Category: Events

Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry / Pro

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Taking Submissions – Book Worms – Winter 2024 Issue

Deadline: January 1st, 2024
Theme: My Bloody Valentine: dark love stories, Tinder dates gone horribly wrong, bitter romance, a lover’s revenge, tragic love, etc.
Payment: 8 cents a word for fiction and essays (1500 words or less). $25 – $50 per poem (depending on length). Includes one contributor copy.

Book Worms Zine is selling out on Etsy and the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. We have another issue planned for Winter 2024. This time around the theme is My Bloody Valentine: dark love stories, Tinder dates gone horribly wrong, bitter romance, a lover’s revenge, tragic love, etc. Dark humor is okay, but it should fit the themes of horror and romance. Specifically looking for original poetry (any length).

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Leadership Gone Right

Deadline: January 25th, 2024
Payment: $10 for accepted stories, and an equal portion of the Kickstarter’s stretch goals
Theme: Leadership Gone Right

Unlock the power of imagination with Farthest Star Publishing’s inaugural open call for short story submissions, themed “Leadership Gone Right”. Are you ready to explore the uncharted territories of leadership in science fiction, fantasy, and horror? We’re seeking gripping tales that envision a world where leadership takes a different path, where heroes and anti-heroes emerge in unexpected ways. From galactic leaders to mythical monarchs and supernatural rulers, your story should transport us to new realms where leadership shines brilliantly or takes a haunting turn. This is your chance to craft a story that reshapes the very essence of authority. Submit your most inventive and captivating short stories and let your vision of “Leadership Gone Right” light the way for readers everywhere.

We invite storytellers of all dimensions to contribute their tales of leadership reimagined, as we venture into futures and realms where heroes rise to meet the challenges of their worlds with wisdom, compassion, and courage. Or where villains use cunning and guile to crush all opposition.

In this anthology, we seek stories that challenge traditional notions of authority, showcasing leadership that is energetic, inspirational, and transformative. From utopian spacefaring societies to mythical kingdoms and beyond, “Leadership Gone Right” invites you to envision leaders who empower and unite, forging paths only they can see toward a future only we can imagine.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: At the Edge of Darkness (Early)

Submission Window: January 1st, 2024 – February 29th, 2024
Payment: $25 and a contributor’s copy
Theme: Stories on that dark, half-lit space where crime and horror simultaneously reside.

We are excited to announce At the Edge of Darkness, the sixth edition of our original Shotgun Honey Presents anthology series. At the Edge of Darkness will release October 1st, 2024 right in time for the Halloween Season, featuring stories on that dark, half-lit space where crime and horror simultaneously reside. That’s right, we’re dipping our toe into the dark pool of horror and we’re not doing it alone.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Writer’s Retreat: Tales of Writing and Madness

Deadline: December 31st, 2023
Payment: $10
Theme: Stories that peel back the layers of the literary process to reveal the psychological horrors writers face daily.

Scott McGregor and Harriet Everend are teaming up to compile a new anthology, Writer’s Retreat: Tales of Writing and Madness under January Embers Press.
Beneath the polished pages of every story lies a world shrouded in shadows—a world where the act of creation transforms into psychological madness fraught with terror. “Writers Retreat: Tales of Writing and Madness” is an anthology seeking to peel back the layers of the literary process to reveal the psychological horrors writers face daily. From the dreaded writer’s block to the malevolent spirits of rejection, this collection delves into the darkest corners of the creative mind, where the lines between reality and imagination blur.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: Mirrorball: How Taylor Swift Reflects the Loss, Hope & Love of Millions Around the World

Deadline: January 31st, 2023
Payment: $50/poet and $100/essay or prose
Theme: Stories inspired by Taylor Swift or her music.
Note: As we list all forms of speculative fiction, this is something you could lean into for say fantasy or scifi but maybe not quite horror

Mirrorball: How Taylor Swift Reflects the Loss, Hope & Love of Millions Around the World

Mirrorball: How Taylor Swift Reflects the Loss, Hope & Love of Millions Around the World is an anthology of writings from around the world inspired by Taylor Swift, her music and her call to fans globally to cry and laugh and dance and mourn and grow together. More than anything, the anthology mirrors the joy that has come from sharing our lives with one another the way Taylor’s lyrics of love and loss, of betrayal and of chosen family, have made all the Swifties around the globe feel less alone.

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: The EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories: Writers of Color Volume 2

Deadline: December 15th, 2023
Payment: $100-$300
Theme: BIPOC writers who live in or hail from rural or semi-rural locales and whose short stories feature characters living and/or working in rural or semi-rural spaces published between 2021-2022.

EastOver Press is accepting previously published short stories for a forthcoming anthology. The stories should have been published in 2021 or 2022.

The anthology will focus on BIPOC writers who live in or hail from rural or semi-rural locales (in the United States) and whose short stories feature characters living and/or working in rural or semi-rural spaces. In addition, we’ll also accept work from BIPOC writers who’ve spent a significant amount of time in rural or semi-rural locales and whose work might reflect those spaces.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: The Amber Waves of Autumn – Surf Noir Anthology

Deadline: December 16th, 2023
Payment: $35 and royalties
Theme: Noir stories that take place near the beach. Bonus if a surfer or water-related person is a character.

This book’s predecessors, The Silver Waves of Summer, and The Dark Waves of Winter were huge successes, including The Dark Waves of Winter earning a perfect 5 Stars from Indie Reader. They were both well-reviewed in myriad publications, including Kirkus Reviews.   “A potent assemblage of briskly paced tales that will satisfy mystery and crime noir fans.” – Kirkus Reviews.

We are looking to build on our previous success.The Amber Waves of Winter is planned for publication in the fall of 2024. Pay is $35.00 dollars per accepted story and a share of royalties. You will be published next to some big names. We are looking for 10-12 short stories that adhere as closely as possible to the following guidelines:
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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry

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Taking Submissions: The First Line – Spring 2024

Deadline: February 1st, 2024
Payment: $25.00 – $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 – $10.00 for poetry
Theme: Story must begin with: Mr. Morton needed a new pair of shoes.

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.

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