• NWWQ Pushcart Winners

    We are pleased to report that two recent NWWQ pieces have been award­ed Pushcart Prizes. Dave Newman’s The Last Thing That Happened Before –more

  • NWWQ ~ January/April 2025

    The January/April 2025 issue of NWWQ is now closed. The next issue opens for sub­mis­sions July 1, 2025. Many thanks for your sub­mis­sions and your interest.

  • Peter Leight ~ Four Poems

    Western

    The hori­zon backs up
    the landscape
    is full of real estate.
    The light is bright
    then goes out
    alto­geth­er.  Roundup—

    it’s time to consolidate.
    Trot and gallop
    then sag.  Straighten out
    in order to circulate.
    Red hills pop up
    in baby blue air.

    The –more

  • Barbara Westwood Diehl ~ Four Pieces

    After Math

    Were we ever the alge­bra­ic equa­tion we thought we were. Symmetric at each step. A mar­riage of tuxe­do, satin dress. Matched as brack­ets. As paren­the­ses of veil, lapels, clasped hands. A math­e­mat­i­cal cer­tain­ty. At least a par­a­digm for cer­tain­ty. The –more

  • Michael Thériault ~ An Enviable Life

    Matteus told me he believed the dog was stolen. One moment it was with him out­side the cor­ner gro­cery on Mission, on the side­walk where he spends his days wait­ing to see Camila, the next, gone. I’m a store reg­u­lar. I know –more

  • Lori Barrett ~ Oppositional Defiance

    Delores woke to a wheez­ing sound, float­ing up from the heat­ing vent, a sound sim­i­lar to what she heard when her daugh­ter still lived in the bed­room below and thought no one could hear her cry. Now away at col­lege, Tillie was –more

  • Joshua Hebburn ~ The Window

    On the sec­ond floor of a beige stuc­co ding­bat apart­ment com­plex in my Dad’s neigh­bor­hood there’s a win­dow with blue cur­tains. I’m often vis­it­ing my Dad, late­ly. After (or some­times dur­ing) a vis­it I take a walk. The win­dow –more

  • Katherine D. Stutzman ~ Prayer

    It is almost Halloween, and the lit­tle girl is in cos­tume as a bal­le­ri­na: a fluffy skirt of pink tulle, a shiny plas­tic tiara on her head, thin slip­per-shoes on her feet. But no tights because the day is unsea­son­ably hot. –more

  • Kim Magowan ~ Recommendations

    Last night, I had a dream in which my ex-girl­friend Pamela sent me an esca­lat­ing series of out­ra­geous requests. In her first email, the sub­ject of which was REQUEST, Pamela informed me that she was apply­ing to study alter­na­tive –more

  • Richard Hoffman ~ Five Poems

    Next to Nothing

    A poem is an instant of lucid­i­ty in which the entire
    organ­ism par­tic­i­pates.            — Charles Simic

    I was just about to under­stand the graph
    the sun through the blinds made on my desk,
    when a cloud, as –more

  • Lydia Gwyn ~ Two Poems

    Memory of Arms

    The neigh­bor’s chim­ney cin­ders the air in a new breed of fall days. I walk through, breathe it in, merge with it. My side of the for­est, bare-limbed and damp.  Beyond the fence, back fields hold the steps of my chil­dren run­ning through, cau­tious of –more

  • Mary Grimm ~ The Ghost President

    It had not been nec­es­sary to vote for the ghost pres­i­dent. I remem­bered this at odd times, when they seemed more tan­gi­ble. For instance when they were giv­ing a speech on tele­vi­sion and they were less trans­par­ent than usu­al, when you could see the gleam –more

  • Scott Garson ~ Tell Me What It Is

    1. Nothing.

    2. Just some­thing on my phone, that’s right.

    3. Words.

    4. What time’s soc­cer practice?

    5. Nothing real­ly. It’s just—I need—

    6. What if we just step outside?

    7. What if we—

    8. Let’s sit.

    9. Right here.

    10. Sit down.

    –more

  • Francine Witte ~ 2 AM at the Booth Bay Diner

    Roy orders the fries. He knows by now that his cheapo friends, Megan, Scott, and Wendy, will eat most of them, so he makes it a dou­ble. He wish­es for once in their god­damn lives they would offer to chip in. Okay, maybe not Megan, who he hopes, like –more

  • Chila Woychik ~ A Lost Sister Lyric: Coyotes Against an Empty Sky

    For my sister

    They say coy­otes are relat­ed to wolves in fam­i­ly and genus. We have few wolves in Iowa, but a coy­ote can be found at the abun­dance side of every corn row, and behind each stalled trac­tor. One stood in our dri­ve­way a few years back, stared –more

  • Sean Ennis ~ The Meeting After the Meeting is the Actual Meeting

    My friend Shadow believes that the boy Franklin is call­ing for his dog, Apple, late at night. I believe this too. The boy Franklin, of course, was last seen in Bramble in 1910, while being dragged away from his family’s –more

  • Kip Knott ~ Two Flash Fictions

    Once, I Dreamed a Story That I Forgot to Write Down

    It began some­where in the mid­dle. The char­ac­ters were a cou­ple, I think. There was con­fu­sion. And anger, I remem­ber. A death, maybe? Or a dif­fi­cult birth? Perhaps a still­birth? The kind of tragedy that would cause any cou­ple –more

  • Peter DeMarco ~ It’s Not About Lions

    The man sit­ting next to Henry wore an army fatigues jack­et and appeared to be in his late twen­ties. A pack of Marlboro sat on his desk. That was the thing about col­lege, Henry was learn­ing, you could have some­one any age in –more

  • Bryan D. Price ~ Five Prose Poems

    Sherman’s march to the sea

    I walk the streets at mid­night my heart not quite right. My heart like a brown spot on an apple. I see the pur­ple flu­o­res­cent lights of a deliv­ery truck and get excit­ed again. I see the pur­ple flow­ers of the text­book fac­to­ry –more

  • Andrew Plattner ~ Isosceles

    What do you want?” Jeff said, his voice sound­ing above, from inside the thir­ty-foot-tall slide tow­er.  Eddie stood on the grass just out­side the play­ground floor, which was cov­ered in mulch. “I’ve dis­cov­ered unopened –more