Category: Anthology

Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Fearmoji: Queer Emoji Horror

Deadline: August 1st, 2025
Payment: $25 USD and a contributors copy
Theme: Adult queer body horror that somehow strongly incorporates the use of emoji

 

Emojis carry a lot of weight in contemporary societies drenched by social media interactions. This theme is very open, but must feature emojis as the primary driving force of the narrative. Give me sentient emojis, cursed emojis, a secret combination of emojis that unlocks a demon, a serial killer whose signature is the love heart reaction, disaffected youths whose use of the shrug emoji comes back to haunt them, a coder with an emoji axe to grind… The potential here is limitless.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Stellar Parallax: Hope in A Grimdark World

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: $50
Theme: Science fiction that follows the title of the book

We at Inked in Gray Press are excited to announce a new anthology in collaboration with AJ Van Belle!

STELLAR PARALLAX: HUMAN HOPE IN GRIMDARK WORLDS.

Let’s not sugarcoat it — things are rough, and we don’t know what the next year or even month will bring.

This is why we need stories in which hope shines through the darkness. Give us your grimdark in space, in a near-future dystopia, in a far-future galaxy, or in a sci-fi version of the present day.

This anthology will feature gritty sci-fi in which the personal message is hopeful while the external world is dark. We want world-building that’s vivid, immersive, and believable, with the focus on the characters’ direct experience. Sweeping spans of time and vast civilizations aren’t necessary here, nor are nifty tech or clever political machinations — but feel free to include any of these if they serve the story.

Regardless of scale or time period, show us the characters’ sensory perceptions, physical experience, and emotional arc. Sci-fi is a genre uniquely equipped to allow expression of character growth because it lets us explore universal human experience within specific, sharply imagined futures.

STELLAR PARALLAX will sit at the place where seemingly impossible circumstances meet the inventiveness of human agency, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Yay! all queer: Free and Queer

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Stories where the main character falls in the LGBTQ+ community in any genre

Submission Period: April 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025

Theme: Yay! all queer II – An LGBTQ+ anthology. We’re searching for LGBTQ+ characters who have a central position within the story. This will be a diverse and inclusive anthology.

There are no restrictions on gender or sexuality. Feel free to create an engaging story with your favorite genre or setting. Mystery, romance, fantasy, or sci-fi are all welcome if the story and characters grab the reader’s interest.

Stories that contain infanticide, gratuitous gore, or rape, including dubious consent, will not be considered. Explicit romance will not be appropriate for this anthology, bring it down a notch, and we’ll certainly give it a look.

Submission Period: April 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025

Submissions: No AI, 1 per author; no reprints, no simultaneous submissions;

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Anthology / Contributor's Copy / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Lesser Cryptids of Appalachia

Deadline: September 15th, 2025
Payment: $50 and 2 contributors copies
Theme: Lesser known (lost or undiscovered) cryptids of Appalachia

Cicada Books / Brood XIV Books is planning a horror anthology about the lesser (lost or undiscovered) cryptids of Appalachia. We are seeking stories about lesser known creatures from regional authors: no Mothman or Bigfoot, please.

If you are a new or established fiction writer we invite you to submit your original short fiction (3-5k words) for inclusion in this anthology. We are seeking thrills, suspense, and horror! We would add weird, but it feels unnecessary for cryptid tales.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human

Deadline: August 31st, 2025
Payment: $50 AUD
Theme: Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human

Our second anthology will gather a wide range of creative responses on the theme of Neurodiversity and the More-Than-Human.

We want to foster neurodivergent situated knowledge that is not limited to the traditional academic essay: engage in autotheory, autoethnography, creative essay, poetry, short story, speculative sci-fi, visual art, and more.

While the close bond between neurodivergent humans and other living beings are often put forward, little thematic focus has been placed on the intersection of neurodiversity and the more-than-human in academic and creative writing. This anthology seeks to fill this gap and foster a more-than-human turn in neurodiversity with an emphasis on creative responses.

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Bizarro Circus of Madness

Deadline: June 30th, 2025
Payment: $100
Theme: Bizarro

Do you write odd misfit stories that no publisher ever wants to touch? You’re in luck—the Bizarro Circus of Madness is in town!

I am seeking bizarro stories in the range of 2,000 to 5,000 words and will pay 100 dollars plus a contributor’s copy for each accepted work. What is bizarro? Simply put, it’s the genre of really weird stuff. Matt Clarke, publisher at Planet Bizarro Press, describes it this way: Think of the weirdest thing you’ve ever read, then times that by potato. Bizarro can be comedy, it can be horror, it can be romance—there’s really nothing it can’t be, as long as it’s bizarre.

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Anthology / Events / Royalties

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Taking Submissions: Cthulu: Dreams

Deadline: July 31st, 2025
Payment: Royalties
Theme: Lovecraftian horror

Cthulu: Dreams – our Lovecraftian anthology

Cthulu: Dreams–

This is horror.
Express yourself as the theme moves you.
Incorporate the Lovecraftian theme as you will into your horror story. Not all need contain an eldritch horror, remember The Alchemist. Good writing will triumph over concepts tightly aligned to a perception of the theme. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion.
Stories that contain infanticide, or rape will not be accepted. Consideration might be made for gratuitous gore, if the story calls for it.
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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Starship Blunder 2

Deadline: August 1st, 2025
Payment: $35
Theme: Shared Universe set on the Starship Blunder, most genres welcome, you DO need to read the guidelines for details and characters

Galactic Misadventure Continues!

Freshly promoted Commander Sarah Hawkins has been assigned to the brand-new Starship Wonder. The rest of her crew, however, have taken to calling their recently acquired vessel Starship Blunder. No new parts were fabricated specifically for the Wonder—it was assembled using extra pieces, cast-off parts, and old components removed from other, nicer crafts. The Conglomeracy hopes the spiffy name of the untested starship will inspire the crew to achieve something, anything.

It doesn’t work. Just like its predecessor, the Starship Wonder struggles even to take off, let alone complete a mission. Can the crew find it in themselves to at least successfully deliver an unimportant package, or will the namesake “Blunder” stick with them forever?

Although the original vessel Starship Blunder blew up in fantastical fashion at the end of the first anthology, the characters you know and love are back at it again!

As soon as the Starship Wonder goes on her inaugural mission, it becomes clear to her crew that there’s nothing wonderful about the new starship. They immediately start referring to their new ship as Starship Blunder as they wonder, did the Conglomeracy commission a new starship because the fleet needed another vessel, or because they just wanted somewhere to stuff the misfit crew away from the more elite spacecraft?

Whatever the reason, Commander Sarah Hawkins, Mechanic Xylo, Daycare Teacher Luna Knight, and Chef Bluebottle make the best of a less-than-stellar situation as they embark on another year of missions and misfortune.

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