Denver Quarterly is the literary journal housed in the Department of English & Literary Arts at the University of Denver, currently in its 59th year of consecutive print publication. Founded by novelist John Williams in 1966, the journal has had work honored in the Pushcart Anthology, The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Essays, The Best American Short Stories, and The Best American Poetry.

Submissions of previously unpublished Poetry and Prose are welcomed during our seasonal submission windows, which we will announce via our social media channels. When our prose and poetry windows are open, the platform's submission cap is set at 800, which will reset when we reopen.

Submissions of previously unpublished Conversations, Critiques, Performance, Reviews, Translations, and, for FIVES, multimedia critical-creative experiments are welcomed year-round, provided we have not reached our submission cap (800) for the given month.

Please read all guidelines for each form/genre/mode before submitting. Work submitted to the wrong genre may be reassigned or returned unread. 

Denver Quarterly and FIVES offer diverse publications that embody the wide-ranging possibilities for the worlds from which writing may come, and the worlds our authors imagine and write into being. We welcome the work of writers and artists from marginalized communities, identities, and traditions; those who work with differing abilities or who are non-professional writers; and those who have otherwise been traditionally excluded from the space of literary journals. We do not tolerate submissions that contain hate speech, bigotry, discrimination, or racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or ableist language or violence of any kind.

We do consider simultaneous submissions. Inform us immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere. If you need to partially withdraw pieces from your submission, send us a message on Submittable indicating the titles that are no longer available. Use the "withdraw" button only if you wish to withdraw the entire submission.

We accept print submissions only from those who are incarcerated, or from those whose abilities or resources do not include stable access to the internet or technology. If you identify in at least one of these groups and need to submit in hard copy, our mailing address is Denver Quarterly, 495 Sturm Hall, Department of English & Literary Arts, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208.

Send only one submission at a time. Wait to hear back from us regarding your current submission before sending more work. Please wait at least six to nine months between submissions. Additionally, we ask that you follow all guidelines for submissions, and that you proofread your work carefully before submitting. We do not accept edits once your work has been submitted unless  it has already been accepted. Please do not withdraw and resubmit edited work; instead wait to hear back from us on the status of your submission first. 

Please visit our website for information on ordering back issues and subscriptions. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter to receive excerpts of recent issues and our latest announcements. 

Contributors receive two copies of the issues in which their work appears and a year-long subscription.

Once your work has been published with us, wait at least two full calendar years before submitting again to any genre. 

Thank you for your interest in Denver Quarterly and FIVES. We look forward to reading your work!

Denver Quarterly seeks to offer a platform for rich dialogue between two or more entities. This may include authors, practitioners from other artistic disciplines, or compelling figures in any discipline, practice, or trade, and may be orchestrated around a specific topic. Conversations should stimulate discussion around issues relevant to contemporary artistic life and production, offer insightful or challenging reflections (or both), or otherwise engage generative substance for our readership. Feel free to email us at denverquarterly@gmail.com to pitch conversation ideas or ask any questions.

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Conversations are Frankie Beasley and Nazli Koca.

Policies:

  • Conversations should be edited to between 3,000-4,000 words in length.
  • If you are submitting with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not read previously published work
$3.00

Denver Quarterly seeks to offer a platform for rich dialogue between two or more entities. This may include authors, practitioners from other artistic disciplines, or compelling figures in any discipline, practice, or trade, and may be orchestrated around a specific topic. Conversations should stimulate discussion around issues relevant to contemporary artistic life and production, offer insightful or challenging reflections (or both), or otherwise engage generative substance for our readership. Feel free to email us at denverquarterly@gmail.com to pitch conversation ideas or ask any questions.

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Conversations are Frankie Beasley and Nazli Koca.

Policies:

  • Conversations should be edited to between 3,000-4,000 words in length.
  • If you are submitting with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not read previously published work

Denver Quarterly is interested in terrain-shifting work relating to theory and praxis. Critique submissions should provoke questions about our assumptions and inherited positions of literary works and beyond, with a close examination of artistic and theoretical paradigms and the ways in which we consider and approach our usual way of engaging the arts and the world. Critiques may be a traditional essay form, or can work in a visionary manner of your choice.

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Critiques are Ruby Pucillo and Monroe Lawrence.

