable if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
- Please do not submit previously published work, including work published on a personal website or blog.
- Writers are advised to inspect a back copy of the journal before submitting work.
- Previous contributors: please wait one year after your work appears in the journal to submit to us again.
- We ask that you do not contact us about revising your work once it has been submitted.
- MQR is a paying market.
Genre Specifications
Prose submissions: Manuscripts should be double-spaced, right margins not justified; 1,500–7,000 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.
MQR Online: Our online-only companion to the print journal, MQR Online publishes book reviews, arts and culture features, author interviews, and more. We are currently accepting pitches for MQR Online features in these genres and are happy to consider pitches in other genres as well. Please submit your brief pitch in the body of an email to mqronlinepitches@gmail.com. Our Online Editor will invite selected pitches to submit a full piece (up to 3,000 words) for consideration. Please note that we are unable to respond to all pitches.
Special Issues
Each Spring and Fall issue of MQR is a special themed issue with a guest editor. Work submitted for a special issue should be related in some way to its theme. We always accept fiction, poetry, and nonfiction for special issues; other genres are often accepted as well. Themes, guidelines, and instructions for submitting to a special issue will appear below whenever we are actively seeking submissions for an upcoming special issue.
Jesmyn Ward Prize in Fiction
Open for Submissions Nov. 1–Dec. 31 annually. The Michigan Quarterly Review has established this prize for fiction in honor of Helen Zell Writers’ Program alumna Jesmyn Ward and her significant contributions to the literary arts. One short story submitted for this prize will be awarded $2,000 and publication in MQR. All submissions for the prize will be considered for publication. The fee for submission is $25. When submissions for the prize are open, you can find details on how to submit by clicking the link below.
James A. Winn Prize in Nonfiction
Open for Submissions Apr. 1–May 31 annually. The James A. Winn Prize is awarded annually to a piece of nonfiction of exemplary quality submitted for consideration. One nonfiction piece submitted for this prize will be awarded $1,500 and publication in MQR. All submissions will be considered for publication. The fee for submission is $20. When submissions for the prize are open, you can find details on how to submit by clicking the link below.
Goldstein Prize in Poetry
Open for Submissions Nov. 1–Dec. 31 annually. The Goldstein Prize is awarded annually to a poem of exemplary quality submitted for consideration. One poem submitted for this prize will be awarded $1,000 and publication in MQR. All submissions will be considered for publication. The fee for submission is $20. When submissions for the prize are open, you can find details on how to submit by clicking the link below.
MQR Mixtape
MQR Mixtape is MQR's eclectic, online zine. Each issue centers on a theme chosen by a guest editor. Open calls for upcoming issues of MQR Mixtape including submission guidelines will appear below.
Guest Editor: Chris Abani
This special issue focuses on the creative outputs by Africans from as many parts of the continent and direct diaspora as we can curate. Every few years, an anthology of African writing appears and attempts a representation that always collapses under the sheer expanse of that continent and then disappears. Our aim with this special issue is not to collect around a specific theme or historical moment, but to curate a series of engagements and provocations from all over the continent and its direct diaspora. We want to keep the door of engagement open for the creatives who end up in this issue such that opportunities for continued interactions and engagement arise.
We seek all points of view—reclamation, disruption, speculation, criticism, experimental and more traditional approaches, creative scholarship, queer, immigrant, multi-lingual pieces; in other words: no limits. We impose no ideologies or fixed approaches but would like work from less visible literatures—Hausa literatures, for example. If you receive this call and email and/or internet access is a problem, we can offer you other methods of submitting.
This issue will be published in April of 2024.
Maximum length for articles, essays and works of fiction is 7,000 words. Poetry submissions must not exceed 10 pages (or comparable length for other genres). All work should be formatted such that it can be printed on 6” x 9” pages. Incorporation of graphics is permitted; however, we cannot guarantee that any work will be printed in color.
All material submitted will be considered simultaneously for publication in MQR Online. If Submittable is not accessible to you, please email mqr@umich.edu or contact (734) 764-9265 with your concern.
Edited by Josh Olivier
Punk is almost always rendered in cliché: in mohawks and studded belts, in aimless anger and empty beer bottles. For this issue, MQR Mixtape is seeking work that takes the ethos of independent music seriously—that privileges the communities built through music, the friendships made possible, the excitement and floundering and personal discovery that occur in punk and DIY spaces. We want stories that take risks, that are willing to repel, defy convention and break form, that assert their value with an earnest vigor.
In addition to short fiction, poetry, and essays, Mixtape welcomes nontraditional submissions such as multimedia work, comics, collaborations (within and across disciplines), archival materials, love letters, photography, visual art, and short films.
For prose: please submit no more than 7,500 words.
For poetry: submit 3-5 poems.
Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted by another publication. Please send only one submission per window; subsequent submissions will be rejected automatically.
The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2023.
Manuscripts should be double-spaced, right margins not justified; 1,500-7,000 words.
MQR does not accept previously published pieces.
MQR welcomes translated fiction.
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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.
Please submit up to 6 poems in one document, not to exceed a total of 12 pages.
MQR does not accept previously published pieces.
MQR welcomes submissions of translated poetry.
Simultaneous submissions welcome. Please send a message through Submittable's system when an individual poem is accepted elsewhere.
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Poems by emerging poets who have yet to publish a book of poetry are considered for the $500 Page Davidson Clayton Prize for Emerging Poets. All poems by poets who meet these criteria that are selected for publication are considered finalists for the prize and passed on to the judge.
Manuscripts should be double-spaced. 1,500 words minimum–7,000 maximum.
Nonfiction submissions regularly published in MQR include but are not limited to: cultural criticism, academic articles, personal essays, and hybrid forms.
MQR does not accept previously published pieces.
All essays will also be considered for publication online.
We do not currently accept reviews and interviews via Submittable. Pitches for reviews and interviews, which are published only in MQR Online, should be emailed to mqronlinepitches@gmail.com.