About
TriQuarterly is the literary magazine of Northwestern University. It is operated by the Litowitz MFA+MA Graduate Creative Writing Program. Alumni of this program, the School of Professional Studies, and other readers serve as editorial staff. Available around the world, TriQuarterly has remained "an international journal of writing, art, and cultural inquiry.” TQ has created an online archive of its own history by publishing individual works from its past, sometimes with new accompanying comments by the writers. The Northwestern University Library has digitized the entire history of the journal.
As a web journal, TQ has the capacity to add audio, video, and a variety of new and frequently uploaded content to supplement its schedule of publishing issues twice a year.
In 1958, the "Tri-quarterly" was so named because its original form as a student magazine was published in each of the three quarters of Northwestern's academic year, and not in the fourth quarter, summer. This name has been belied at times by the magazine's real publishing schedule, but now TQ has altered the tradition quite deliberately to one of semi-annual publishing of discrete issues and frequent updating with new reviews, interviews, blog posts, and excerpts from longer works.
Contact us at triquarterly@northwestern.edu
We encourage our readers to support change using the resources found at https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
Masthead
Managing Editor: Jess Masi
Jess Masi is a writer, educator, and beadwork artist based in Chicago, IL. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University, where they received the Ross Lockridge Jr. Prize for Short Fiction. Their writing can be found in Adi Magazine, So To Speak Journal, and elsewhere. An oral storyteller at heart, Jess has participated in literary performances across the Midwest. They currently teach writing at City Colleges Chicago. They belong to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Currently Reading: These Bones by Kayla Chenault, A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, and My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Film Editor: Hannah Bonner
Hannah Bonner is the author of Another Woman (EastOver Press, 2024) and the creative nonfiction editor for Brink. Her criticism has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Another Gaze, Cleveland Review of Books, Literary Hub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Senses of Cinema, and The Sewanee Review, among others. A graduate of the Creative Nonfiction MFA at the University of Iowa, she currently lives in Iowa.
What Hannah is looking for in a submission: “Films that complicate my understanding of how to collage images and sound. Films whose form complements its content. Films that break open new ways of seeing and listening. Films that are affective. “Multiple manifestations,” as Barbara Hammer said, "of abstractions.””
Currently Reading: Winter of Worship by Kayleb Rae Candrilli, The Woman and the Little Fox by Violette Leduc, The Neutral by Roland Barthes, and Immemorial by Lauren Markham.
Nonfiction & Social Media Editor: Starr Davis
Starr Davis is a skilled writer and devoted mother whose work features in notable literary venues like The Kenyon Review and Poem-a-Day by the Academy of Poets. She has received fellowships at The Luminary and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Starr holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York and a BA in Journalism and Creative Writing from the University of Akron. Her personal-political reporting has earned recognition, appearing in Longreads' 'Top 5 Longreads of the Week.’ Her storytelling shines on podcasts such as What You Didn't Expect in Fertility and Truth to Power. A survivor, Starr supports women writers and participates in literary communities. She has been nominated for awards including the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Based in Houston, she volunteers with organizations empowering women and is a 2024 Writing Freedom Fellow with Haymarket Books. Starr passionately speaks on domestic violence and economic injustice against Black mothers. Her upcoming poetry book, AFFIDAVIT, will be released by Hanging Loose Press in 2025, showcasing her resilience and commitment to marginalized voices.
What Starr looks for in a submission: “Creative nonfiction is such a unique genre built on utter literary disturbance and freedom. I am always looking for someone who can challenge form, craft, and voice—tell me something that you are still learning to tell yourself, give me something personal, political, and unruly. Share with me something that scares you, something raw and electrifying, but most importantly, something that has the power to shake the world or shift perspectives. I want a submission to chart unmarked territory, to reveal truths in ways I haven’t seen before, and to linger long after the final word. Show me what makes you human and why that story matters.”
Currently Reading: “Right now, I’m reading a few things that have deeply resonated with me. I’m rereading THICK, the essay collection by Tressie McMillian Cottom. I’ve also just started Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend, a novel. Additionally, I’ve been immersing myself in Black Women Writers at Work, edited by Claudia Tate.”
Poetry Editor: Daniel Fliegel
Dan Fliegel teaches and lives in Chicagoland with his wife, missing their three grown children. His chapbook, How Music Works On Us, was published by Main Street Rag Press in 2024, including poems that previously appeared in The Dodge and Jet Fuel. Poems from other manuscripts are published in Adirondack Review, African American Review, Cold Mountain Review, Free State Review, The South Carolina Review, and elsewhere. As a drummer/multi-instrumentalist, he has recorded with Amalea Tshilds, Bright Eyes, the Eternals, Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement, Tom Ze, Tortoise, and others. His ongoing musical project is Scurvy Jazzby.
What I look for in a submission: I read and love so many different poets, eras, and styles of poetry and am constantly trying to read and experience more. In my more than ten years at TriQuarterly, I am frequently delighted and amazed by the poetry we receive, which is submitted and not solicited. Every submission is read by multiplereaders and by myself; we enjoy/admire far more than we can accept. In each issue we try to present a diversity of poets and poetics. Ultimately, we look for the poems that move us after repeated readings with their ideas and feelings, and most importantly with their ability to play with language. We want to be stunned by the poem again and again. My hope is that reading past issues will demonstrate this range and will also be a pleasure for potential submitters.
