Deadline: September 30th, 2025
Payment: Prose and poetry: 5$ + 1c/word over 500 (up to 5k) words + .2c/word over 5k words, Graphic Narrative Fiction: 5$/page, Reprints of any category: Half of above, Cover Illustration: $100
Theme: Stories about the future which feature non-traditional families
Submissions are open for Home Constellations: A sci-fi anthology of unconventional bonds (working title) from Manawaker Studio, edited by CB Droege.
Home Constellations is an anthology focused on stories about the future which feature non-traditional families. This volume will contain stories and poetry.
THEME
Submitted works should be of any genre, as long as the work depicts a world that is noticeably in the future. Hard and Soft Sci-fi, (Post-)apocalyptic, Solarpunk, Slipstream, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Alternate (future) History, Supernatural, Retro-futurism etc. are all fine names for genres that often take place in the future, but your story doesn’t have to fit into one of those. In fact, if it manages to miss all of those labels, we may be even more interested to see it (unless it thus falls into what we specifically don’t want (see next paragraph)). All works must also prominently feature a relationship or family structure which might be considered unconventional. The story doesn’t have to be about the relationship. The adventure or challenge of the story can be anything, but some prominent characters should be in a chosen family. We’re particularly looking for stories with healthy polyam relationships, but want to also include other queer structures. Send us a story of a stable triad struggling to raise their son in a Martian colony dome. Show us a gay couple exploring alien ruins. Tell us about the escaped assassin-bot and the genetically engineered hypercat who find a baby on their doorstep. Whatever else the story is about, we want it to show that each person gets to decide for themselves what family means, and who gets to be part of theirs.
We are not looking for gore horror nor erotic romance. Works that contain horror elements or romantic elements are fine, but we would like the book to remain accessible to young adults and squeamish people. Works which seem particularly hateful or which discriminate against specific real-world groups will also be rejected.
We’re unlikely to accept stories that depict unconventional relationships as unworkable, or as causing problems by their nature. Not everything has to be perfect in every relationship, of course. We all have struggles, some unique to our relationship structures, but part of the goal of the book is to help normalize the depictions of such relationships, and help people who live them to see themselves represented in fiction. Showing consensual relationship structures which are inherently ‘bad’ is counter to that goal.
(more…)
