Author: Stuart Conover

Artwork / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Taco Bell Quarterly #8

Deadline: July 31st, 2025
Payment: $150
Theme: works of literature that intersect with Taco Bell

My kids make books all the time for fun. Both of them want to be writers and artists when they grow up. I feel like this is my fault. I’ve made it look too fun. They bring me their stacks of pages, begging for the stapler, as if the stapler contains magical powers, as if the act of binding together the book is what makes it real. I staple three neat clicks and I’ve made it look real. Something more real to pretend with, at least.

We are back, pretending to make our literary magazine again. We are the Taco Bell Quarterly, a Prestigious Literary Magazine that is opening for submissions on 4/20/25.

We are looking for prose, poetry, art, and beyond for our eighth issue, which will be available to read for free online, and to buy in print in the late fall. We will pay $150.

What are we looking for: works of literature that intersect with Taco Bell

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Online / Pro

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Taking Submissions: 100-Foot Crow Spring 2025 Window

Submission Window: May 15th – June 15th, 2025
Payment: $8.00 ($0.08 per word)
Theme: Scifi and/or Fantasy 100-word stories (can include horror but must have a SF or F element) that focus on the theme of ‘Train” – any meaning of the word Train is valid.

We’ll be opening again for submissions May 15 to June 15 for the theme TRAIN. We will allow one themed and one un-themed submission per writer. All submissions must be submitted via our Google form, which will be available here when we are open.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human

Deadline: August 31st, 2025
Payment: $50 AUD
Theme: Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human

Our second anthology will gather a wide range of creative responses on the theme of Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human.

We want to foster neurodivergent situated knowledge that is not limited to the traditional academic essay: engage in autotheory, autoethnography, creative essay, poetry, short story, speculative sci-fi, visual art, and more.

While the close bond between neurodivergent humans and other living beings are often put forward, little thematic focus has been placed on the intersection of neurodiversity and the more-than-human in academic and creative writing. This anthology seeks to fill this gap and foster a more-than-human turn in neurodiversity with an emphasis on creative responses.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: It Takes a Village

Deadline: June 1st, 2025
Payment: $5 for poetry sets (up to 5 pages), $10 for flash fiction (up to 1000 words), $25 for fiction stories up to 5000 words, +$2/1000 words for over 5000 for fictions stories up to 10,000 words
Theme: Canadian authors telling stories about community: finding it, building it, maintaining it, being expelled from it. SF and F are called out as acceptable, no word on H so probably a hard sell

This anthology’s theme is “It Takes a Village” – I’m looking for stories about community: finding it, building it, maintaining it, being expelled from it. How do we build our villages as adults? How do we grow connections with those around us? What do we do when we’ve lost them? We’ve heard the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child” but also “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” How do we tackle these emotions as adults?

As this is a bit trickier of an anthology theme than the last one, the reading period is going to be much longer, and the final evolution of the anthology’s theme will come from what the overarching theme and tone from the submitted and accepted pieces create.
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Events / Flat Amount / Magazine / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: HamLit Issue #9

Deadline: May 15th, 2025
Payment: $5
Theme: Flood Memory
Note: Must live in: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, or British Columbia

The theme for our Monsoon Issue is Flood Memory. Our original inspiration comes from a river that is straightened for the ease of those who live around it. When the river floods, however, it reclaims its original pattern. The water remembers. What else is water trying to tell us these days? What memories rush forward when the dam can no longer hold? Most importantly, how will you bend and mold and reclaim this theme for your own?

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Flat Amount / Magazine / Non-fiction / Online

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Ongoing Submissions: Memento Mori Ink Magazine

Payment: Feature Articles (200 words): $20, Essays (300 words): $40, Reviews (Anything but book reviews) (100-200 words): $30, Columns/Op-Eds (500 words max): $35-$40
Themes: Non-fiction – Mortality and Death, Gothic Culture, Dark Aesthetics, True Crime, Psychological Exploration

THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

HOW TO SUBMIT

ANYTHING NOT SUBMITTED PROPERLY WILL NOT BE READ. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO READ THESE REQUIREMENTS THOROUGHLY.

What We’re Looking For:

Memento Mori Ink Magazine seeks thought-provoking, non-fictional articles that explore the darker aspects of life, death, culture, and the human experience. We are particularly interested in pieces that delve into:

  • Mortality and Death: Essays that examine cultural, philosophical, or personal perspectives on death and the rituals surrounding it.
  • Gothic Culture:Analysis of gothic literature, art, fashion, and the lifestyle that embraces the macabre.
  • Dark Aesthetics: Articles exploring the beauty and significance of dark aesthetics in various forms of media, including art, film, and music.
  • True Crime: In-depth, well-researched articles on historical or contemporary true crime stories, with a focus on lesser-known cases.
  • Psychological Exploration:** Essays that analyze the darker side of the human psyche, such as fear, grief, or the allure of the unknown.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Bizarro Circus of Madness

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: $100
Theme: Bizarro

Do you write odd misfit stories that no publisher ever wants to touch? You’re in luck—the Bizarro Circus of Madness is in town!

I am seeking bizarro stories in the range of 2,000 to 5,000 words and will pay 100 dollars plus a contributor’s copy for each accepted work. What is bizarro? Simply put, it’s the genre of really weird stuff. Matt Clarke, publisher at Planet Bizarro Press, describes it this way: Think of the weirdest thing you’ve ever read, then times that by potato. Bizarro can be comedy, it can be horror, it can be romance—there’s really nothing it can’t be, as long as it’s bizarre.

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Events / Flash / Magazine / Royalties / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Archive of the Odd #7

Deadline: May 15th, 2025
Payment: 1.5 cent/word USD + a share of royalties
Theme: 500-8000 word Speculative fiction

Archive of the Odd is a biannual magazine of found fiction—stories told in the style of found footage, also known epistolary, neo-epistolary, found file, or found document fiction. Essentially, stories told in the form of other documents.

All submissions must be found fiction. We realize this is oddly specific, so if you’re not sure what we’re looking for, the best way will be to look at the stories on our website, or buy an issue to see the full zine treatment (in fact, if you email us or DM us on Twitter we’ll give you a coupon code for being a savvy author… just saying). Alternately, think about all the things you read on a daily basis that aren’t fiction. Newspapers? Emails? Product support guides? …Submissions calls?

If you read all of this and still have questions, please refer to our FAQ, or query!

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