We are a journal preoccupied with history- cultural, political, geographical, personal-- and how each interacts with the other to mold our experience. Adolescent blunders, dental records, the archaic origins of long-held or long-lost traditions: we want to know all of it. We are looking for work that spills secrets and wipes the dust off of old memories. We want honesty. We want an education.
We are an all volunteer organization, doing this because we love it. If you are able, please consider adding to our tip jar to help us cover costs. It will not impact our decision making, but it will support independent publishing and garner lots and lots of gratitude.
Guidelines:
Please only submit to one category, once per reading period.
We only print previously unpublished works. For our purposes, personal blogs and/or social media posts do not count as previous publication; however, we do ask that you take down anything you plan to submit to us for consideration.
At this moment in time, we do not print translations.
Please include a brief cover letter, as well as a short (50 words or fewer) third-person biography and links to any social media/websites you may have, when sending your submission.
Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but please let us know in your cover letter and notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
For poetry, submit no more than five poems (with a maximum of 10 pages) as a single .pdf, .doc or .docx attachment in a standard font. Each poem should begin on a fresh page. Please be sure to note the number of poems you are submitting in your cover letter and in the title of your submission. Please be sure your name does not appear anywhere in the file you submit, including the file name.
For creative nonfiction, submit a stand-alone piece of up to 3000 words as a double-spaced .doc or .docx attachment in a standard font. Please be sure to note the word count in your cover letter and in the title of your submission. While we accept all forms of creative nonfiction, we typically prefer essays. Please be sure your name does not appear anywhere in the file you submit, including the file name. At this moment, we do not accept excerpts from larger works.
For artworks, please submit up to five pieces (diptychs and triptychs count as a single piece) as high quality .jpgs or .pngs. Be sure to include the title and material of each artwork in your cover letter. Yes, we count photography as artwork.
We do not respond well to unnecessary raunch, excessive descriptions of decaying animals, or new age spirituality.
Submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be read.
Kitchen Table Quarterly will immediately reject any work which promotes bigotry, malice, and/or discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, disability, etc.
For our full guidelines, please visit kitchentablequarterly.org/submit
Kitchen Table Quarterly is always looking for volunteer readers to join our reader pool, and we accept applications on a rolling basis.
Poetry readers commit to reading 5-7 submissions per week in the lead up to new issue releases.
Nonfiction readers commit to reading 3-5 submissions per week in the lead up to new issue releases.
Readers are not eligible to be featured in Kitchen Table Quarterly until they are no longer involved with the magazine.
Experience is not necessary, but an understanding of our editorial focus and aesthetic is.
We encourage readers of all backgrounds, identities, and histories to join! We are a magazine focused on history as human experience, and we cannot do that without diversity in our readers.