MONARCH 2026

Monarch is a new awards anthology recognizing the best new queer writing and art published by literary magazines and independent presses.

There are many awards for queer writing focused on recognizing full-length books; while we honor the critical importance of these awards, we aim to create a complementary space for uplifting the groundbreaking and often under-celebrated poems, short stories, essays, and artwork that are published in magazines, chapbooks, zines, and other collections.

As a term reclaimed and expanded upon by the community, queer means many things, with each person having an intimate, sometimes fraught, often liberatory relationship with the word. As an action, New Discourses describes queering as “to make change or to act in a way that is disruptive of normativities.” Under a regime that seeks to silence, erase, and undo us, queer existence and creation is inherently disruptive of oppressive norms. Queer writing and art speak truth to power, witness the brilliance and complexity of queer life, and call into being a queerer future. Our aim is to amplify this generation of queer writers and artists while empowering the next.

We chose to name this awards anthology Monarch because the word is queerly multifaceted. A non-gendered term for a queen or a king, a butterfly species known for its strikingly patterned wings—a monarch is splendor and glory. We know queer creatives are monarchs because we are, too. Monarch seeks to promote our collective flourishing.

We encourage editors to join us in celebrating queer writers and artists by nominating the striking, urgent, and joyful poetry, fiction, nonfiction, hybrid work, and artwork you have published by queer writers and artists.

This project is created in partnership with fifth wheel press, a queer publisher of literature and art, and contains contributions by Michael Agunbiade, Maddox Emory Arnold, J. L. Bermúdez, C Ray Borck, Finnian Burnett, Connor, a.d., Gion Davis, Erin Dorney, Dante Fuoco, Ranudi Gunawardena, Katy Haas, Annalisa Hansford, K.M. Hanslik, KT Herr, Jennessa Hester, Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey, Jules Kennedy, Ani King, Kyrico, Tara Labovich, Olivia Lehman, Jackson D. Moorman, Chi Pham, William Roberds-King, Cristina Sanchez, Steven Sanchez, January Santoso, Elena Sichrovsky, Mark Spero, Ashley Steineger, Liam Strong, Gordon Taylor, Holly Lyn Walrath, and Cela Xiè.