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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 ask that you do not query us until a year has passed by emailing [email protected]

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.

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.

Submissions open April 1 to May 31, 2026.

The Winn Prize is awarded annually to a work of nonfiction of exemplary quality submitted for consideration. One essay submitted for this prize will be awarded $1,500 and publication in MQR. All submissions will be considered for publication.

The 2026 judge is Pauline Kaldas.

Pauline Kaldas is the author of The Apricot Tree, selected for the Immigrant Writing Series by Black Lawrence Press, The Measure of Distance, Looking Both Ways, The Time Between Places, Letters from Cairo, Egyptian Compass, and the textbook, Writing the Multicultural Experience.  She also co-edited Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction and Beyond Memory: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Creative Nonfiction.  She has been in residency at MacDowell, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, Green Olive Arts in Morocco, South Porch Residency, and 360XQMX in Mexico.  She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hollins University.  www.paulinekaldas.com

Open from September 1 to November 30, 2026

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 for the prize will be considered for publication.

Submission Guidelines. Please submit up to five (5) previously unpublished poems with a total page count of no more than ten (10) pages. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable but please leave us a note to withdraw individual poems if they are 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. Affiliation with the judge, MQR, or the Helen Zell Writers Program may disqualify a submission; please consult the prize details on Submittable for more information about exclusions.

The 2027 judge is Geffrey Davis.

Geffrey Davis grew up in the Pacific Northwest and studied literature and writing at Oregon State University and Penn State University. His books of poetry include One Wild Word Away, Night Angler, and Revising the Storm, and he co-wrote the chapbook Begotten with poet F. Douglas Brown. His fourth collection, No Good Ghost, will be published by BOA Editions in 2028. A recipient of a Pushcart Prize and the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, Davis has been awarded fellowships from Breadloaf, Cave Canem, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Whiting Foundation. His poems have been published in The Atlantic, The Nation, New England Review, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Oxford American, Ploughshares, Poetry, and elsewhere. Davis currently lives in the Ozarks and teaches at University of Arkansas’s Program in Creative Writing & Translation. He is also core faculty at The Rainier Writing Workshop and serves as poetry editor for Iron Horse Literary Review.

Open from September 1 to November 30, 2026

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.

Submission Guidelines. Please submit one unpublished short story of 1,500–7,000 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. Affiliation with the judge, MQR, or the Helen Zell Writers Program may disqualify a submission; please consult the prize details on Submittable for more information about exclusions.

The 2027 judge is Bruna Dantas Lobato.

Bruna Dantas Lobato is a writer and translator. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, A Public Space, The Dial, and The Common. Her translation of The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel received the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Born and raised in Natal, Brazil, Dantas Lobato lives in Iowa and is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Grinnell College. Her debut novel, Blue Light Hours, is out now from Grove Atlantic in North America and forthcoming in several countries—including Brazil and Portugal, in her own translation.

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 through the appropriate project on our Submittable page. Our Online Editor will invite selected pitches to submit a full piece (up to 3,000 words) for consideration.