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Only previously unpublished work will be considered for inclusion in the journal.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: Steven Dunn
Submission Period: October 15, 2025 through December 1, 2025.
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 Submit up to three previously unpublished pieces and combine multiple pieces into one document, preferrable a doc, docx, or pdf.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 social media handles (like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.).
The entry fee is $15 for up to three pieces. Online submissions close at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 1, 2025. 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 Steven Dunn 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.
Steven Dunn (a.k.a Pothole, cuz he’s deep in these streets) is a Whiting Award winner who was shortlisted for Granta Magazine’s Best of Young American Novelists. He’s the author of three novels: Potted Meat (Tarpaulin Sky, 2016), water & power (Tarpaulin Sky, 2018), and Tannery Bay (FC2/University of Alabama Press, 2024), which is co-authored with his home Katie Jean Shinkle. Potted Meat is a 2017 Colorado Book Award Finalist, VICE Magazine’s Best Books of 2016, and adapted into a short film by Foothills Productions called The Usual Route. The Usual Route has played at the LA International Film Festival, Houston International Film Festival, and others.