Kitchen Table Quarterly amplifies work that lays history bare— cultural, political, romantic, medical, personal— and explores how the ways in which these histories weave together to create the way we live. Our belief is that each of is an amalgamation of all that came before. We are made of our elementary schools, our diagnoses, our religions, our former lovers, the injustices both that we have endured and that we have inflicted. We are looking for work that spills secrets and reframes belief. 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.
Basic 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- We only print previously unpublished works.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.
- If submitting translations, you are responsible for acquiring and providing permission from the original writer.
- Simultaneous submissions are encouraged! But please let us know as soon as possible if your work is accepted elsewhere.
For our full guidelines, please visit kitchentablequarterly.org/submit
For poetry:
- Submit up to five poems (with a maximum of ten pages) as a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf attachment in a standard font
- Each poem should begin on a fresh page
- Clearly note the number of poems in your cover letter and in the title of your submission
- Please list the titles of all of your poems in your cover letter. This helps us tremendously!
- Please make sure that no identifying information is included in your submission document, including in the file name
- Full guidelines can be found on our website.
We encourage a broad view of history! While we appreciate and consider all poetry that is submitted to us, we are especially interested in pieces that incorporate unexpected subject matter and/or recontextualize our view of the past.
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.
- For full guidelines, please visit our website.
For Nonfiction:
- Submit a stand-alone piece of up to 3000 words as a double-spaced .doc or .docx attachment in a standard font.
- Include the word count of your piece in both your cover letter and in the title of your submission
- Though we understand there may be unavoidable references within the work itself, please be sure that the attachment does not incude any identifying information, including in the filename.
- For full guidelines, please visit our website.
We encourage a broad view of history! While we appreciate every piece that is submitted to us, we are especially interested in pieces that play with form and/or incorporate unexpected subject matter.