Currently reading: Various fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. And news, mostly bad.
Fiction Editors:
Jennifer Companik, Patrick Bernhard, Emily Mirengoff, Laura Joyce-Hubbard
Jen Companik is a longtime fiction editor at TriQuarterly and holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Northwestern. Her book, Check Engine and Other Stories, was featured on the CLMP's “Reading List for National Hispanic Heritage Month 2021.” Some of her other accomplishments include: first prize, The Ledge’s 2014 Fiction Awards, a Pushcart Prize nomination from Border Crossing, and writing appearing or forthcoming in: The Northern Virginia Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and Allium. You can read some of her work at jencompanik.com.
What Jen looks for in a submission: “I look for well-groomed fiction that addresses all the senses and takes me places I might not otherwise go. Or that shows me someplace I've been in a way I've never seen it before. A good opening hook is crucial—and so is a strong, satisfying ending. Endings are hard. I can’t tell you how many stories don’t make the cut because the author wrote past the ending or failed to deliver on conflicts set up earlier in the narrative.”
Currently Reading: Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga.
A native of the Chicago suburbs, Patrick Bernhard received his BA from Oberlin College and his MFA from Northwestern University. His work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Maryland Literary Review, quip Literary Review, Bryant Literary Review, Midwest Review, and Coffin Bell Journal, and is forthcoming in Cottonwood. He currently teaches English at College of Lake County.
What Patrick looks for in a submission: “I am looking for pieces that teach me something new about the way stories are told. I want my perspective on fiction challenged with characters and settings that refuse easy categorization.”
Currently Reading: White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
Emily Mirengoff has published fiction in STORY, The Santa Monica Review, Yemassee, and elsewhere. Prior to working at TriQuarterly, she served as a reader for Electric Literature, Ruminate, and the Center for Fiction. She has attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the Kenyon Review Writers Conference. She earned her Bachelor’s in History from Dartmouth College and her Master’s in Communication from the University of Miami. She lives just outside of Washington, D.C. with her husband and infant daughter.
What Emily looks for in a submission: “I am very attracted to character-based stories. I love reading about people who feel too specific, self-contradictory, and recognizable to be made-up (even though they are, obviously!) I always enjoy fiction set in an unfamiliar place, time, or subculture--including fantastical settings!--that imbues me with the wonder of discovery. And I can't resist stories that hit the sweet spot between drama and humor. If your story makes me laugh out loud, I will always advocate for it.”
Currently reading: “I'm halfway through Jessi Klein's I'll See Myself Out, a book of essays about motherhood (speaking of that high-wire balancing act of humor and aching poignancy!) In the last few months, I've loved Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rupi Thorpe, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, James by Percival Everett, Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, and the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee.”
Laura Joyce-Hubbard’s work appears in Poetry, The Iowa Review, The Sewanee Review, Chicago Tribune, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction was selected as “Notable” in the Best American Essays 2022 and 2023 and she won a 2023 AWP Intro Journal Award. She won The Iowa Review’s Writing Award for Veterans, the 2023 Porch Prize in Poetry, the 2021 Ned Stuckey-French Nonfiction Contest at Southeast Review, and the Individual Poem Prize (2021) and Essay Prize (2020) in the William Faulkner Pirate’s Alley Writing Competition. Laura was Finalist in the National Poetry Series (2024) and the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize Contest (2024) for her manuscript, Over the Half-Bright World. Laura’s work has been supported by the Ragdale Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center, Longleaf Writers, and the National Endowment for the Arts with a residency at VCCA. She is a veteran of the US Air Force where she was among the first women to fly the C-130s. An MFA candidate at Northwestern University, Laura is the inaugural Highland Park Poet Laureate.
What Laura looks for in a submission:
1. I recommend this interview with Christine Sneed at New England Review for valuable story tips and insights—dialogue, first sentences, scenes, and more: https://nereview.com/?s=sneed
2. Tension. I recommend applying a strategy from Rebecca Makkai. Pause at commercials or every 20 minutes in your favorite TV episode or movie and ask yourself: What have the writers added to keep us watching? Apply this when reading your story (in shorter pauses).
3. I love this quote from Nami Mun: "Observe interplay between acute and chronic tension in your story. Acute = more immediate. Chronic= pre-existing tension before the story opens. Note how these are resolved or unresolved in the ending. This might spark something in revision.
Currently reading: White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton, Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter, and Monument: Poems New and Selected by Natasha Trethewey
Faculty Advisor: Natasha Trethewey
Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including Native Guard—for which she was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize—and, most recently, Monument: Poems New and Selected. She’s also the author of a book of non-fiction, Beyond Katrina; a memoir, Memorial Drive, which was an instant New York Times Bestseller; and The House of Being, a meditation on writing. At Northwestern University, she is Board of Trustees Professor of English and Director of the Litowitz Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
Staff Advisor: Colin Pope
Colin Pope is Assistant Director of Creative Writing at Northwestern. His most recent collection is Prayer Book for the New Heretic (NYQ Books, 2023), a finalist for the Louise Bogan Award and the St. Lawrence Award. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Slate, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, Plume, AGNI, and Pleiades, among many others. He also works on the editorial board of RHINO and lives in Chicago.