Subs are open for issue 11! Hope y’all are surviving the summer.

The only two real things I ask for are that you keep to the word limit of 1999, and stay on topic.

What’s the topic? Your piece needs to be about or set within the year 1997 and 2007.

You can do this!

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Your call is very important to us.

Issue 9 is now live and as always free to read online.

I figured at some point personal things would knock me off my perfect schedule for the magazine, but it wasn’t too bad.

Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this issue, and I am so sorry it took all month to get back to you.

Check out the latest works by:

Misti Duvall

Katie Brain

David Anson Lee

Gabby Kiser

Matt Zambito

MADDY SNEEP

Eli Karren

Cody Gohl

A note for my contributors from last year. I am still putting together the print copy for Volume 2. You should expect an email about where to send your copy in the next month or so.

Social media is a dumpster fire at the moment, not sure where yall would like to be kept in the loop on things. Feel free to let me know the best option these days. I’ll try to get back into the habit of one of them. Else, keep subscribed here for the best updates or check the site!

-Melinda

Welcome to another year of nostalgia and poetry! I can’t wait to see what everyone has in store for me this year.

Subs for the 9th issue are now live and will be open until the 31st. Don’t worry, you have plenty of time. As always I don’t start reading until after the call ends.

Those who made it into the magazine in 2025 will be getting an email in the next week or so reaching out about receiving your printed copies of the 2025 annual. (I have not started setting it up yet.)

You can see what the 2024 annual looks like here. Now, thanks to the economy I have to bump up the price this year or else it might cost me money when yall order a copy.

All funds go to pay for website hosting, Duotrope subscription, and CLMP dues. You can always support the magazine at any time by ordering a copy of the annual or visiting the merch shop.

A few other things about this year. I will be working on scheduling more social media posts and promoting pieces regularly. I definitely let it fall behind this year with work and the kids but if I have time to doom scroll instagram reels I have time to share yall’s work. No more excuses! :D

I can’t thank everyone enough for contributing their time and work to this project. Your words are important, even if they don’t make it in the issue. Get your stories on paper before they’re forgotten. I can’t wait to read them.

- Melinda

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who submitted this round. This was the highest number of submissions in a single call since the magazine started which made it that much harder to narrow down a “Top 8” for the issue.

Issue 7 Top 8:

• Joey Millar

• Brendan J. O’Brien

• Constanza Baeza Valdenegro

• Stephanie Dinkmeyer

• Stacy Alderman

• Steven C Wright

• Emily Anne Elliot

• Emily Sperber

Read the Latest Issue

I know last year the website had a different visual theme, it was more terminal mode looking than Windows 98. I am tinkering with the idea of updating it all again for next year, if not the whole theme, at least the “webpage” backgrounds. Some poems get really eaten up by the formatting and would do better with less nested HTML conflicts than I’m running into. But anyway, that won’t be finished till next year. (I will also finally do something about the naming conventions of the issues and get them all changed over to 1-8 instead of volumes.)

Finally, there is a new webshop for merch. You can check it out here. Just remember that it’s all print on demand, so it could take a while.

Thanks again to all of our contributors and readers. See y’all again when subs open for the last issue of the year in October.

Just a heads up, submissions close at midnight on July 31st Central US time. You have all day Thursday to get those last minute pieces in!

Click here to submit!

And don’t worry, submissions are always free. As always, you won’t get a response until a week or two after the window closes. This issue goes live August 1st.

You know the drill!

Subs are open until the end of the month (July 31st) and then I crack open the Duosuma account and start sending out responses.

You have plenty of time to come up with something under 1999 words. Poems? Flash? CNF? A/S/L? Old Livejournal Entries? Send it on in!

Click here to read over the rules and submit!

It’s always free to submit. Check out some of the previous issues to see what you’re up against.

I just want to thank everyone who contributed to the magazine this time around. The work gets better and better and harder to narrow down to only 8 pieces. Please, give each of these writers a little bit of your time and check out not only what they have written here but other magazines as well. You can find out more about each one in their bio.