Policies:

  • Critiques should generally consist of no more than 3,500 words. 
  • Please use MLA style for your references.
  • If you are including quotations of more than two lines of poetry, including an image, or a paragraph of prose, please seek permissions for each quotation before submitting your essay.
  • If you are submitting with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not review previously published work.
$3.00

Denver Quarterly is interested in terrain-shifting work relating to theory and praxis. Critique submissions should provoke questions about our assumptions and inherited positions of literary works and beyond, with a close examination of artistic and theoretical paradigms and the ways in which we consider and approach our usual way of engaging the arts and the world. Critiques may be a traditional essay form, or can work in a visionary manner of your choice.

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Critiques are Ruby Pucillo and Monroe Lawrence.

Policies:

  • Critiques should generally consist of no more than 3,500 words. 
  • Please use MLA style for your references.
  • If you are including quotations of more than two lines of poetry, including an image, or a paragraph of prose, please seek permissions for each quotation before submitting your essay.
  • If you are submitting with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not review previously published work.

Denver Quarterly is interested in texts intended to be performed in some capacity-- including one-act plays, flash mobs, performance art, monologues, scripted choreography-- or work that is meant to be performed solely on the page but bears in mind certain conventions of the theater/stage. Poems and short stories are not accepted under this category. 

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistant in Performance is Kylan Fermin.

Policies:

  • Performance submissions should generally consist of no more than 4,000 words, but may be much shorter as the project requires.
  • Excerpts from longer works are permissible.
  • If you are submitting performance texts with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not read previously published work.
$3.00

Denver Quarterly is interested in texts intended to be performed in some capacity-- including one-act plays, flash mobs, performance art, monologues, scripted choreography-- or work that is meant to be performed solely on the page but bears in mind certain conventions of the theater/stage. Poems and short stories are not accepted under this category. 

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistant in Performance is Kylan Fermin.

Policies:

  • Performance submissions should generally consist of no more than 4,000 words, but may be much shorter as the project requires.
  • Excerpts from longer works are permissible.
  • If you are submitting performance texts with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not read previously published work.

Denver Quarterly is interested in reviews of recently published works, under-acknowledged and/or emerging authors, works from smaller and/or independent presses, or fresh and innovative perspectives that update or expand our understanding of historical figures. Submit your written review with a brief entry in your cover letter indicating the text you have selected and how it is situated within these suggestions. 

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Reviews are Monroe Lawrence and Ruby Pucillo.

Policies:

  • Single-work reviews should generally run between 1,000 and 2,000 words total. Review essays discussing multiple works should be no more than 3,000 words total.
  • Please include, after the title and before your review, the book’s information. Example: Title. First Name Last Name. City: Publisher, Year. Pages. Price.
  • Please submit to each category only once per submissions cycle. If you're a recent contributor, please wait at least three issue years after the issue in which your work appeared to submit again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not read previously published work.

Note: Denver Quarterly values the rigor of the review process. In the interest of an ethical position towards works under review, the journal requires that any close connection with the author of a book under review be disclosed in the submission.  Reviews are not limited to prose and poetry; reviewers are encouraged to consider performance texts, visual art texts, critical theory, or other topics relevant to our readership.

$3.00

Denver Quarterly is interested in reviews of recently published works, under-acknowledged and/or emerging authors, works from smaller and/or independent presses, or fresh and innovative perspectives that update or expand our understanding of historical figures. Submit your written review with a brief entry in your cover letter indicating the text you have selected and how it is situated within these suggestions. 

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Reviews are Monroe Lawrence and Ruby Pucillo.

Policies:

  • Single-work reviews should generally run between 1,000 and 2,000 words total. Review essays discussing multiple works should be no more than 3,000 words total.
  • Please include, after the title and before your review, the book’s information. Example: Title. First Name Last Name. City: Publisher, Year. Pages. Price.
  • Please submit to each category only once per submissions cycle. If you're a recent contributor, please wait at least three issue years after the issue in which your work appeared to submit again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We do not read previously published work.

Note: Denver Quarterly values the rigor of the review process. In the interest of an ethical position towards works under review, the journal requires that any close connection with the author of a book under review be disclosed in the submission.  Reviews are not limited to prose and poetry; reviewers are encouraged to consider performance texts, visual art texts, critical theory, or other topics relevant to our readership.

Denver Quarterly seeks to showcase exceptional work that has been translated into English. We look for translated work that complements the journal’s aesthetic and is in sync with our experimental legacy.  For example, in poetry and prose we look for experiments, derivations, plunges, incisions, compressions, investigations, dilations, and texts true and false, found, and invented. We look for writing that pushes on our expectations of narrative and fulfills its own ambitious charge.

