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MacQueen’s Quinterly: Knock-your-socks-off Art and Literature
Published: 15 August 2026

Contents: Issue 33

Cheribun Galore!
Challenge Results
 
Fiction Ekphrastic Works Humor & Wordplay Flash
(501–1,000 words)
Micro
(up to 500 words)
Faction Bio Notes Essays, Etcetera Statistics Visual Arts Poetry & Hybrids Cheribun Ekphrastic Works Haibun Forms Haiga Humor & Wordplay Micro-Poems Poetry: Lineated Prose Poems Tanka Forms

Content Warning: MacQueen’s Quinterly (aka MacQ) contains an eclectic range of literary and artistic works that may deal with difficult and emotionally charged topics. Thus, many works that appear in MacQ are suitable only for mature adults. However, an “[R]” after titles below simply indicates reprinted work (or, more accurately, republished work, since MacQ the journal is published online and not in print).

Some of the more sexually explicit pieces may be designated as erotic, but not always. MacQ’s publisher, Clare MacQueen, prefers to avoid flagging individual titles with content warnings, because they tend to ruin any surprises within the works. However, those surprises do not include violence. Clare does not publish aesthetic violence and transgressive art that contains graphic depictions of physical brutality, i.e., literature and art whose goal is to prettify, romanticize, or idealize violence. To the best of her knowledge, such works do not appear in this journal.

Unless otherwise noted, all works published in MacQueen’s Quinterly are copyrighted by their respective authors and artists, and may NOT be reproduced without written permission from individual copyright holders. Thank you for respecting copyrights.

Works by an individual may appear under multiple genres below. For a complete list of works by each person, see Index of Contributors.

 
:: 33 ::
Cheribun Galore! Challenge Results
Clare MacQueen Results of MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #4
(with links to the following 12 cheribun)
 
  Winners:
 
Jennifer L. Freed First Place: “Losing Touch”
Oz Hardwick Second Place: “The Lindisfarne Conundrum”
Colleen M. Farrelly Third Place, tie: “Excision”
Terri L. French Third-Place, tie: “Dimitroula Mou”
 
  Short-Listed Finalists (unranked):
 
Cynthia Anderson “Recess 1961”
Tina Barry “One Raccoon Down”
Susan Burch “Am I Becoming Unhinged?”
Tammy Iralu “To the Moon and Back”
Vaishnavi Ramaswamy Krishna Paksha
Tracy Royce “On My Lawn”
Jane Salmons “White-bellied Heron”
Joshua St. Claire “Enchiridion”
 
Note: Eighteen long-listed finalists from this Challenge will be published in Issue 34 of MacQueen’s Quinterly in late September 2026. For details, please see Results.
:: 33 ::
Ekphrastic Works
Please do not copy images and/or image URLs from this website without written permission from the copyright holders. Unless otherwise noted, all works in MacQueen’s Quinterly are copyrighted by their respective artists and authors. Thank you for respecting copyrights.
 
Matthew Caretti Hokusai’s Wave [haibun], after color woodblock print
Gary S. Rosin Blackbird Calls [poem], after a photograph
Tracy Royce Taken [microfiction], after mixed-media sculpture by Nellie Two Bear Gates
Jane Salmons Cryptophasia [prose poem], after a painting
Madame’s Muse [microfiction], after a painting by Carl Larsson
 
Note: If you’re interested in submitting ekphrastic works to MacQueen’s Quinterly, wonderful! We hope you’ll take a few minutes to read Ephective Ekphrastics: A Guide for Verbalizing Art, tips by Jack Cooper and Clare MacQueen in KYSO Flash which include additional examples of what Clare’s looking to publish here in MacQ as well. See also the excellent recommendations from Robert L. Dean, Jr. in his essay on craft: Finding the Door: One Writer’s Approach to Ekphrasis (MacQ-13, May 2022).
:: 33 ::
Essays, Etcetera [nonfiction forms]
Roberta Beary From Deep Breath: A Book of Haiku Evolutions [R] [micro-essay]
Cassandra Bolesh Roberta Beary’s Crazy Bitches [book review]
Colleen M. Farrelly Cheribun: A Craft Perspective [essay]
Kendall Johnson In the Glare of the Modern (Part 5 of Writing for Light series) [essay and artworks]
 
An “[R]” after titles above indicates republished works (aka reprints) from curated collections.
:: 33 ::
Fiction: Flash and Micro*
Guy Biederman Pop [micro]
The Shortest Distance Between Two Points [micro]
Gary Fincke Lullaby [flash]
Bob Lucky Four Cuentos Atómicos [atomic tales]:
“Identity Theft”
“Destiny”
“Progressive Revelations”
“The Promise”
Rovika Rajkishun See Humor and Wordplay below for her flash fiction.
Tracy Royce See Ekphrastic Works above for her microfiction.
Jane Salmons See Ekphrastic Works above for her microfiction.
 