This magazine would not exist without readers and contributors like you.

READ NOW

Just a heads up, yall have until the end of today to get those last minute submissions in.

Please see the guidelines for all info and link to submit. Responses go out about a week or so after the call ends. :D

Follow on Bsky | Twitter | Threads

Just like all the other times here are the sub details:

We are accepting all types of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction as long as it is 1999 words or less. Submitting work beyond that could result in global infrastructure failure, famine, pestilence, and war.
Jokes aside, we are looking for work that is set, reflects upon, or reminds you of the early 2000's. (1997-2007)

Simultaneous submissions allowed! Multiple submissions allowed!

Do not submit AI generated work.

Submissions must be done via Duosuma, but you may email us with extra questions or updates.

SUBMIT

I mean, there is no rush. I don’t even open them until after the call ends.

GO READ OUR PREVIOUS ISSUES TO GET THE IDEA.

The printed volume of the Y2K Quarterly 2024 annual is now available to purchase. You can order it online where most books are sold. (If you are a bookshop/library it’s available through Ingram.)

Order Via Barnes & Noble

Order Via Amazon

Contributors to the magazine were sent their copies this week, and some have already received them in the mail.

Subs closed this week for the 1st issue of 2025, so responses should be going out by the end of the week. There is a lot of good stuff coming!

Guess what! We made it a whole year. Now it’s time to open up submissions for the first issue of 2025. Volume 2 starts now!

A few changes to the way submissions work:

I am no longer using a google form to collect submissions. I got us moved over to the Duosuma submission manager by Duotrope. Hopefully this streamlines things for folks (But mostly for me lol.)

Just like last year you have the entire month of January to submit. I don’t even look at submissions until the call period ends so there is no rush.

The Top 8

Last year I accepted between 10 to 13 pieces per issue. That changes this year with the introduction of The Top 8. Yep, only 8 pieces will be accepted across all submission types for each issue.

Other News

We made it on a few lists in our first year:

Brecht De Poortere's Top 1000 Lit Mags 2025: #971

FISH List 2025: #1224

Printed 2024 annuals are coming soon, an email will be sent out when those are ready to order. Contributors will be sent out free copies.

I hope you all have had a great 2024 and can’t wait to see what you come up with this year.

SUBS ARE OPEN!

The last issue of the year is now live!

READ ISSUE 4

First off, I need to thank every single person who submitted to the magazine this year. With each issue the magazine has grown in every possible way and it would not have done so without those who have contributed their time and work to this project. Every three months I get to sit and read this amazing work and then tear what's left of my hair out trying to cut it down to around ten pieces. Y'all are the best.

Second, everyone in this issue is amazing and you need to read their work and check their bio's and read everything else they have ever written. That goes for every issue. Check them out, read their stuff. This magazine is my little project but these folks deserve all the praise.

Thank you all again so much for taking a chance on this little themed magazine.

I can't wait to see what y'all come up with next year, and of course there will be a next year. Subs go live on Jan 1st.

**ALSO**

I am finalizing the printed annual. All contributors will be sent a copy for free in January. I will be reaching out to all of you in the next week about getting a copy shipped out.

For everyone else, it will be available to purchase online shortly after. I’ll keep y’all updated when it is ready!

The 4th and final issue of the year is now open for submissions. Same rules as the other three. 1999 words or less, something to do with/set during the turn of the millennium.

https://www.y2kq.com/submission-page

Simultaneous submissions allowed!

Multiple submissions allowed!

Subs close at midnight on the 31st.

The third issue of Y2K Quarterly is now live!

