Kitchen Table Quarterly is a new journal “preoccupied with history- cultural, political, geographical, personal, and how each interacts with the other to mold our experience. Adolescent blunders, dental records, the archaic origins of long-held or long-lost traditions—we want to know all of it.”  They are currently open to submissions of non-fiction, poetry, and artwork for their first issue.  For more information, see my interview with founder Hannah Matzecki and a link to submission guidelines below.

HOPKINSON: Tell me a little bit about Kitchen Table Quarterly. 

MATZECKI: Kitchen Table Quarterly is a journal preoccupied with history; we’re interested in how the past interacts with and informs the present to create our lived experience. History can feel like this big, faraway thing that’s confined to lecture halls or national holidays, but really, we are living it constantly. We grow up hearing stories about how things were for our parents or our grandparents or great-grandparents. We walk around our cities and towns, and see, in the architecture, in the businesses, in the landmarks, evidence of the things that came before us. What we eat, how we celebrate, how we mourn, how we express love, these are all intimate extensions of things that came before us. We interact with history everyday, in big ways and small. Kitchen Table Quarterly wants to explore that relationship.

HOPKINSON: How/why was Kitchen Table Quarterly originally started? 

MATZECKI: Kitchen Table Quarterly started one day when I was watching my daughter and sending in submissions myself. Not surprisingly, since becoming a mother, I’ve been really fascinated with my own family lineage and I’ve thought a lot about the things that I want to pass down to my daughter and also the habits or values that I think it’s time to move on from. That’s not something that I feel like is explored in a lot of contemporary lit magazines. Truly, there are so many incredible lit journals out there, but it can feel like the same kinds of poetry, or the same themes, are being relayed in many of them. I wanted to create a new space where this thing that’s preoccupied me could land. I’m lucky enough to have very talented friends with incredible taste who love to read and were happy to embark on this project with me.

HOPKINSON: Who is your target reader audience? 

MATZECKI: Honestly, everyone. I’d say we don’t have a target, we want everyone to read Kitchen Table Quarterly, and we want them all to see themselves reflected and to be immersed in the history and experiences of other people, too.

HOPKINSON: What type of work are you looking for? 

MATZECKI: We all have a story that we tell about ourselves, but we want to read the story behind the story. Yes, we’re a history-focused journal–that doesn’t mean we’re looking for poems about the Bolshevik Revolution or nonfiction that reads like a textbook or art that depicts the Battle of Hastings (though if you’re doing something interesting with those things and they mean something to you, please, submit them!). 

We’re really looking for work that explores the history we carry with us just by existing. None of us is created in a vacuum; instead, we’re the most current point in a long lineage of people and places and traditions and, yes, major world events, that led to us, here and now. We want to read work that shows us that lineage, and makes us feel like we lived it, too.

HOPKINSON: What do you wish you’d see submitted, but rarely comes in? 

MATZECKI: We get a lot of poetry, which is wonderful, we love poetry, keep sending it, but I wish we got the same level of nonfiction, essays especially, and artwork, too. 

We would also really encourage people from all backgrounds to submit. We say in our mission statement that we want an education, and we mean it. Each person has a unique background, and we’re looking for an intimate portrait of what it’s like to live with the history you carry. So BIPOC individuals, LGBTQ+ individuals, AAPI individuals, people from different religious backgrounds, or from different parts of the country, or different countries altogether, we want to hear all of your stories.

HOPKINSON: What are some of your favorite lit mags/journals?

MATZECKI: The Common is doing something really interesting and engaging. I would also say The Bennington Review, Tiny Journal, Birdcoat Quarterly, Tinderbox, Mom Egg, Tupelo Quarterly, Sixth Finch, BOAAT, and Jubilat, which sadly just published its last issue.

HOPKINSON: Where can we send submissions? 

MATZECKI: Through Submittable! Our submissions portal is accessible from the submissions page on our website.

HOPKINSON: If someone has a question, how can they contact you? 

MATZECKI: We can be reached through the contact form on our website or just by emailing editors@kitchentablequarterly.org.

Click here to read submission guidelines.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: October 31, 2021

FORMAT: Online

SUBMISSION FEE: None

PAYMENT: No monetary payment, but we do all we can to support our writers and artists by linking to their social media and web pages, as well as nominating for prizes.

ISSUE FREQUENCY: 3 new issues + a summer ‘best of’

AVERAGE RESPONSE TIME: 1-3 months

SUBMISSION METHOD: Submittable

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: Yes, accepted and encouraged

FORMS: Non-fiction, Poetry, Artwork

DUOTROPE: https://duotrope.com/listing/33139/kitchen-table-quarterly

SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram

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