Submissions

Editorial Philosophy

VQR strives to publish the best writing we can find. While we have a long history of publishing accomplished and award-winning authors, we also seek and support emerging writers. A look at one of our latest issues will show you the diversity of voices we publish.

Genres

  • Poetry: All types and length.
  • Short Fiction: Length is from 2,500–8,000 words. We are generally not interested in genre fiction (such as romance, science fiction, or fantasy).
  • Nonfiction: Length is 3,000–7,000 words. We publish essays, memoir, and other types of literary journalism, as well as investigative reporting. 

General Guidelines

  • We only consider unpublished work. Please do not submit previously published material, including work published in anthologies, chapbooks, or online.
  • We only accept submissions online via Submittable. We do not accept submissions via e-mail or post.
  • Please read past issues of VQR before submitting your work so you have a clear sense of our editorial focus. A portion of every issue is freely available on this site. Or you can purchase a recent issue at your local newsstand or bookstore, or directly from us.
  • Submissions are limited to one prose piece and five poems per reading period. Please group poetry into one submission. Multiple submissions in the same genre will be declined unread. 
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted.
  • If work you have submitted to us is accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately. For prose submissions, please use your Submittable account to withdraw your submission. For poetry submissions, please use your Submittable account to add a note to your submission listing the titles of works no longer available for consideration.
  • We make every effort to respond within six months, but response time will vary according to the number of submissions. Please be patient with us; we typically receive more than 10,000 unsolicited works per year.
  • Responses will be provided via Submittable. Please do not call or e-mail regarding the status of your submission.
  • Due to the high volume of submissions, we cannot respond personally to every submission.
  • All files must be saved in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF formats.
  • Please prepare your submission in letter-sized format, with ample margins, double-spaced, using a standard typeface (e.g., Times, Helvetica, Arial) and font size (12 point is best). Please use minimal document and font styling in your submission.

Print Magazine Payment & Copyright

For poetry, we pay $200 per poem, up to 4 poems; for a suite of 5 or more poems, we pay $1,000.

For short fiction, we generally pay $1,000 and above. 

For other prose, such as essays and literary journalism, we generally pay $1,000 and above, at approximately 25 cents per word, depending on length. For investigative reporting, we pay at a higher rate, sometimes including pre-approved travel expenses. For long-form journalism, we often seek funders to support our writers directly, in addition to our own payments.

Our standard publishing agreement asks for the following rights in exchange: first North American print and digital magazine rights; nonexclusive online rights; and other limited rights. Copyright is retained by the author at all times. Authors are free to resell the work, though we do ask for a 90-day exclusive from our first publication of the work.

Reading Period

We read unsolicited submissions July 14 - 27, 2024, through our Submittable portal.  Due to the high volume of unsolicited work, we cannot respond to submissions outside of this reading period. We only read unsolicited works submitted through our Submittable portal. 

Please do not e-mail us to ask if we received your submission. If the online submissions system acknowledged your submission, or if you received an e-mail confirming receipt of your submission, then rest assured that we have received it.

Click here to go to our online submission form at Submittable.