Check out new work by the following:

Margaret Emma Brandl
Catherine Zarac
Andrew Buckner
Kristin Gustafson
Ann Kathryn Kelly
Brandon Shane
Ben Nardolilli
Claire Nelson
Anna Dodson
Jonathan Horowitz
Rachel Turney

We've made it to three whole issues! I can't thank everyone enough for submitting their work and giving the magazine such a great start. It gets harder and harder to pick when you have over 100 pieces of amazing writing to choose from. Yes, it's mostly poetry but it's all so great and I feel terrible about every rejection letter sent out. In fact, I sent so many out this time that I hit the rate limit for emails for the hotmail account. Here I was trying to be on-brand and I get put in time out. lol

While this magazine is rooted in nostalgia and a very narrow time in history, it doesn't stop y'all from submitting the good, bad, and ugly from that time period.

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted something this round. We all experienced the late 90's and early 2000's in different ways and it really shows this time around. I can't wait to see what y'all have in store for the next issue.

‍

Thank you for trusting me and this site with your work,

-Melinda

Make sure to get your submissions in before midnight Wednesday!

Here is the direct link to submit.

We accept all types of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, essay, etc. as long as it is 1999 words or less. Submitting work beyond that could result in global infrastructure failure, famine, pestilence, and war.
‍
We are looking for work that is set, reflects upon, or reminds you of the early 2000's. (1997-2007)  

Simultaneous submissions allowed! Multiple submissions allowed!

GET IN HERE.

Also of note, I don’t like how Substack calls these posts now and not emails. What gives?

Just like the title says, subs are open for issue 3! They will close at the end of the month or until we reach about ~500 subs.

Click Here for Guidelines

If you already know all the rules, you can click here to get straight to the submission form.

Again, if you have any questions or run into any problems feel free to reach out!

It’s here! Well, I updated it last night but as usual I found some bugs after pushing it live as one often does.

Anyway, the latest issue is here and free to read! Please go check out the great work by so many wonderful poets, writers, and essayists.

I think you’ll love the site redesign as well if you haven’t seen it in a while.

Subs open for the third issue on July 1st.

Submissions close at midnight on Tuesday the 29th Central time US. I’ll begin reading through all of the entries on Wednesday. Responses will go out soon after.

Some fun stats so far: I have about the same number of submissions as last time, but far more poetry than before. As of right now I have a whopping 69% Poetry (nice), 19% Fiction, and 12% Non Fiction. Remember that the limit for everything is only 1999 words.

Bump those numbers up, make me regret telling you your odds.

SUBMIT

The other day I was showing someone the site who wasn’t an elder of the internet and they said it didn’t “look” very Y2K.

One week later I’ve pushed the changes to make the site look more like something from, well, let’s just say 1998. It’s not 100% functional yet, I’ve got a test branch where I’m still trying to make it so you can click and drag the windows around but you can close them to make them go away.

The menu works, but to make sure it always works on mobile I won’t be making the hover-tab system from the actual Windows98 menu bar. There are probably a handful of font issues in regards to links but it should all work.

If you find any major issues, feel free to send me a screenshot.

You also have ten days left to submit work for the second issue.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

-M

So I was scrolling through the other big litmags (looking at what type of posts they make to make sure I’m doing things right) when I realized something. Some asked for specific topics for the sub window, some begged writers not to send them NSFW content, and others just listed word count and format.

Then I got to thinking, I hadn’t seen too many throw out random concepts or ideas for the writers to go on.

One of my little coding projects is Trope-O-Matic - an app that gives you random cards with tropes on them that you can use to get started with your writing.

Tropes probably won’t help too much here but I figured at the very least I could come up with words to give folks some ideas. You don’t have to use these things specifically and whatever comes to mind when you see read them is fine.

The goal is to give you ideas, not cheat codes. “If I write exactly about this I’ll automatically get accepted!” - is not the case here.

Use the following ideas to come up with something great:

• Dial Up

• X-treme!

• Smoking or Non

• Baggy Pants

• 2001 Honda Civic

• Pirated Music

• 10 Cent Text Message

• Dark Meat McNuggets

Submission Window Reminder

Subs are open from April 1st-30th. I begin reading and sending out responses on May 1st so there is no rush. As always you can read the full submission guidelines on the website.

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