General Guidelines for the Print Journal
General submissions for the print journal will be accepted in 2022 from March 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 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: Submit author interviews and book reviews. Submissions should not be longer than 3,000 words. If there are photos to accompany your piece, please make a note in your cover letter.
SomaFlights: A Special Issue
Submissions for this special issue will be open August 15–November 1, 2022. Guest edited by Vidhu Aggarwal and Petra Kuppers. Nonfiction, fiction, poetry, translation, visual art, and hybrid or experimental genres will be accepted. See special issue call for submissions below for more details.
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.
All reviews and interviews should be submitted via the MQR Online submission category.