(ly)

a regular recurrence in (specified) units of time

A Literary Spotlight for Poetry, Prose, Comics, and Non-Fiction

As The Quarter(ly) splits, we want to create an online venue to feature ONE author / creator each week, allowing for a wider audience, no paywall, and further opportunities for award nominations. (ly) [lee] may sound weird, but it’ll keep you coming back each week.

What’ve you got to show us?

  • Fiction and/or Non-Fiction

    For Fiction: We’re open to micro works all the way up to ~4,000 words (if you’ve got longer work, consider submitting to The Quarter). Just keep two things in mind: We want to be engaged and the submission must be completed (no pitches, please!)

    For Non-Fiction: We’d love to see any and all personal essays, media analysis (film, music, literature, etc.) up to ~ 4,000 words. (Feel free to pitch non-fiction ideas; however, please note that our “Interest in seeing a draft” does NOT guarantee publication.) At the moment, we do not want reviews.

  • Poetry

    We’d love to see up to FIVE poems from you. (We prefer them to be in one file, new poems starting on a new page.)

    We’re game for any style, traditional forms to prose to free verse, etc. Though keep in mind that with an online publication, extreme formatting may be hard to accommodate.

    It’s also good to know that we rarely accept rhyming poems (especially if its not required by the form).

  • Art

    We’re open to see any art created in any medium at any time. (It may be worth noting that we tend to get more collage than anything else…)

    We WILL NOT Accept any AI-Generated art.

    For ART submissions to (ly), you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com instead of Submittable.

  • Graphic Stories

    Show us your comic strips or complete short works; we’d love to see them all! For (ly), please try to keep submissions to 10 pages or less (if you’ve got something longer, try The Quarter. Feel free to also send a collection of comic strips / one shot comics, as well. These must be COMPLETE works.

    For Graphic Work / Comics, submissions to (ly), you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com instead of Submittable.

submit

The Boring, Necessary Bits

  • We Want: Works with fantastical elements: scary, happy, creepy, heartbreaking, bizarre, hilarious, whatever. While you can see our “Loves” lower on the page, we’re pretty open to anything that’s worth picking up.

    We (Probably) Won’t: Pick up works not tied to or containing fantastical elements. It’s kinda our thing. (However, some themes may lean more heavily on a specific genre or reality. Interpret accordingly.)

    Where to Tread Lightly: We’re pretty open-minded and okay with just about anything, but there better be a reason for it to be in the work. The darker, more explicit you go, the more we’ll really need to see its necessity to the work. We don’t want shock / horror / violence for its own sake.

    Definitely Will Not Publish: Any work that is hateful towards any race, creed, religion, gender, or identity. This aims to be an inclusive space. Any work created by generative AI.

  • We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, and with (ly), we will add Best of the Net to the mix!

    Unpublished writers and professional folks, all ages, from all walks of life are considered here.

    Your work must be ORIGINAL. We will not accept any AI-Generated work.

    Excluding non-fiction submissions, it must be complete. For these shorter forms, we need to see the whole thing to make an informed decision.

    We accept simultaneous submissions but ask that you let us know if / when it gets picked up by another venue as soon as possible.

    If your work is rejected, please wait one month before submitting again.

    If your work is accepted, please wait one year before submitting again. (We want to include as many folks as possible!)

    In that vein, if it comes down to someone who has been published by us before and a new voice, we will lean into the new voice.

  • While (ly) is not officially themed, it may help to note that some of our favorite submissions came from the following volumes of The Quarter(ly):

    • Mood : Stark

    • ALL of the WEIRD issues

    • What we do with the ashes.

    • Burn This Fucker Down

    • In the Dark

    • Laughter and Tears

    Of course, be sure to check out our “Things we love.” section—or follow our current reads on StoryGraph (@quarterpress)—for our aesthetic preferences.

  • Rights: We request one-time, first publishing rights in digital / online format. All rights will be retained by the creator. We simply ask that when / if published elsewhere, acknowledgment is given to its appearance within (ly).

    If a “Best of” or Collected Anthology is published, publication rights will be renegotiated for that publication.

    Payment: We aim to be a paying venue, even if it’s just enough for a cup of coffee. Upon agreement of publication, we offer contributors $5.

  • Here’s a brief, incomplete list of ways to increase your rejection chances:

    • Start your story with a narrator waking up and / or not knowing where they are.

    • Sending multiple submissions more than 1k words each, at one time.

