Ornery Quarterly
Website
Defunct
Information about your publication
Ornery Quarterly began in the early twenty-tens in Chicago somewhere in-between the lake and a grocery store. We have been a non-institutional aggregate of mediocre literature ever since. The founding editors—one with a penchant for honest short fiction and the other an appetite for subversive poetry—found each other passionately furthering discourse about literature in the cold night on the back fire-escape of an apartment building one too many times. They went back and forth with edits on each other’s work for several years before developing a shared interest in creating a platform for other similar writers to share the idiosyncrasies of their literary worlds, no matter how stilted or abrasive. After five issues in print, a non-fiction editor stumbled into the scene and proposed the changeover to purely digital output. So, to our chagrin, we are now fellow culprits of the Information Age and we are fully committed to putting out the best mediocre literature we can summon on the most inconsequential podium we can create. We currently publish short fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction spun from the helm of any freethinking writer’s soul. How experimental do our poems and stories get? Well, we aren’t as off the wall as we are on the floor. No topic is off limits, whether you write from the comfort of your own room or a crammed, hard seat on a green line train. Maybe you write about shivering inmates from a café patio in the warmth of a setting sun. Whatever your case is, ours remains that curious literature is the only consistent source of feeling alright in this life. While our editors continue their efforts to undermine each other’s gust, we’re on a hunt for beavers eager to usurp the traps and give the literary world a bathetic run for its money.
What type of submissions are you looking for?
We are in pursuit of short fiction, poetry, and cultural or critical creative non-fiction that is so weird, it’s normal. Be it an elegy or a portrait of a bedside table, an observation flawed by the heart or a subdued feeling that volunteers itself with no description necessary. There is something stunning wrapped up in many of the quietest tales. There are sparks of joy present in depression, just as there is love in the glossary of hate. Pedantry does not impress us, but a good description of a bad day would hit one of our erogenous areas. We find pride in parsing through grim depictions of reality. The lines we’re after don’t have to be packed with clout, as some of the most curious material is wrought from slop. We want your sour thoughts and your dismal dreams. If you cannot explain why you wrote it but you feel strongly about it, we’ll read it. Beauty is often hideous and lights aren’t always necessary in tunnels. Take us down your tunnel, and we’ll gladly invite you down ours.
Tell us about upcoming events or contests
For issue nine, we have a poetry contest and a short fiction contest. Concerning poetry, there are specific line requirements (4/3) and all entries must be titled “Melting Faces Behind Bars and Booby Traps.” For fiction, we are looking for 1000 words or less in a short story the best uses the phrase “living with dynamite.” Please visit the website for further details and deadline information.
Information
Editors Name Patrick Kilcullen, William Eckley
Print publication? No
Circulation Less than 1,000
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Submission Guidelines URL https://www.orneryquarterly.com/submission-guidelines-2017-1
Approx. Response Time? Three Months
How often do you publish? 2-4 issues per year
Year Founded? 2013
Do you pay? No
Contact
Twitter
Mailing Address:
ATTN: Ornery Quarterly
957 N. Oakley Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
60622