Deadline: June 4th 2016
Payment: 6 cents USD for fiction, flat rates of $50 for under 2k and $100 for over 2k words for reprints, 6 cents or $15usd whichever is greater for poetry

Submissions for fiction and poetry ARE OPEN until June 4th.

Submissions for line art and coloring pages ARE OPEN until June 30th.

Writers! We want your stories and poems for Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk & Eco-Speculation, the upcoming anthology of speculative fiction edited by us, Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Wieland. Set for publication in spring 2017, Sunvault will open to submissions following the funding of our Kickstarter project in April.

We want this anthology to reach outside Western and Anglophone traditions of speculative fiction, showcasing the way environment and environmental issues are talked about and perceived in all parts of the world. We encourage and welcome submissions from diverse voices and under-represented populations, including, but not limited to, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, those with disabilities, and the elderly. Authors of all walks of life should feel encouraged to send us stories and poems celebrating these diverse characters and settings all around us.

What are we looking for?

We want short stories and poems that fall under the scope of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, weird fic, etc.). If you’re unsure, submit! We love to be surprised.

The anthology will focus on times of environmental crisis and the people inhabiting these tipping points, fighting to effect change and seek solutions, even if it’s already too late. But these are times of hope, not just disaster! Turn your lens to those crucial moments in a world’s history when great change can be made by the right people with the right tools. Remember: hope can spark in even the grimmest of situations.

Is there environmental SF already?

There is! Although environmental factors in SF aren’t seen as frequently as other issues, writers are addressing it in revolutionary ways. Here are some examples of SF with primary environmental concerns:

• Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy
• Paulo Bacigalupi’s novels (The Windup Girl, The Water Knife)
• George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road
• Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer
• Edan Lepucki’s California
• Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy

The list goes on. Not all of these stories, though, truly fall into the solarpunk category. So what is solarpunk?

What is solarpunk?

Solarpunk follows in the tradition of steampunk and cyberpunk as the embodiment of a counterculture ideology: innovating a way of life that is better for the present and ultimately better for the future. Concepts like clean energy and sustainability are integral to solarpunk as they are outlets for societal reform. The fight for positive change is where -punk comes into play.

There are various communities online that are imagining and building solarpunk as an idea and an aesthetic, but as a literary movement, it is as yet largely undefined. That’s where you come in. Sunvault is the SF community’s opportunity to define the solarpunk genre. We want to see your conceptions and interpretations of the genre. We want to see what solarpunk looks like to you.

Length & Payment:

We’re looking for short stories from 500 to 7500 words. Don’t query about longer pieces. We want to include as many stories as possible in the anthology, so we aren’t able to consider longer works. All authors will be paid 6 cents USD per word upon publication for original fiction.

We are also open for reprint submissions. Reprints are paid a flat rate of $50 for stories under 2000 words and $100 for stories over 2000 words. Please include a complete publication history for reprint submissions.

For poetry, we are looking for original, unpublished poems up to 200 lines or 500 words for prose poems. Please submit only up to five poems. All authors will be paid either 6 cents USD per word or 15 dollars per page, whichever is greater. Payment will be made upon publication.

We will accept submissions from any country.

Translations:

Translations are welcome. Please include proof that you have the permission of the original author to translate and submit the story, and provide the original author’s contact details as well as your own. Payment will be split equally between the translator and the author. If this is the first publication of the story in English, even if it has appeared in its original language in print, we will pay the rate for original work.

How to submit:

Submissions will open as soon as our Kickstarter is fully funded and run for approximately a month. Send your story or poems to us atsunvaultanthology[at]gmail.com with the subject like Fiction Submission: Title or Poetry Submission: Title for originals. For short story reprints, please put Reprint Submission: Title in the subject line. We will not be accepting poetry reprints. Submit translations as original pieces (if previously unpublished in English), but be clear that it is a translation in the body of your message. Please submit all poems in one document.

If the format is wrong, your work may end up in our spam folder, so be diligent. We will only read files sent as .doc, .docx, .odt, or .rtf.

Include a cover letter in the body of your email to tell us a bit about who you are. Please mention if it is a story or poems, the length, any relevant info we should know about the story or poems, and an author’s bio. Do not describe your story or poems in the cover letter.

We will accept simultaneous submissions, but if accepted, the piece must be withdrawn from submissions elsewhere. You may only submit one story during the reading period.

Art Submissions:

We will also open submissions to line drawings and coloring sheets!

• Submissions will be open as soon as the Kickstarter is fully funded and stay open until June 30
• Email all submissions (up to 5) to sunvaultanthology[at]gmail.com with the subject line Art Submission: TITLES
• Art submission files should be .jpeg or .png. We will request high resolution images upon acceptance.
• We’ll pay artists 100 USD upon publication
• We are only open to line art and coloring pages due to publication restrictions.

Art has always been a foundational part of the solarpunk community, specifically art nouveau. We can’t wait to see how artists interpret the ideals of solarpunk and eco-speculation!

Response Time:

We won’t be responding to submissions until the reading period has officially closed, so response times will vary, but expect to hear back from us within 2-3 months. Please don’t query until after 3 months.

Via: Sun Vault.