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Translations are Jan Verberkmoes and Manuel Calvillo de la Garza.

Policies:

  • Translations should adhere to the guidelines of their respective form: Poetry (3-5 poems), Prose generally no more than 4,000 words of a single work or 3-5 flash / micro / short form pieces compiled into a single document, and Performance generally no more than 4,000 words.
  • Translators are responsible for the negotiation and handling of any copyright permissions in relation to the work they submit.
  • Though not required, translators are invited to submit a Translator’s Note of 350 words or less.
  • If you are submitting with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We will not consider previously published translations.
$3.00

Denver Quarterly seeks to showcase exceptional work that has been translated into English. We look for translated work that complements the journal’s aesthetic and is in sync with our experimental legacy.  For example, in poetry and prose we look for experiments, derivations, plunges, incisions, compressions, investigations, dilations, and texts true and false, found, and invented. We look for writing that pushes on our expectations of narrative and fulfills its own ambitious charge.

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants in Translations are Jan Verberkmoes and Manuel Calvillo de la Garza.

Policies:

  • Translations should adhere to the guidelines of their respective form: Poetry (3-5 poems), Prose generally no more than 4,000 words of a single work or 3-5 flash / micro / short form pieces compiled into a single document, and Performance generally no more than 4,000 words.
  • Translators are responsible for the negotiation and handling of any copyright permissions in relation to the work they submit.
  • Though not required, translators are invited to submit a Translator’s Note of 350 words or less.
  • If you are submitting with particular formatting, we recommend saving your file as a PDF.
  • Please submit only one piece to one category for our consideration, and please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. We will not consider previously published translations.

Denver Quarterly publishes visual art on our covers and at our digital companion to the journal. Submissions should be of sufficient quality for print (800dpi). Submissions may be in any visual medium.

  • Please submit to each category only once per submissions cycle. For Visual Art, this means that we ask you wait at least six months between submissions, and that you do not submit to any of our other categories until you have heard back from us on your submission. Submissions outside these bounds will not be read.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. 


$3.00

Denver Quarterly publishes visual art on our covers and at our digital companion to the journal. Submissions should be of sufficient quality for print (800dpi). Submissions may be in any visual medium.

  • Please submit to each category only once per submissions cycle. For Visual Art, this means that we ask you wait at least six months between submissions, and that you do not submit to any of our other categories until you have heard back from us on your submission. Submissions outside these bounds will not be read.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted, and please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a note withdrawing your piece in Submittable. 


F I V E S: A Companion to Denver Quarterly  is a digital companion in conversation with Denver Quarterly, our print journal. F I V E S  is a digital journal of interdisciplinary poetics for innovative creative and critical work, released on a rolling basis throughout the year. 

F I V E S  welcomes submissions of interdisciplinary and cross-genre work not typically publishable in print form or the static page. Submit your audioscapes, audiovisuals, interactive creations, multimedia prose, multimedia poetry, and artistic experiments of all types. 

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants for F I V E S  are Jason Lipeles, Chantelle Mitchell, and Anthony Farris.

Policies:

  • Submit only once, and wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a message to withdraw your piece in Submittable. 
  • We do not review previously published work.
  • Please note: we will not consider any work that is clearly not designed for the digital environment as an essential part of its being and becoming. If the work can exist fully on the printed page, it is not a fit for F I V E S and will be declined.
$3.00

F I V E S: A Companion to Denver Quarterly  is a digital companion in conversation with Denver Quarterly, our print journal. F I V E S  is a digital journal of interdisciplinary poetics for innovative creative and critical work, released on a rolling basis throughout the year. 

F I V E S  welcomes submissions of interdisciplinary and cross-genre work not typically publishable in print form or the static page. Submit your audioscapes, audiovisuals, interactive creations, multimedia prose, multimedia poetry, and artistic experiments of all types. 

DQ's 2022-23 Editorial Assistants for F I V E S  are Jason Lipeles, Chantelle Mitchell, and Anthony Farris.

Policies:

  • Submit only once, and wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Please notify us promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere by adding a message to withdraw your piece in Submittable. 
  • We do not review previously published work.
  • Please note: we will not consider any work that is clearly not designed for the digital environment as an essential part of its being and becoming. If the work can exist fully on the printed page, it is not a fit for F I V E S and will be declined.
Denver Quarterly