Category: Magazine

Taking Submissions: Heartlines Spec Spring-Summer 2023 Window

Deadline: May 30th, 2023
Payment: $0.08 CAD per word
Theme: short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships in any genre (though they prefer uplifting so probably better for Scifi/Fantasy.)
Note: Looking for at least 50% Canadian authors

We’re looking for short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. We don’t want the blaze of new love or the obsession of a new friend. We want pieces that show that comfort that develops when people know each other for years.

Give us deep space, dusty frontiers, or dreamy fantasy. We want stories and poetry with strong, confident relationships amid all the sci-fi/fantasy. While we are primarily looking for stories with happy endings (yeah, yeah), we also want endings that are earned. If things get a little teary or gory, that’s ok.

We are especially interested in stories featuring queer platonic relationships, ace/aro love stories, and polycules.

(more…)

Taking Submissions: Taking Submissions: Allegory Volume 44

Deadline: June 30th, 2023
Payment: $15
Theme: Speculative fiction, primarily horror, science fiction, and fantasy.
Note: Reprints welcome

Formatting Guidelines

This is proving to be a recurring problem, so we’re putting it up front. Please, for all our sakes, read this next part carefully.

All submissions should be sent by e-mail (no letters or telephone calls please) to [email protected]. Below are some formatting rules to help us process your submission more quickly.

EMAIL AND COVER LETTERS

Email is accepted in both text and HTML formats. When submitting, please put this in the subject line:

Submission: (Title) – (First and Last name)

Include the following in the body of the email and in the attached submission:

Your name
Name to use on the story (byline), if different
Your preferred email address
Your mailing address
The story’s title
The story’s word count

(more…)

Taking Submissions: NonBinary Review #33

Deadline: July 29th, 2023
Payment: Short Stories: 1 cent per word, Poetry, $10 flat fee, Artwork: $25 flat fee or $50 if chosen for cover art
Theme: World Tour

NonBinary Review is open for submissions on the theme of “world tour.” From the first migration of our ancestors out of Africa to the globe trotting of the jet set, our planet and our culture have been shaped by people traveling vast distances. Some traveled for survival, some for wealth, some for power, and some traveled to satisfy their curiosity. We’re looking for stories about epic journeys over vast distances with many destinations. We’re looking for travels that have changed the way people have viewed their world. We’re looking for travels that have broadened the outlook, not just of the traveler, but of civilization.

We’re not looking for personal travelogues, unless you’re Columbus, Magellan, etc., in which case, we have some questions. We’re also not looking for stories of family’s moves to the new world. We also don’t want interplanetary travel-type science fiction.
(more…)

Taking Submissions: The First Line – Fall 2023

Deadline: August 1st, 2023
Payment: $25.00 – $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 – $10.00 for poetry
Theme: Story must begin with: “As soon as Harriet entered the building, she headed to the seventh floor.”

Fall:
As soon as Harriet entered the building, she headed to the seventh floor.
Due date: August 1, 2023

We love that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we’ve notified you as to our decision (usually four weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don’t want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line.

Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that’s cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines. And, just to be clear, we do not accept simultaneous submissions.

One more thing while I’ve got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not – nor will we ever – charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense.

(more…)

Taking Submissions: Stone’s Throw June 2023 Window

Submission Window: June 1st-7th, 2023
Payment: $25
Theme: The struggle for freedom

JULY SUBMISSIONS (opens June 1 – 7, 2023) — Freedom, in any sense, is rarely obtained without a struggle. From illness to interpersonal drama to all-out war, the object a person chooses freedom from sets the level of conflict encountered. And freedom itself, though touted in this country in a jingoistic sense, is much broader in ways we seek it than the American definition allows. We can seek freedom from any number of things—relationships, work environments, addiction, incarceration, even simply expectations. Help us celebrate this July in true RHP fashion, by sending us stories of characters engaged in personal bids for a freedom they desire. What happens when they get it? And can they ever truly be free?

(more…)

Taking Submissions: The Drabblecast 2023 Weird West Edition

Deadline: May 26th, 2023
Payment: 6 cents per word for original, 3 cents per word for reprints
Theme: Weird West Stories
Note: Reprints allowed

Starting next week, April 26, the Drabblecast will be accepting submissions for a special Weird West event. We want weird west (emphasis on the WEIRD) stories 500-4000 words and pay $.06/word for original fiction and $.03/word for reprints.

(more…)

Ongoing Submissions: Nocturne Magazine

Payment: $10 per story, $25 per cover art
Theme: Stories that may *sort of* fit into the genres of horror, dark fantasy, or speculative.

Nocturne Magazine accepts work that may *sort of* fit into the genres of horror, dark fantasy, or speculative. However, we can be convinced of branching out as long as there’s something deeply unsettling about your submission.

We want something that makes us stay awake at night. Or have strange dreams. Or wake up still thinking about your piece while we drink our morning coffee. We don’t just want “eww,” or “yikes.” We want to scroll through your submission with trembling fingers.

We vibe with Stephen King’s weird dream scenes, Shirley Jackson’s “castles” and murderous young women, and Grady Hendrix’s fierce vampire-fighting book club, and anything else surreal, unusual, or downright terrifying.

But we also have some things we don’t love:
(more…)

Taking Submissions: Witch House Issue #3

Deadline: June 18th, 2023
Payment: $10
Theme: Atmospheric horror that emphasizes disturbing and suggestive settings

Submissions: OPEN (Issue 3)

• Submission deadline for our 3rd issue: Sunday, June 18, 2023 at 11:59 PM EDT.

• Editorial decisions: Sunday, August 20, 2023.

• Publication of Issue 3: Sunday, October 22, 2023.

Fiction Guidelines: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets. At this time, only a single submission per author can be considered for a given issue of Witch House. Additionally, we’re only seeking original, previously unpublished stories.

(more…)