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Submissions of previously unpublished Poetry and Prose are welcomed during our seasonal submission windows, which we will announce via our social media channels.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Submissions of previously unpublished Conversations, Critiques, Performance, Reviews, Translations, and, for FIVES, multimedia critical-creative experiments are welcomed year-round, provided we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!