[Updated 30 August 2024: Challenge is closed.
See Results in Issue 24.]

Prizes:	One cheribun will be awarded $100 (USD), plus publication in Issue 24 of MacQueen’s Quinterly (August 2024).
	Up to a dozen finalists will also be published in MacQ-24, depending on the number and quality of entries received.
Entry Fee:	$3 (USD) for one cheribun, OR $5 (USD) for up to three cheribun
Entry Period:	7 days*
Opening Date:	24 July 2024 (Eastern Time, USA)
Closing Date:	30 July 2024 (Eastern Time, USA)*
Results:	Will be announced by 31 August 2024

*Added 21 June 2024:
Entry period may close earlier, depending on when the submission cap in each entry category is reached. A total of 35 submission files will be considered in the $3 entry category (for one cheribun), and a total of 25 submission files in the $5 category (for up to three cheribun).

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Only one form of writing will be considered for this challenge:
the cheribun, a rare hybrid form which combines prose poetry, lyrical micro-prose, or creative nonfiction, with one or more cherita poems (including cherita terbalik variations).

Extra points for cheribun that include at least one word that begins with the letter Q—as a nod to MacQ publisher Clare MacQueen’s fondness for Q words! (Which may be lower case or capitalized as appropriate in the cheribun.)

Entries may be serious, humorous, or both. ☺
Yet they should also be polished literary works.

Themes are open and diverse:
To get a feel for our editorial focus, please see previous issues of MacQ.

For details about the cheribun form, including examples, see:
MacQ’s First Cheribun! (Issue 11). Six additional examples are available in Issue 12, the winners and finalists of MacQ’s first Cheribun Challenge.

See also Cynthia Anderson’s Summer of Love, Daryl Scroggins’ cheribun sequence Memento Mori, and Gary S. Rosin’s Birthdays of the Dead.

Although they will not be considered for the cash prize of this Cheribun Challenge, MacQ Contributing Editors are invited to submit cheribun via Solicited Manuscripts, for publication in Issue 25 in September.

For folks who are curious about such things: MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2 is Clare’s eleventh contest in eight years. For a list of links to winners and finalists of her previous writing challenges, see MacQ’s Contest Portal.

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Additional Guidelines for MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2:

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For chances to win $100 (USD) and publication online in Issue 24 of MacQueen’s Quinterly at the end of August 2024:
Submit original, unpublished cheribun, no longer than one thousand words each, including title and any epigraph(s) or author footnotes.

Electronic submissions only, via Submittable:
Entries in the English language will be considered from writers 18 years of age and older, from countries worldwide. (The link to MacQ’s Submittable portal appears at the bottom of this page, below these Guidelines.)

No simultaneous submissions:
Clare MacQueen will not hold your work(s) in limbo for long! She’s committed to announcing results as soon as possible, which will be about four weeks beyond the closing date of this contest, or no later than 31 August.

Original works only:
Entries must be unpublished, and must not have been chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest. For this contest, works that have appeared on an author’s website or blog, and/or on social media like Facebook and Twitter and sites such as Fictionaut, are considered previously published.

Updated 21 June 2024:
Submission period will open on 24 July 2024 and close either just before midnight Eastern Time (USA) on 30 July 2024—or whenever the submission cap has been reached in each category, whichever occurs earlier.

Entry Fee:
$3 (three USD) for one cheribun, uploaded within a single file; OR
$5 (five USD) for up to three cheribun, uploaded within a single file.

Added 21 June 2024:
A total of 35 submission files will be considered in the $3 entry category (for one cheribun), and a total of 25 submission files in the $5 category (for up to three cheribun).

Depending on the entry category chosen,
up to three cheribun will be considered from each person. Please choose only one category, not both. Only one submission file will be considered from each person.

Entry fees cannot be refunded,
so please read these guidelines carefully before selecting your entry category in Submittable.

Only one cheribun will receive the cash prize.
However, additional cheribun of merit by the prize-winning author may be offered publication as well, but likely in Issue 25 of MacQ which launches at the end of September.

All entries will be considered for publication:
Depending on the number and quality of cheribun received, we hope to publish at least a baker’s dozen in MacQ-24 at the end of August.

And if we’re blessed with a deluge of wonderful cheribun—which would be awesome!—then Clare will also offer publication to several of them in MacQ-25 in September. After all, MacQ has a new nickname to live up to now: Cheribun Central. Many thanks to Contributing Editor Gary S. Rosin for the coinage!

Submissions must be “anonymous”:
Please do NOT include your name, address, and other identifying info within your submission file. Author’s name, contact info, and bio should be entered in the boxes provided at Submittable. And Submittable keeps things nicely organized by assigning a number to each submission file.

Submission files may be uploaded in .doc or .docx format (or as a PDF).

File name should also omit any author info:
Please do NOT include your name or any identifying info within the name of your file. Instead, please use the title of the cheribun (or one of the cheribun) from within your document. This will help ensure that all entries will be considered as impartially as possible.

Requests to Edit Entries:
If you discover a typo, factual error, etc. in your work after uploading your file, please send Clare a note via Submittable and request an edit. Please do NOT withdraw your entry simply to resubmit an updated version.

(Doing so would not only waste your time and money, in part because entry fees cannot be refunded, but would also impact Clare’s crazy-busy schedule, as well as skew the MacQ submission stats. Huge thanks for your understanding and co-operation!)

Basic Formatting:
11- or 12-point font such as Times New Roman or Verdana. At least one-inch margins.

Word Count:
No more than 1,000 (one thousand) words per cheribun or cheribun sequence, including a mandatory title at least one word in length. Max word count also includes any epigraphs and author footnotes.

No cover letters necessary:
As a one-person production army, Clare has very little time and energy to read or respond to letters. Folks with specific questions or concerns not addressed in these guidelines are welcome to leave her a brief message via Submittable.

Restrictions:

1. No gratuitous violence; remember, less is more.
   
   
2. No gratuitous obscenities; judicious usage is okay.
   
   
3. No children’s stories, but fables or fairy tales for adults will be happily considered.
   
   
4. No pornography, although literary erotica and works containing sexual themes and related explicit language will be considered.
   
   
5. No political screeds and/or religious rants—however, literary works from all spiritual traditions are welcomed.
   
   

Publication Rights:
Authors whose works are selected will be asked to approve an agreement which grants exclusive first-time worldwide publication rights to MacQueen’s Quinterly. (For more information, see Contract: Publishing Rights.)

By entering this contest, Authors certify that the submitted work(s):

1. is/are the Author’s own original writing(s);
   
   
2. has not/have not been published in print or electronically (including on social media and/or Author’s website);
   
   
3. has not/have not been submitted nor accepted for publication elsewhere; and
   
   
4. is not/are not in the public domain.
   
   

Results will be announced no later than 31 August 2024,
with the publication of MacQ-24 online (i.e., Issue 24 of MacQueen’s Quinterly).

The winning cheribun and several unranked finalists will be selected by Clare MacQueen, founding editor and publisher of MacQ. Authors will be notified by email just before Clare announces the results officially with the launch of Issue 24. Judge’s decisions are final.

Payment of Prize:

1. A cash prize of $100 (United States Dollars) will be paid via PayPal to the author of the winning cheribun.
   
   
2. If a collaborative work is selected as the winner, then the prize money will be split evenly between the collaborating authors.
   
   
3. Any taxes due on contest winnings are the sole responsibility of the prize winner.
   
   

This competition is void where prohibited by law.

A world of thanks to those who enter MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2—we hope you have fun with it, and look forward to reading your cheribun soon!

MacQ’s Submission Manager