AQ 2018 Themes Announced; AQ Goes “All Oxford”

Amsterdam Quarterly’s 2018 themes for issues 21-23 were announced yesterday at the AQ Writers’ Group’s monthly meeting in Amsterdam. At the meeting, publisher/editor Bryan R. Monte also announced that Amsterdam Quarterly would go “all Oxford” in 2018 for both its dictionary and style manual. For issues 1-20, AQ had used the Oxford Dictionary and The Chicago Manual of Style. As of AQ21, AQ will continue to use the Oxford Dictionary and it will adopt the New Oxford Style Manual (2016).

AQ’s 2018 themes are as follows: AQ21, spring 2018, Money; AQ22, summer 2018, Texture; and AQ23, autumn 2018, Genealogy. Work in AQ’s eleven genres including art, articles, drama, essays, fiction, interviews memoirs, photo essays, photography, poetry and reviews for these three issues will be read during the months of January (AQ21-Money), April (AQ22-Texture) and July (AQ23-Genealogy) respectively. Work received at all other times will be returned as unread.

For AQ21-Money send work that explores how money, or the lack of it, is the root of all evil. Share through your work how money affects your life positively or negatively as a writer. For examples, how does paying the bills affect your life or the lives of your literary characters? More specifically, how do you or your characters feel about paying money to enter literary contests or to have literary presses read your work?

For AQ22-Texture, send work that varies stylistically from short, light verse to heavy, dark, stormy, long narratives and everything in between. Send narratives and images of dark doorways or sunlit passages, of things smooth or grainy, whose texture is as important as the telling of the story itself.

For AQ23-Genealogy, send pieces about your ancestors (relatives who are no longer alive and from whom you are descended). How did their struggles, aspirations, deeds, misdeeds and personalities influence the way you are today?

Just as last year, these three topics are very broad and AQ looks forward to reading your creative work related to these themes in the periods mentioned above. Whilst preparing your submissions, please note that AQ will as of AQ21 use the Oxford Dictionary’s preferred spelling instead of traditional spelling (for example, realize instead of realise). Please prepare your submissions with this new Oxford Dictionary spelling preference and Style Manual in mind.