Submissions

Quarterly West is open for regular submissions as well as our annual chapbook contest from March 1st to April 1st!

We open regularly for submissions. We also hold annual contests in poetry and prose, an annual chapbook contest, and publish frequent Special Features. Past features have included Extreme Environments, Queer Time & Space, Wilderness, & more.

Click Here to Submit

What We’re Looking For

QW is looking for writing that is: Exciting. Challenging. Risky. Unpredictable. And Different.

We could say what different means, but then we might receive a slew of submissions that are all different in the same way. Different will be victim to form—to the “fragment sentence,” “non-linear plot,” and “hybrid genre.” Different will be beholden to space, time, story, and moment. This does not seem the way to open the door for Different.

We think Different doesn’t open a door, actually. Different doesn’t know doors or windows. Different stomps in. Maybe it seeps in. Sometimes, and in our favorite works, different is always already there and it strikes flint and blazes. This is what we look for.

Send us your work. Seep in. Stomp in. Strike us. Set the familiar voice on fire.

Submission Guidelines

  • Submissions will remain open until our reading period closes or until we reach a cap of 500 submissions per genre, whichever comes first.

  • We are happy to accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, we request that you withdraw your submission promptly through Submittable. To withdraw individual poems, please use Submittable’s message system.

  •  Please do not submit more than one entry per genre per submission period. Additional submissions will be declined unread.

  • No previously published work will be considered.

  • Quarterly West acquires First North American Serial Rights for the work we publish. All rights revert back to the author upon publication. If your work is later republished, we request you note its initial publication in Quarterly West.

  • Unfortunately, we are unable to return any print manuscripts sent for online publication. Any manuscripts that are sent to us, even with a SASE, will be recycled.

  • We ask that former contributors wait at least one year after publication before submitting new work.

Poetry and Prose Contests

Each fall, Quarterly West runs poetry and prose contests. Send us up to three poems or one prose piece (no more than one entry per genre.) The winners will each receive $500 and publication in a forthcoming issue of Quarterly West. Runners-up in poetry and prose will each receive $200, and all entries will be considered for publication.

Chapbook Contest

Each spring, Quarterly West runs an open-genre chapbook contest. Send us poetry, short-fiction, non-fiction, or any combination or hybridization therein, in a 26 - 40 pp. manuscript.

The winning writer receives $1000, publication, and 20 copies. Quarterly West may also offer publication to a runner-up manuscript. We look forward to reading your work!