*Note: At MacQ, Flash Fiction = 501-1,000 words, and Microfiction, no more than 500 words. Word count of each piece includes the title and any epigraphs.
:: 33 ::
Haibun Forms
Matthew Caretti After the Plunk, the Ripples
It’s All Far Away Until It’s Not
Matthew Caretti See also Ekphrastic Works above.
Cherie Hunter Day Honey
Jennifer L. Freed On the Line
Terri L. French and Colleen M. Farrelly Sunday Whispers [tan-renga-bun, collaborative]
Stephen W. Leslie The Muslim Girl
Nothing I Could Do
Pediatric Emergency Room
Prisoner
Bob Lucky The exterminator
Eve Müller Girls of the Pacific Northwest [haibun story]
Ce Rosenow Beneficiary
Things We Carry
Carla Schwartz Ellipsis (as Grief)
Shower Adjustments at the Castle in the Clouds [micro pantoubun]
Patricia L. Scruggs Elephants and Mars Bars [haibun story]
Beverly A. Tift When the Sun Goes Wild [OWP micro-haibun]
Beverly A. Tift See also Tanka Forms
:: 33 ::
Haiga & Related Forms [poetry + visual art]
Please do not copy images and/or image URLs from this website without written permission from the copyright holders. Unless otherwise noted, all works in MacQueen’s Quinterly are copyrighted by their respective artists and authors. Thank you for respecting copyrights.
 
Maxianne Berger Three Shahai [haiku + photographs]
:: 33 ::
Humor and Wordplay
Roy J. Beckemeyer My Muse Fails to Come Through [prose poem]
Seasoning [prose poem]
Guy Biederman How a Flamboyance Saved a Town [photo-prose-poem]
Rovika Rajkishun Patacake Patacake Jumbee-man [flash fiction]
Daryl Scroggins Two Senryu [micro-poems]
:: 33 ::
Micro-Poems*
Cynthia Bale See Tanka Forms below.
Gary Grossman ...and instantly,
Carla Schwartz See Haibun Forms above for her micro pantoubun.
Daryl Scroggins [Untitled] [cherita terbalik]
Five Micro-Poems [haiku and senryu]
Daryl Scroggins See also Humor and Wordplay above.
Beverly A. Tift See Haibun Forms above and Tanka Forms below.
 
*Note: Beginning with Issue 7 of MacQ, micro-poems are no longer than 51 words each as counted by Mac Pages (the approximate equivalent of 280 characters, i.e., the former Twitter limit), with each word containing an average of 5.5 characters. The limit of 51 words includes the title if the micro-poem has one. Individual haiku, senryu, cherita, and tanka, for example, do not have titles.
:: 33 ::
Poetry: Lineated
Rick Christiansen Opening the Window
Robert L. Dean, Jr. Not the Main Characters, No
Roseanne Freed What Stands on One Leg with Its Heart in Its Head?
Gary Grossman Krakow, August 2025
Gary Grossman See also Micro-Poems above.
Jack D. Harvey Winter and Unease
Kurt Luchs Guide to the Flesh
Gary Mabbott Brunch
Bernadette McComish 1995
Drea
Phil Powrie Asparagus (after Proust)
The onion man
Gary S. Rosin Dowsing
Gary S. Rosin See also Ekphrastic Works above.
:: 33 ::
Prose Poems
Roy J. Beckemeyer See Humor & Wordplay above.
Guy Biederman See Humor & Wordplay above.
Cherie Hunter Day All Roses Were Once Yellow
Louis Faber Fetch
A Shade of Difference
Oz Hardwick At the Fourth Ring
Climate Reconsidered
Kurt Luchs Augie
Jane Salmons See Ekphrastic Works above.
Jonathan Yungkans horse
:: 33 ::
Tanka Forms
Cynthia Bale Honourable [micro tanka prose]
Root of the Problem [tanka prose]
Colleen M. Farrelly and Cynthia Bale Residuum [tanku-bun, collaborative]
Terri L. French See Haibun Forms for her collaborative tan-renga-bun with Colleen M. Farrelly.
Vaishnavi Ramaswamy Creaking Tight [tanka prose]
Transmigration [tanka prose]
Beverly A. Tift The Arcane Art of Sky Writing [OWP micro-tanka prose]
:: 33
Visual Arts
Please do not copy images and/or image URLs from this website without written permission from the copyright holders. Unless otherwise noted, all works in MacQueen’s Quinterly are copyrighted by their respective artists and authors. Thank you for respecting copyrights.
 
Part 1:
 
Maxianne Berger See Haiga & Related Forms above for her shahai.
 
Kendall Johnson See Essays, Etcetera above for his essay which includes six of his artworks.
 
Part 2: Inspirations for Ekphrastic Works:
 
Nellie Two Bear Gates Beaded Suitcase [R] (ca. 1880–1910) [sculpture]
 
Katsushika Hokusai Under the Wave Off Kanagawa (aka The Great Wave) [R] (1826–1836) [woodblock print]
 
Carl Larsson The Bridge [R] (1912) [painting]
 
Note: An “[R]” after titles above indicates republished works (aka reprints) from curated collections.
 
 
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