Celebrating Our First Issue – “unlabeled”
In honor of our queer roots, we’re celebrating our first issue of Not Quite Right Literary Magazine in June 2026, to coincide with Pride Month. Our first issue will use the title and theme “unlabeled.” Labels are important to the LGBTQ+ community, more important to some individuals than to others. There are times where labels work for us, finally giving us a word for the way we feel and identify. In other instances, labels can serve to restrain an energy or love that wasn’t meant to be restrained.
This issue, and the writing submitted for it, should in some way, directly or tangentially, approach the idea of labels. It could concern their important, their limitations, or your personal experiences with labels or the lack thereof. The piece selected as “Best in Issue” will be awarded a $50 Visa gift card.
Upcoming Issues/Important Dates
Issue 02: “Not Quite Right”
There’s something slightly off here—just enough to notice, not enough to name. We’re drawn to work that feels misaligned in subtle, unsettling ways: relationships that don’t quite fit, emotions that don’t land where they should, moments that linger longer than expected. Show us the quiet dissonance, the near-misses, the almosts. The things that aren’t broken—but aren’t whole, either.
- Submissions Open: July 1, 2026 to August 15, 2026
- Reading Period: August 16, 2026 to September 15, 2026
- Publication Date: October 1, 2026
Issue 02: “On the Edge”
We’re interested in work that lives at the brink—of change, of collapse, of decision. Tension, risk, anticipation: the moments where something could tip in any direction. This might be emotional, relational, physical, or internal, but it should feel charged, unstable, alive. Show us what it means to hover there, just before everything shifts.
- Submissions Open: November 1, 2026 to December 15, 2026
- Reading Period: December 16, 2026 to January 15, 2027
- Publication Date: February 1st, 2027
Ongoing General Submissions
We continue to accept submissions year-round, either for publication on our blog, or for deferral for some future issue of Not Quite Right. If you’re dying to show us something that doesn’t fit the current issue, that’s okay. Just let us know that when you’re sending it over, and we’ll be happy to consider it for publication either on our blog or in a future edition of Not Quite Right.
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