Category: Anthology

Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: The Haunted Zone

Submission Window: March 16th, 2023 – April 30th, 2023
Payment: 3 cents per word (potentially higher depending on Kickstarter) and a contributors copy
Theme: Hauntings
Note: women military veterans only

A horror anthology written by women military veterans. Submissions will open March 16th for those who identify as a woman and have served in the military. Closing date is April 30, 2023.

Do not send submissions early.

THEME: Hauntings/to be haunted/to haunt. We’re not looking for service-related stories, only that haunting be the central theme. Hauntings of a classic horror nature, as well as other types such as psychological, haunted by trauma, life choices, and similar that take the reader into a dark, horror tale. The goal is to highlight excellent talent from women military veterans who are horror writers, not for stories to be focused on the military, although you may include the military in your story if you wish.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events

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Taking Submissions: Paranormal Incorporated: Office Memo 2

Deadline: May 30th, 2023
Payment: 2 contributors’ copies
Theme: Offices that have Supernatural Beings in them

The Prompt:

Sometimes we think our co-workers could be from another planet or our boss from another dimension, but what if that was true? What if the guy in the cubicle next door gets his work done quickly because he has two heads or four arms? Or maybe your boss can be anywhere in the office because he can walk through walls as a ghostly spirit?

A fun and “horrific” collection of tales from the office where coffee breaks include drinking joe with the vampire accountant or working a weekend with your shape-shifting boss.

Paranormal Incorporated: Office Memo 2 brings horror and humor together as the classic witch, ghost, demon, shifter and other horror stories readers love find themselves in the corporate environment of fax machines, office memos, and that never-ending smell from the fridge. Well, that might be a zombie co-worker in there!

Your story could be part of this variety of paranormal fables, so enter your entry into our anthology contest today, and your story could be the latest offering of spine-tingling and belly-laughing literature from 4 Horsemen Publications!

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Anthology / Events / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror

Deadline: May 31, 2023
Payment: 7 cents per word and a contributors copy
Theme: Tales that explore queer tragic horror, and any other interpretation of the title theme
Note: This anthology is only open to queer writers

We’re looking for tales that explore queer tragic horror, and any other interpretation of the title theme. Show us what tragic queer love means to you. Horror is a genre with serrated edges—so make your characters bleed.

We love queer stories of love but intermingle them with tragedy and horror. Give us characters who are angsty and complex, depraved and lecherous, and take us through their ecstasy of heartbreak and suffering. We want hauntings! Possessions! Lovers doomed to be separated for eternity! Mad scientists reviving their beloved wrong! Gays in hell! Sad Bly Manor gays! Don’t like the bury your gays trope? Curse ‘em with immortality and the indefinite madness that comes with it instead!

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Anthology / Events / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: The Nameless Songs of Zadok Allen & Other Things that Should Not Be

Deadline: March 15th, 2023
Payment: $5 USD per 1000 words
Theme: Lovecraftian Inspired Cosmic Horror

What lurks in the deep? Who listens from the shadows? What sorts of abominable experiments are taking place at the mysterious ivy-covered university? We want your Lovecraftian tales.

Deadline: March 15, 2023.

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events

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Taking Submissions: Invoking Destiny: Wands, Wings, and Wardens

Deadline: May 30th, 2023
Payment: 2 contributors copies
Theme: Fantasy stories

The Prompt:

Set in a time and place of magic, these fantastic tales contain wizards, dragons, fairies, and warriors. Want to explore a world of dragons and wizards yearning to break free? Dreaming about a guardian saving the town of creatures and talking animals from lurking evil in the forest? Dreams can come true, but they can also be crushed. Sometimes, winged fiends win the day. Let your imagination run wild amid these stories of magic and mayhem.

Deadline

May 30th 2023 at Midnight EST

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Summer of Speculation 2023 Edition

Deadline: March 15th, 2023
Payment: $15 or a contributors copy
Theme: Sidekicks in a science fiction or fantasy story

“Summer of Speculation” will be a themed anthology containing stories from Fantasy and Science Fiction. All Sub genres are welcome (with a few exceptions noted in the submissions guidelines). We are seeking fresh faces as well as seasoned scifi/fantasy pros for this yearly anthology to be released in the summer every year.

Our 2023 theme will be “Sidekicks”. What we want are stories from the perspective of the superhero(or villians) top henchman/helper. For copyright purposes it would be best if we didn’t use real superheroes currently in production. Other than that, go crazy and wow us with your unique Sidekick.

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Anthology / Events / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia (Early Listing)

Submission Window: March 8th, 2023 to March 24th, 2023 for all, Underrepresented voices have the entire month of March
Payment: 5 cents per word
Theme: Horror, Dark and Science Fiction Horror that takes place in institutions of learning (see below)

Ai Jiang and Christi Nogle are seeking previously unpublished stories of 1,000 to 4,000 words for Shortwave Publishing’s Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia.

Wilted Pages takes its inspirations from works such as The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, and The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read. Gloomy buildings, secret societies, futuristic boarding schools, gothic yet modern aesthetics, and occult learning are among the pleasures to be found in this subgenre.

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Anthology / Events / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: The Perfectly Fine Neighborhood

Deadline: July 1st, 2023
Payment: 3 cents per word
Theme: A horror story about ghosts in a world where ghosts are a normal, everyday occurance

A shiver ran down Donna’s spine and, even though it was the dead of summer, her breath came out in an icy puff as she exhaled.

“Dammit, Kyle!” Donna shouted, smacking over her shoulder at the ghostly apparition of her brother, who had snuck up behind her. “What are you doing?”

“Just rubbing your shoulders,” he replied, exasperated. As he removed his ethereal fingers, her back warmed up again instantly. “You need to relax more, Red.”

 

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What if ghosts were real? What if they were a part of everyday life? What if they were, in fact, kind of banal? Could you still tell a horror story about them?

We like to think so. In fact, we wrote an entire novel about it. And now we’re inviting all of you to scare our pants off with your short stories set in the world of THE PERFECTLY FINE HOUSE.

French Press is delighted to be opening up to our first open call ever, for THE PERFECTLY FINE NEIGHBORHOOD. This open call will round out the entries from our invited authors, modern horror maestros Jeff Strand, Brian Keene, and Candace Nola. We hope to hear from you and all your friends, so please share widely!

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