    • The “hook” of the first section / paragraphs that are in the present, then skipping back in time. This rarely works on me.

    • Lots! Of! Exclamation! Points! (Let the context guide the excitement.)

    • Only sending rhyming poetry. (While I don’t mind some, rhyming poems are not a personal preference and increase the chance of rejection with each new rhyme.)

    • Having the whole story / poem hinge on "the twist." (I'm not big on the reveal being the crux of the story.) Twists are good, but not when the story was written just for them.

    • Submitting to the incorrect submission type. (For example, if you’re not sending art or comics, do not send it to the “Graphic Work” option.)

  • (My hope is to update (ly) submissions stats each month.)

    2025 Stats:

    Overall Year: 1,430 Submissions, 138 Acceptances, Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 10%

    Vol. 13 - This is Where We are Now - 343 Submissions, 34 Acceptances, 30 Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 10%

    Vol 14 - What We Do With the Ashes - 476 Submissions, 39 Acceptances, 27 Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 8%

    Vol. 15 - Animate Me - 215 Submissions, 26 Acceptances, 26 Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 12%

    Vol. 16 - Mood : Stark - 396 Submissions, 39 Acceptances, Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 10%

    2024 Overall Stats: 1980 Submissions, 170 Acceptances, Acceptance Rate ~ 11% : 116 Offered Payment, 54 Offered a PDF

    Vol 9 - In the Dark - 709 Submissions, 49 Acceptances, 27 Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~7%

    Vol 10 - WET - 357 Submissions, 35 Acceptances, 25 Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 10%

    Vol. 11 - W3IRD - 595 Submissions, 55 Acceptances, 29 Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 9%

    Vol. 12 - ; - 319 Submissions, 31 Acceptances, 25 Offered Payment, Acceptance Rate ~ 10%

    In 2023, The Quarter(ly) received a total of 1,775 submissions.

    Of those, 200 were accepted, for an approximate rate of 11%.*

    90 Submissions were offered the option of payment, and 110 accepted a PDF as payment.

    *Note that acceptance rates were higher / lower for different themes, as our lowest themed submission had around 300 subs, while our highest almost hit 650.

When Submitting Your Work

  • Written Work

    Please be prepared to provide your bio, type of submission, and the ENTIRE work(s).

    For prose submissions, be sure your document is double-spaced, in a legible font.

    Poems should be spaced / broken as you hope to see them published.

  • Art

    Prepare to send us your bio and work(s) titles. You may include a link to your specific work / works for consideration or upload them as PDFs, jpegs, or pngs.

    Other than the RARE occasion where we spotlight an artist, artwork will accompany an author’s work.

  • Graphic Work

    Please send us bios for EVERYONE involved in the work’s creation, along with the title—if it’s not included on the work’s first page.

    Feel free to link your submission via Google Docs or Dropbox, or include it as a complete PDF—whatever makes the most sense for the project.

submit

Things we love.

 

As our publishing tastes cover a wide variety, here is a very incomplete list of authors, artists, and various media that we would die to work with / publish / have made. These are a HUGE indication of our aesthetics.

Carmen Maria Machado, Erin Morgenstern, Susanna Clarke, Ben Templesmith, Kelly Barnhill, Toni Morrison, David Almond, Take Shelter, Hanif Abdurraqib, The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand, Nova Ren Suma, Over the Garden Wall, Haruki Murakami, Donnie Darko, Daytripper, Jeff Lemire, Ray Bradbury, Sean Murphey, Joe Hill, The Golem and the Djinn, Louise Erdrich, Luca, Samurai Jack, What We Do in the Shadows, Coen Brothers, Spirited Away, Hannah Tinti, Brad Neely, Adventure Time, The Hawkline Monster, Michael Deforge, Allie Brosh, Stephen King, The Daniels Films, Kate Beaton, Graham Annable, The Legend of Ochi, Richard Ayoade, Joy Williams, Hundreds of Beavers, Helen Oyeyemi, N. K. Jemisin, Greener Grass, Karen Russell…

We love the blending of real life and the fantastic, the absurd, the magical, the heartbreaking, and the things that scare the shit out of us.

And if you want a more direct line, you can pick up a copy of one of our publications here.

Contact us.

If you feel like you’d be a good fit for the press, we’d love the opportunity to see your work. Please follow the above guidelines, but don’t hesitate to drop us a line if you have any questions about our submission process.

Our current response times are one to two months. If you haven’t heard back from us after that time, feel free to check back in about your status!

chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com

PO Box 591
Millen, GA 30442