This was a good year for North Dakota Quarterly, and as 2023 winds down, it seems like an appropriate time to look back.

First and foremost, the NDQ student interns finished the massive archiving project begun a half-decade ago. It is now possible to download and read almost every NDQ from its first volume in 1910 to 2018. You can check them all out here.

As part of this project and in celebration of our 90th volume of NDQ, they also produced a new and remarkably creative anthology of NDQ contributions. You can download the anthology for free here or buy a paper copy.  

As part of this larger project to step up NDQ’s digital profile, we were also excited to announce that we are now part of Project Muse. This not only ensured that the Quarterly will appear in libraries around the world, but it makes it possible to purchase an issue (or even just an article) in digital format. You can check out the latest issue on Project Muse here.

We also continued to publish poetry, fiction, and essays here on the NDQ blog. Here are some of the highlights from 2023.

Lea Page’s essay “Previous History” and Eric Gross’s essay “Talismans” were two of the most read essays from NDQ 90.1/2 and both are available on the web for free. For something a bit more archival, check out the little web-only essay “Clell Gannon on the Missouri.“

We also published some of fantastic short fiction on the web. We threw it back to NDQ 89.3/4 for Kevin Grauke’s “From the Desk of Celeste Derry” which blended an epistolatory narrative with academic fiction and just a touch of the gothic. In keeping with a gentle macabre theme (and our tradition of publishing the last piece of every issue on the web), David F. Young’s “The End.” Finally, on a lighter (if still mildly macabre) note, something from long time NDQ contributory Jim Sallis: “Lying Down.”

And, of course, the poetry: Trevian Hunter’s untitled poem from NDQ 89.1/2, Gail Tirone’s “The Scent of Time” (from NDQ 89.3/4); more summery reflections such as Andrew Wittstadt’s  “Sunsets Like a God Damn Painting” and Eric Marchand’s “Third Week of June”; and some all-around lovely verse such as Dana Curtis’s “Bird on a Wire” and Miriam O’Neal’s “Church, Ostuni” and “Byzantine.”

You know the rest: if you like what you’re reading here consider subscribing to NDQ! Better still, consider submitting some fiction which we read all year around or an essay when we reopen submissions in March. We’re going to continue to take a pause from reading poetry while we work through our backlog, but keep an eye on this blog where we’ll continue to publish poetry, essays, and fiction from our latest issues and make announcements about what’s going on at the Quarterly in 2024.