What type of work does the Quill publish? We accept poetry, prose and everything in between, on the edges, and in another plane—as long as it’s creative writing. No theme. Your stories can be avant-garde. Your poetry, un-rhyming. We want it all.
How do I submit? Email your submission as a Word document attachment to [email protected]
How should I format my submission?Anonymously (without your name on the document!), with standard, 12pt font, and separate documents for each piece.
How many pieces can I submit? Please submit no more than 2 stories, 3-4 poems and 2 uncategorizables. (Just kidding. Like the Wild West, the Quill is a lawless entity. But the above suggestion is a good one.)
How long can my story be? Again, the Quill is a kindergartener at heart and doesn’t believe in rules. That being said, the magazine is 40 pages, each of which can fit about 500 words. We are unlikely to fill half of the magazine with one story. Past issues contained stories that were 236, 610, 1,108, 1,288, 2,628, 3,079, and 3,400 words in length. We suggest staying under 3,000 words in length.
My story is 1,070,946 words. Will you accept it? No. Please submit an excerpt. Excerpts can be good stories in their own right.
Will you edit my work? If it needs editing, yes. Mostly we correct typos and misinformed uses of the Oxford comma. Not to worry, though. We will run all edits by you before publishing.
Who decides what goes in the magazine? Our editorial board. They use, misuse, frequent, puzzle over, make a friend out of, and love to read the written word.
How do they decide? Sometimes we print the submissions and take them to a local childcare center. There, we instruct angry 4-year-olds to shred the 8.5x11s into hamster bedding. Stories that remain one piece make it into the magazine. Other times, we review submissions anonymously (meaning without names attached to them) and each member of the editorial board then votes either yes or no on each one. We then fill the magazine with the pieces getting the highest percentage of yes votes.