Category: Call Type

Taking Submissions: If There’s Anyone Left Microfiction 2023 Contest

Deadline: April 15, 2023
Prizes: $250/100/50 USD for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place
Theme: science fiction and speculative fiction.

See regular flash guidelines below, but with the following exceptions:

-MAXIMUM 500 words (hard limit)

-you can send a total of 3 pieces, which can be all at once if you’d like (each piece must be 500 words or less)

-open March 1, 2023 until April 15, 2023 (last place on Earth that it remains April 15)

-$250/100/50 USD for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place (all published online, no honorable mentions and will also appear in print in Volume 4)

NO AI-GENERATED SUBMISSIONS (true always, just reiterating)

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Taking Submissions: The Sentient Space: Is There Anyone Out There? – Log Entry 2

Deadline: May 30th, 2023
Payment: 2 contributors’ copies
Theme: Sentient life in the multiverse

The Prompt:

When last did you look to the night sky and wonder what might loom in the far reaches of the universe? Did you imagine meeting someone among the stars?

These are the tales of sentient life in the multiverse… Of the strange and diverse sophonts, hive minds, anarcho-syndicalist collectives, and anyone—or anything—you can encounter among the star systems, galaxies, and universes that surround us. Some linger lovingly on the jagged edge of horror. Some offer immortality, others knowledge or hope or comfort beyond imagining. These tales dare to explore the endless diversity of intelligent life in the multiverse. Are you brave enough to come along for the ride?

Discover and experience first-hand as these tales answer the question: Is there life out there? Is it intelligent? Can we talk to them? What do these sophonts look like, feel like? How do they smell and taste? Very importantly, Do They Party? These twelve short stories offer fully immersive science fiction that bring us into space and push us beyond a pale definition of sentient life. From the organic to the artificial to something in between—from the fully embodied to the fully simulated—so many aliens, so little time!

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Taking Submissions: Translunar Travelers Lounge First 2023 Window (Early)

Submission Window: March 15th, 2023 – April 15th, 2023
Payment: 3 cents per word
Theme: Fun and Uplifting Speculative Fiction in the science fiction or fantasy variety
NOTE: March 15th-21st reserved for writers of color, submissions for all open on March 22nd, 2023.

We are open annually for submissions from March 15th through April 15th for our August issue, and from September 15th through October 15th for our February issue.

The first week of submissions (March 15-21 and Sept 15-21) is reserved for writers of color. The remainder of the window will be for general submissions. If you’re a writer of color who submits during that first week and you hear back from us before the general window closes, you’re welcome to send a second submission during that time.

WHAT TO SUBMIT

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Taking Submissions: Happy Hellidays!

Deadline: June 30th, 2023
Payment: $5
Theme: Holidays, with a pile of horror thrown in

We all love the holidays, be it Easter, Christmas, Halloween, Hanukkah, Eid, the Solstices, Walpurgisnacht… the list is practically endless.

We want your stories of of holidays (any holiday at all!) filled with terror and dread, blood and guts, ghosts, and demons most foul.

Curated by the inimitable Theresa Scott-Matthews.

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Taking Submissions: The Other Stories #95

Deadline: July 22nd, 2023
Payment: 15GBP
Theme: Rituals

If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 150k+ monthly listeners, then we want your stories!

If accepted, we’ll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week.

(Vol 95) Rituals: deadline 22nd July 2023

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Taking Submissions: Otoroshi Journal 2023 Summer Issue (Early Listing)

Submission Window: April 1st-30th, 2023
Payment: $1 per accepted piece
Theme: horrorku, horror themed tanka, haibun, see below for details

The Submission may include any or all of the following:
· Up to seven (7) horrorku or horror tanka [we will rarely publish 5/7/5(7/7)]
· Up to three (3) haibun [title + prose + haiku/tanka — no more than 100 words]
· Up to five (5) pieces of cover art

All submissions must be original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by a print or web-based journal. Posts in closed, critique-oriented groups and social media sites are acceptable for submission, but public posts on forums such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are not. By submitting a piece to us, you are guaranteeing that it is your original work and not under consideration or published anywhere else in the world.

E-mail submission is required. Type poems into the body of the e-mail; no attachments of poetry will be opened. For art submissions, please include all five pieces in a .PDF file or send us a link to a private gallery. If we purchase an art piece for our cover, we will ask that you provide a 300 dpi version of said piece.

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Taking Submissions: khōréō April 2023 (Early Listing)

Submission Window: April 1st – 30th, 2023
Payment: 8 cents per word and $500 for custom cover art and $100 for cover art drawn from an artist’s existing portfolio.
Theme: Fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and any genre in between or around it, as long as there’s a speculative element.
THEMED ISSUE: FLASH ONLY
Note: You must identify as an immigrant or member of a diaspora in the broadest definitions of the terms. This includes, but is not limited to, first- and second-generation immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, persons who identify with one or more diaspora communities, persons who have been displaced or whose heritage has been erased due to colonialism/imperialism, and anyone whose heritage and history includes ‘here and elsewhere’.

khōréō is a quarterly publication of stories, essays, and art: fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and any genre in between or around it, as long as there’s a speculative element. We’re especially interested in writing and art that explore some aspect of migration, whether explicitly (themes of immigration, colonialism, etc.), metaphorically, or with a sly nod and a wink. Most importantly, we’re a new magazine and we’re still finding our identity: therefore, please don’t self-reject because you’re not sure if your work is a good fit. We won’t know until we see it, so please give us a chance to look!

2023 Themed Issue: Flash (April submission period)
Our last issue of the year is focused on flash fiction. We’re looking for stories of 1,500 words or fewer; flash submitted in earlier reading periods will also be considered for this issue.

Submissions will be open April 1-30 for publication in December 2023.
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Taking Submissions: Dread Space: Volume 2

Deadline: March 31st, 2023
Payment: 2 cents per word
Theme: Science fiction, dark or horror, involving military or military-like characters

  • Submissions will be open 3/1/23-3/31/23
  • Stories must be flash fiction, less than 1,000 words in length.
  • Stories must be science fiction, must be dark or have an element of horror, and must be about or centered around military or paramilitary characters. Read the first volume in the series if you’re not sure what we’re looking for.
  • The anthology will appear in digital, print, and audio formats.
  • A simple contract will be sent outlining terms but we are requiring no exclusivity. Once your story is published, you are free to sell it elsewhere.
  • Compensation: .02 per word and a digital copy of the finished anthology.

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