Usually the end of a year can be bittersweet, but I think that most of us can agree that there is very little sweetness in the passing of 2020.

That being said, we continue to be honored by the wide range of contributions that come to NDQ each week and the trust that our contributors have in us when they send us their work. As we have done for the last few years, we’re going to close submission to poetry and non-fiction tonight at midnight to give our poetry and non-fiction editors a chance to catch up and to have some much deserved rest. Our tireless fiction editor will continue to read your work.

We’re also really pleased to know that the work contained in our issues continue to attract readers (and we hope, subscribers!). We were particularly happy to see that when we made a digital version of issue 87.1/2 available for free, it received over 2000 downloads. You can still download it here for free.

Needless to say, if you can afford to subscribe, it very much helps support the Quarterly’s work and gives you over 500 pages a year of fiction, poetry, essays, reviews and art in a glorious paperback package! If you’d like to subscribe, go here. 

Finally, as a way to look back over this year, here are the top 15 most read posts from NDQ. To be clear, there are plenty of great posts that didn’t make this list: Erin McIntosh’s “The Doll’s House,” Terry Toma’s “how it will happen,” and especially Megan Howell’s freakishly prescient “Harper and Marisol” come immediately to mind. 

1. Poetry from Craig Santos Perez.
2. Mainstreaming Racial Slurs: White Nationalism Comes Home to Roost. 
3. The Poetry of John Sibley Williams.
4. An Interview with Laila Lalami.
5. Role Playing Games.
6. Poems: Mythe and Death by Project Management Webinar.
7. Remembering John Lewis.
8. Poetry from Kirby Olson: 1453 and All That.
9. Maunel Tzoc Bucup’s Poetry for a Pandemic: Bullshit in oblivion.
10. Two Poems by Whitney Waters. 
11. A Prodigal Poem by Caroline Parkman Barr.
12. Bonnie Larson Staiger’s Poem: Still.
13. Shane Castle’s “Ursa.”
14. A Poem by Amalia Dillin: Unvarnished.
15. James Sallis’s “Scientific Methods.”

Thanks for visiting the NDQ blog and happy reading in the new year!