Submission Guidelines
General Submission Formatting:
This formatting guide lists the standard formats for submissions by media and discipline. All works must be original and owned by the author or creator. Creative works and writings published on personal webpages are still eligible for publication. All works published within exhibition catalogs, literary magazines, journals, anthologies or other copyrighted publications will be accepted so long as the materials are owned by the author/artist. By submitting, contributors verify that are not infringing upon other contractual agreements made on behalf of the artist regarding publishing eligibility.
QA does not accept works that are under review, nor works accepted for publication elsewhere.
ALL submissions should be submitted utilizing the Submittable platform. Should any member of the QA team recognize a contributor, we will turn to our conflict of interest policy to resolve any biases which may interfere with selection.
All creative submissions (with the exception of original research, articles and essays) must include an artist statement contextualizing or elaborating upon the work’s engagement with and relevance to the theme. Authors whom submit academic texts are required to provide a short abstract and keywords to situate their writing. Artist statements and additional texts positioning creative works should be between 200-1500 words and may elaborate upon process, content, identity, critique, and any other meaningful interactions with the theme of the issue. Abstracts and keywords should be between 100-300 words. Statements should be 12 pt font, Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. Submissions and statements may be submitted in any language.
Visual submissions, whether consisting of a single image or small series, should be compressed to one pdf or doc file for submission. Creative submission files must include the work and the accompanying artist statement for consideration.
Video and audio files which cannot be compressed to one document may span two documents but must be delivered in one email. Two-file submissions will only be accepted for video and audio files.
File Formats:
Video Files
Seeking short video projects of any genre under 10 minutes. All genres are welcomed including narrative, documentary, performance, experimental, and new media works. Video projects should be submitted as a Quicktime .mov file (Prores 422) or an mp4 file (H.264). Private links through Dropbox, YouTube, and/or Vimeo are acceptable. Must be accompanied with artist statement and cover page.
Images
Photographic documentation must be included for submissions of ALL visual works. All images must be of high resolution, 300 ppi or higher, and submitted as a jpg/jpeg or png file. Images, whether as an individual work or displayed as a series, must be limited to one file with the required artist statement.* Works in a series should be ordered and formatted on the page as the artist intends their display. Series submissions should not exceed 8 images. Series submissions may be subjected to edits in review and narrowed with consent of the artist.
*Artists are encouraged to include formatting notes relative to their work if they want it to be orientated on the page in a particular way.
Articles & Essays
All articles and essays should be submitted as doc, docx, or pdf files and follow the MLA formatting guide
(8th edition) for style, quotes, and citations.
Research/theoretical papers:
Works which build on previous literature must include the proper citations and references. Formal articles must be between 15-25 pages in length, double-spaced, in 12pt font (Times New Roman).
Papers should include an abstract (150-250 words) and identify 4-5 key terms from their work.
Music &
Audio Files
Audio files must be submitted directly as an mp3 or mp4 file (or) submitted via private link from the following platforms: Sound Cloud, Dropbox, YouTube, and SoundBox. Public Spotify or YouTube links will not be accepted. Files submitted via link should be submitted as one document with required attachments.
Poetry, Scripts & Creative Writing
All creative writing pieces are encouraged to follow the MLA style guide (i.e. 12pt, Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins) unless its narrative/form dictates stylistic variation (poetics, scripts, and other creative writing formats). Writing pieces may utilize imagery that abides by the guidelines above. Submission must include a cover page. Artist statements for creative writings are optional.
A Note to Contributors:
Our Funds are Your Funds
Our publication is entirely self-funded at this time. We are paying out of pocket to publish artists’ work to the benefit of our communities. We are drafting this body of work to make necessary, structural change in our arts and academic systems. In order to create new free-access spaces that center information surrounding queer artistic practice, we are working to secure further funding.
We do not charge contributors to make submissions or publish with us, and all artists will retain their copyright and publishing rights. Because we cannot currently offer artists compensation for first publication rights, we encourage artists to submit works which they have already published to their personal websites or which they have exhibited in the past (so long as the publishing rights are not held exclusively elsewhere).
We will be giving back more directly to our communities as we receive outside funding.
All profits from the first iteration of QA will go towards paying our contracted designers and publishers, with the remainder of funds being allotted to reimburse our contributors and support future issues of QA. To clarify, our teams are not profiting off of this publication. Through our grant-writing, crowdfunding, and community partnerships, we aim to connect artists with further opportunities for displaying and profiting from their work. Put simply - as we grow, our funds are your funds.