Quist is currently closed to submissions
Submissions to Quist Issue 3 are now closed. Thank you to all who submitted!
Quist accepts submissions from writers and artists between the ages of 14 and 21 who currently reside in Quebec
We accept:
- Short fiction: one story of no more than 3500 words.
- Flash fiction: up to three short stories, no more than 750 words each.
- Creative non-fiction: one piece of no more than 3500 words.
- Poetry: up to four poems. Each poem should not exceed 40 lines. Alternatively, you can submit fewer poems as long as the total number of lines does not exceed 160.
- Art, comics, and hybrid work: all forms of art, graphic storytelling, and hybrid work are welcome, including mixed-genre, multimedia, and visual-text pieces. Send up to 3500 words, max 25 MB file size.
Payment:
We pay $75 for each accepted submission, which can include groups of poems, of flash fiction, or of artwork. Please note that this amount covers the entire submission, not each individual piece.
Guidelines for Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, and Poetry
Give us your ghost stories and your gritty realism, your space operas and your mind-bending experimentalism! We want love poems and nature poems, poems about existential despair and poems about the contents of your fridge. Amaze us!
- Send your submission as a Word attachment (.doc or .docx) to submissions@quistlit.com. The email subject line should state the following (whichever is applicable):
- Submission – Short Fiction
- Submission – Flash Fiction
- Submission – Creative Non-Fiction
- Submission – Poetry
- Submission – Hybrid work
- Submission – Comic
- Submissions should be primarily in English, but incorporating words or phrases from other languages is welcome.
- Past contributors are welcome to submit but should wait at least one full submission cycle before submitting new material. For example, if you were published in Issue 2, you should wait at least until the call for submissions for Issue 4 to resubmit.
- Include a short cover letter with your submission. It should include your name (pen names or initials are fine), age, and the word count (or line count in the case of poetry) of your submission. Note that Quist only publishes work by Quebecers aged 14 to 21. Please ensure that your age and place of residence are mentioned in your letter. Unfortunately, we cannot respond to submissions from people who are not part of this demographic.
- Please only submit work in one category, up to the allowed limits.
- Feel free to let us know if you belong to any of the underrepresented groups that Quist aims to support and amplify (youth from diverse backgrounds, including BIPOC writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, those experiencing poverty and/or homelessness, writers for whom English is not their first language, as well as disabled and neurodivergent writers).
- Simultaneous submissions are fine (you can submit the piece you’re submitting to us to other magazines and journals), but please let us know immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- We only accept material that has not been published elsewhere. However, we will accept work that has been posted on social media or personal blogs.
- While we’re open to publishing work that grapples with dark themes, including references to sex or scenes of violence, please refrain from sending us material aimed solely at shocking the reader with disturbing and/or explicit content.
- While we love our past contributors, we’re committed to welcoming new voices. Past contributors may submit again after sitting out one issue, but please be aware that we generally give preference to writers and artists who have not yet appeared in Quist.
- Nothing AI-generated. We mean it.
Guidelines for Art, Comics, and Hybrid Work
We want to see your messy works-in-progress and your finished masterpieces, your six-month passion projects and thirty-second notebook doodles, your studies, your experiments, and your complete life’s work (so far)! Send us your best work in any and all disciplines including but not limited to: comics, collages, paintings, photos, documentation of 3D work, digital art and gifs, videos, music, drawings, diagrams of a fantastical amusement park you visited in your dreams… Hold nothing back, we want it all!
- Send art, comics, and hybrid-work submissions to arts@quistlit.com. The email subject line should indicate clearly that it is a submission and the genre of work—for example:
- Submission – Art
- Submission – Comic
- Submission – Hybrid Work
- Works in your submissions package do not have to be related to each other.
- Past contributors are welcome to submit but should wait at least one full submission cycle before submitting new material. For example, if you were published in Issue 2, you should wait at least until the call for submissions for Issue 4 to resubmit.
- You’re welcome to send collaborative work or submit as a group, but all collaborators need to be named in the submission package and will share the honorarium if selected.
- Label each image file with the artist’s name and the artwork title.
- Still images need to be in focus and at least 72 dpi.
- Your complete submission package needs to be under 25 MB.
- For video and music submissions, feel free to send us an email for detailed instructions on how to submit.
- Work can be in any medium compatible with digital publication.
- If your submission incorporates artwork, it must be your original creation. That means no photography of art produced by someone else, and no AI-generated art. Work like collage that includes the use of found materials is allowed, but only if it meaningfully transforms the initial work into something new.
For help, you can email us at arts@quistlit.com for assistance up to one week before the deadline.
Editorial Response
As part of our mission to help develop young writers, Quist’s editorial team will provide gentle constructive feedback on your submission unless you tell us in your cover letter you don’t want it.
If your work is accepted for publication:
- You retain full rights to your work, but we ask that you refrain from posting or publishing it elsewhere from the time of its acceptance until after it has appeared in Quist. We also ask that you acknowledge Quist as its original home in any subsequent publication.
- Quist editors will work with you to ensure that your piece is in its finest form before publication. We will always seek your collaboration and approval before making any significant revision. If you decide not to take our suggestions, you retain the right to withdraw your work from consideration.
- Additionally, as part of our editing process, we reserve the right to include or modify content warnings as necessary.
- You have the option to publish your work under any name that resonates with you, whether chosen or given, or you can opt for anonymous publication. You’ll have the opportunity to specify your preference during the submission process. Since Quist aims to feature submissions from a diverse range of ages, we kindly request permission to include your age in our publication.
Send fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry submissions to submissions@quistlit.com.
Send art, hybrid, and comic submissions to arts@quistlit.com.
For general questions about submissions, email info@quistlit.com.
For questions about art, hybrid, and comic submissions, email arts@quistlit.com.