Category: Call Type

Anthology / Events / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: The Morning After

Deadline: June 1st, 2025
Payment: AU 1c/word
Theme: What happens to a person after a major transformation

Submissions open until 1st June 2025

The Morning After is an anthology about what happens after a sudden transformation. This could be an individual person transforming into something new or a mass change that effects humanity as a whole. How does this person or society react to no longer being human?

As an editor, I am keen to see how people react in this unique situation. Focus on struggles and adaptation to new forms are highly encouraged.

Despite the name of the anthology, the story does not need to begin with waking up in this new reality – but it should start shortly after the transformation has taken place.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Pro

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Taking Submissions: Women of the Weird West (April 2025 Window)

Submission Window: April 1st – 30th, 2025
Payment: Stories: 10¢ per word, Poems: $50, Drabbles: $50
Theme: Weird westerns that are pulpy, unexpected, character-driven stories written by women

Women of the Weird West
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Editor: KC Grifant
Release Date: Planned for June 16 th , 2026

What We Are Seeking
Traditionally, women authors have been vastly underrepresented in westerns and weird westerns, so this anthology will highlight diverse women-identifying authors and non-binary authors and their speculative western short stories.

We are looking for original Weird West stories. These should be generally set in what approximates the “Old West” location and timeframe (North America circa late 1800s) and should have a strong speculative element, such as horror, fantasy and/or sci-fi.

We are most interested in pulpy, unexpected, character-driven stories and are open to some weird westerns set outside the typical historical time period and setting (e.g., space westerns) as long as there are strong Old West aesthetics and inspiration.

The goal of this anthology is to showcase a diverse group of Old West stories beyond the typical archetypes. We strongly encourage women, women-identifying and nonbinary writers of all backgrounds to submit regardless of writing experience. We are interested in showcasing emerging writers as well as established writers for this anthology.
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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: Hellbound Books’ Anthology of Pandemic & Outbreak Horror

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: $5
Theme: Plagues, pandemics, original takes on zombies, outbreaks, and everything related!

The HellBound Books team felt enough time has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic to warrant an appropriately themed anthology. We are looking for horrific tales of diseases ravaging mankind, viruses, bacteria, and fungal spores infecting and threatening to eradicate all of humanity – and, yes, we would love to see your terrifying, unique takes on the zombie trope!

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Anthology / Flash / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Patterns

Deadline: May 31st, 2025
Payment: $0.01 per word
Theme: Dark stories with the theme of patterns

PATTERNS

Submission window now open.

Deadline: May 31st 2025

We’re looking for dark stories (2-4k words) on the theme of patterns.

Please interpret this theme however you like. Write us a quiet mood piece or an action-packed powerful, character-driven story. Make it humorous or as dark as the night. Send us your best speculative, horror, dark fantasy or dark sci-fi stories, as long as it’s full of the feels. We are not, however, the market for violent, bloody, racist, homophobic, or masochistic fiction. And no poetry please, just short fiction.

Some ideas: the pattern could be in the narrative technique (fragmentation, mirror writing, foreshadowing, meta-fictional repetition), the thematic composition (think cycles of death and birth, family curses, sin and retribution) for example. Or how about incorporating chants, supernatural rituals, or echoes in your prose? A story with temporal patterns in it might float our boat (although be careful, we don’t want our inbox flooded with time loops and cyclical stories, unless done exceptionally well or with a novel twist). Seasonal patterns, recurring times, patterns in nature, patterns in objects which feature in your tale, geographical patterns, repetitive architecture, patterns in weather, behavioural ticks, recurring nightmares, obsessions…any tenuous link will do, just make it your best work and give it a good edit prior to sending it our way. You get the idea. Surprise us.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Shenandoah Valley Fantastic

Submission Window: February 1st – April 30th, 2025
Payment: $20
Theme: Speculative fiction that takes place in the Shenandoah Valley (defined as the Virginia counties of Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren; the West Virginia counties of Berkeley and Jefferson; the independent cities of Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton, Waynesboro, and Winchester; The Shenandoah National Park; The George Washington National Forest.)

What We Want: Shenandoah Valley Fantastic seeks strange and wondrous speculative fiction that transforms our beloved region into a realm of mystery, magic, and the unexpected. From witches haunting Winchester’s historic alleys to spectral happenings on the Field of Lost Shoes, we invite you to re-imagine the Valley’s rich landscapes and legends.

Envision Shenandoah National Park as a forbidden, fey-infused forest, where wayward travelers encounter creatures older than the hills. What if Duke Dog Alley were a portal to another world? Suppose Cooter’s become a crossroad for supernatural beings—a place where ghosts and wanderers alike grab a bite before moving on to unknown realms. Picture the storied halls of Washington & Lee as a secret training ground for the next generation of spellcasters, with campus traditions hiding dark rites and hidden powers.

Let your imagination run wild with stories that blend the supernatural with our natural splendor. We welcome tales of magic and mystery, terror and transformation—grounded in the historic sites, natural wonders, and quirky landmarks that make the Shenandoah Valley unforgettable. If your story will make readers see the Valley in a new, eerie light, we want to read it.

What We Don’t Want:Your trunk stories with a couple of references to the Valley bolted on.

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Artwork / Events / Flash / Magazine / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Dracula Beyond Stoker Issue 7

Submission Window: May 1st – June 30th, 2025
Payment: .05/word plus contributor’s copies
Theme: Mina Harker

Issue 7: Mina Harker(To Be Published November, 2025)
Mina is teacher, a wife, and the heart and the hero of the novel. Her spirit and intelligence keep her resilient even when darkness closes in. But who is Mina beneath the surface? Did her experiences leave her haunted? How did her connection to Dracula affect her view of the world or her family? Whether it’s before, during, or after the events of the novel, let’s explore her strength, her struggles, and her secrets.

Submissions open May 1, 2025-June 30, 2025. Submissions received earlier will be read and considered but will not be responded to until the window opens.

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

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Taking Submissions: NonBinary Review #40

Deadline: May 1st, 2025
Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $10 flat fee for poetry, $25 for visual art ($50 for cover art.)
Theme: Epiphany
Note: Reprints Welcome

NonBinary Review is currently open for submissions on the theme of EPIPHANY.

It’s a flash of inspiration. It’s a slow realization of something that was in front of you the whole time. It’s seeing something familiar from an entirely unexpected angle. We have these sudden flashes of inspiration all the time – some as subtle as discovering you like tea with honey, others as momentous as realizing that your idea for a new invention could change the world.

We’re looking for speculative takes on epiphany, from the realization that television is all real and true, to the discovery that the life you live in your dreams is your real life, and this one is the dream. We want to be just as surprised as your narrators by the things they discover and where those discoveries lead them.

We’re NOT looking for “I realized I hated my spouse so I left and my life got better” stories, sexual coming of age stories, or anything else that doesn’t fit the speculative genre.

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