“Smoky Quartz,” the online literary magazine of the Peterborough-based Monadnock Writers Group, is open for submissions for the Spring 2026 issue.
“We’re just looking for great writing; we’re looking for something that will surprise us,” said longtime editor Deborah Murphy. “We’re always looking for new voices, whether it’s young writers or people who are just new to writing. We encourage everyone to submit and give it a try.”
“Smoky Quartz” accepts submissions of poetry, prose, art and photography from new, emerging and established writers and artists with ties to New Hampshire. Complete submission guidelines are available at smokyquartz.org.
Murphy says that while “Smoky Quartz” welcomes all forms of writing, the editorial board would love to see more prose and short fiction for the spring issue, including personal essays, creative nonfiction and memoirs.
“We love poetry, and we always get a ton of poetry, so we would love to see more short fiction and prose come in just for balance. We always get more poetry than prose, and I’m not sure why, because we have some excellent prose writers. The only thing we don’t really accept is pure horror — it’s not in our guidelines– and we don’t take academic essays because we are not an academic journal,” Murphy said. “Once in a while, we get something in a different genre that really surprises us, so we’re always open.”
The spring issue of “Smoky Quartz” is also seeking art submissions.
“One thing we have not gotten a lot of submissions for at this point is art. Sometimes we get a ton, sometimes we don’t. The last few years, we have gotten amazing work from all kinds of artists — all kinds of styles, and everything from landscape to abstract work. We love getting art. We try to pair the art with the written work,” Murphy said.
Artists submitting to “Smoky Quartz” should send a .jpeg file of their work.
“It can be photos, paintings, we’ve had sculpture — we’re open to anything,” Murphy said.
“Smoky Quartz” was founded by writers Linda Thomas and Candace Bergstrom in the summer of 2012, and Murphy came on board in 2016. In 2022, the magazine celebrated its 10th anniversary with a print anthology and a series of readings by contributors. While the magazine is affiliated with and supported by Monadnock Writers Group, the publication has a separate board and is self-governing.
The current “Smoky Quartz” editorial board includes Murphy, Fred Gerhard, Karen Drew, Mame Ekblom Cudd, Layla Thomas and Corinne Chronopolous.
Murphy says the editorial board knows how hard it can be to submit your writing.
“We know for new writers, or for young writers who are not experienced with the submissions process, it can seem intimidating to send their work in. It can be hard when you first get up the courage to submit, and you’re facing that fear of rejection. We don’t like to say we reject work — what we say is, it’s just maybe not ready for publication yet, and we always try to give some feedback on why we feel a piece might not be ready. Sometimes we’ll really work with someone to get their piece ready for the next issue — if people want to work on something with us, we are happy to work with them,” Murphy said.
Murphy says the editorial board always includes something encouraging when letting writers or artists know their piece has not been accepted.
“We never want to discourage people. We just want people to keep going and keep working,” she said.
Murphy says reading submissions and talking them over with the other editors is her favorite part of the process.
“We all meet and choose together, and we have great conversations, and I always learn so much. Sometimes we all love a piece, and sometimes we all know something isn’t quite ready, or it’s not right for us. It’s interesting when we disagree because then we go back and look at things more carefully; we go back and talk to the other editors and talk through why they feel the way they do about a piece,” she said. “With the poetry in particular, we have gotten such great poetry that mostly it is ready to be published. Because we don’t get as much prose, sometimes we will go back and forth a little bit if we have time to publish it in the same issue.”
Murphy quotes another longtime board member, Mame Cuddy, on the joy of the review process.
“Mame always says something like she ‘so much appreciates the effort the writer puts in.’ She always says that even if we are not going to publish a piece, we are so inspired and grateful for what people send, we appreciate the creativity,” Murphy said. “It’s all about the variety of ways different people see the world. “
Reporter Jesseca Timmons is president of the Monadnock Writers Group.