General Guidelines:
Our reading period runs from November 15 until March 15. Please submit only one story or essay, or up to three flash prose pieces, or up to four poems at a time. Multiple submissions will not be considered.
We do accept simultaneous submissions. In the event that a piece is accepted for publication elsewhere, please either withdraw the entire submission via Submittable or leave a note on your submission indicating which piece(s) you want to withdraw.
Only previously unpublished work will be considered for inclusion in the journal.
Response time varies, but we will do our best to respond to submissions within 6 months. If you have not heard from us after 6 months, you may send inquiries to our email address.
Should your piece be selected for publication, Quarter After Eight hereby claims first North American serial publication rights (for the print edition) and first electronic media publication rights (for publication on the journal’s website). All rights revert to you, the author, upon publication. You will receive two copies of our print edition.
Contest Submission Guidelines
Prize: $1,008.15 + publication in the next edition of Quarter After Eight.
Judge: B.J. Hollars
Submission Period: June 01, 2026 to September 01, 2026.
Instructions: Submit your micros, your short-shorts, your prose poems, your non-fiction flashes, and anything in between (really, please surprise us)! We welcome submissions of 500 words or fewer in any genre as long as the work is written in prose (so a lineated poem wouldn't be considered). Submit up to three previously unpublished pieces and combine multiple pieces into one document, preferrable a doc, docx, or pdf. Please keep any identifying information out of the submission file. We love to read about your life, times, travels, wackiest story title, and which of your cats is secretly your favorite, but keep it to your brief cover letter written in third person. In your cover letter we at least need: your name, address, phone number, email address, mailing address and the title(s) of your submissions. Feel free to also add your Instagram handle.
The entry fee is $15 for up to three pieces. Online submissions close at 11:59 p.m. EST on September 1, 2026. Submissions received after this time will not be considered. All entries will also be considered for publication in Quarter After Eight. QAE staff chooses the top ten submissions, and guest judge B.J. Hollars will select the winning piece and 2 runner-ups. The winner and 2 runners-up will have their pieces published in the next edition of Quarter After Eight.
B.J. Hollars is the author of several books, most recentlyDinosaur Dreams: A Father and Daughter In Search of America's Prehistoric Past (Oct. 2025),Wisconsin for Kennedy: The Primary That Launched a President and Changed The Course of History, and Year of Plenty: A Family's Season of Grief, as well as a collection of essays,This Is Only A Test. Additionally, he has also writtenThirteen Loops: Race, Violence and the Last Lynching in America and Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa. He and his film partner, Steve Dayton, have also completed a documentaryWhen Rubber Hit The Road.
Hollars is the recipient of an Upper Midwest Emmy® award, the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Nonfiction, the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize, the Council of Wisconsin Writers' Blei-Derleth Award, the Society of Midland Authors Award, and both the Midwest Book Awards Gold and Silver medals. His work has been featured on C-SPAN, Lit Hub, Washington Post, Star-Tribune, The Millions, and Wisconsin Life.
He is the founder and executive director of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild and the founder of the Midwest Artist Academy, as well as a professor of English at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and a columnist forThe Leader-Telegram.