The Lemonwood Quarterly seeks the best English-language playscripts we can find. We do not publish poetry, flash fiction, nonfiction prose, book reviews, or interviews. We are looking for superbly written plays between 2,000 and 10,000 words.
We especially seek out scripts with female protagonists who are well into adulthood. There’s no minimum age requirement, but if your protagonist is not at least over thirty years old or so, it could be difficult for them to carry forward the type of plays we aim to publish. We definitely are not looking for coming-of-age stories. We are excited to showcase plays with protagonists who have already passed through those earlier milestones or hurdles and are at a different point in their lives. Although The Lemonwood Quarterly is especially interested in stories with a female protagonist, that does not mean we are looking for work that focuses on the theme of “being female”.
Contest Details and Author Compensation
Ten stories or plays will be selected for publication in the Fall 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly. The authors are awarded a $200 payment, and plays advance to the final round in December for consideration for our annual prize, the $500 Hononegah Mack Prize for the Best Play.
We respond to all submissions within thirty days of the submission window deadline.
Who Should Submit
We welcome and encourage submissions from writers of every gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality —including writers without MFA degrees or previously published work, and whose perspectives might be underrepresented in the literary world. Please do not send us work that includes machine-generated or AI text.
How to Submit
We accept submissions via our Submittable listing. Please do not send us emails or hard copies of your manuscripts. An online submission fee of $4 to help cover administrative costs is required to complete your submission.
Submissions are read anonymously, so please do not include your name anywhere on the short story or playscript document. Page numbers are greatly appreciated.
Simultaneous Submissions to other Publications are fine, but please let us know and withdraw your submission immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
All work should be previously unpublished in any form, including online, in blogs, or in print.
Translations are accepted. Translators should acquire translation rights from the copyright holder before submitting. If selected, the translator will be asked to provide a copy of the original work, the author’s name, the work’s original title, a note stating the original language in which it was written, as well as a short bio about the author.
Revisions
Please send us your work in its final, fully edited form. We do not have the staff available to consider individual revisions. If you feel you must revise, please withdraw your submission and let us know that you will resubmit an edited version.
