Category: Magazine

Magazines and eZines

Taking Submissions: The Lost Poetry Club: The Four Humours

Deadline: March 31st, 2024
Payment: £0.015 per word.
Theme: Speculative fiction that deals with The Four Humours (Details on that below.)

A brand new audible zine centering the bizarre, the horrifying, and the what-ifs. New Episodes bi-monthly with an exciting new theme every time. Imagine attending an open mic story-telling night in the cellar of that haunted house on the hill or the canteen of a starship that traverses time and dark dimensions. What stories would you hear? Would they inspire awe or disgust? Hope in the future or existential dread?

Genres: Sci-fi, Slipstream, Weird Fiction, Near-Future, Retellings, Folk-Tales, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Surrealism, Cosmic Horror, Dark Fantasy, Speculative…

Formats: Mainly Short Stories, Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short Plays/Extracts, (but open to) Personal Stories, Dreams/Nightmares, Songs, Soundscapes, Fictional or Real Mini-Docs, Interviews, and whatever else you can dream up…

THEME 1.02: The Four Humours

When our nature is out of balance; tempers, like fevers, run high. Step into the bewitching world of the Four Humours, where ancient alchemy meets the intricate tapestry of the human psyche. Dividing our episode into four sections: Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic.


Does your tale weave characters with raw intensity and larger-than-life personalities?  Are they charismatic, ambitious, deep thinkers, or cool-headed under pressure?  Or,  instead, impulsive, domineering, pessimistic,  or lazy?

Think tales of disease, of body or mind, potions and magic, chaos and order, material change, and personal transformation. Treat us to characters whose flaws are their undoing, whose struggles mirror our own, and whose stories resonate with the raw intensity of big emotions and larger-than-life personalities.

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Taking Submissions: khōréō April 2024 (Early Listing)

Submission Window: April 15th – May 15th, 2024
Payment: 10 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.
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!

See submission requirements & how to submit at the following pages:

Who can submit?

khōréō is dedicated to diversity and amplifying the voices of immigrant and diaspora authors and artists. We welcome, but do not require, a brief description of the author’s/artist’s identity in their cover letter.

We invite you to submit if you 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’. We especially encourage BIPOC creators who identify as the above to submit their work.

When reading submissions, we take in good faith that you identify as an immigrant or member of a diaspora as described above. If you still aren’t sure if you should submit, please email [email protected].

We kindly request individuals who do not identify as such to support the magazine by reading our stories, subscribing, and helping spread the word instead.

Submission Periods

We have the following reading periods for fiction in 2024:

  • January 15-February 15 (Issue 4.3)
  • April 15-May 15 (Issue 4.4)
  • July 15-August 15 (Issue 5.1)
  • October 15-November 15 (Issue 5.2)

Please see the fiction submissions page for additional details.

In some cases, we may cancel a reading period as we have filled all available slots for the next issue. We will note these changes on our website and announce them on social media. Please follow us in Twitter, Instagram, or BlueSky to hear about these updates in real time.

Please note that art submissions are open year-round and audio submissions are open on an ad hoc basis.

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 explores the impact of human or cultural migration, whether voluntary or forced. Examples include themes of immigration, diaspora, and anti-colonialism, as well as more metaphorical interpretations of the term. 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!

khōréō is dedicated to diversity and amplifying the voices of immigrant and diaspora authors and artists. We welcome, but do not require, a brief description of the author’s/artist’s identity in their cover letter.

We invite you to submit if you 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, transnational/transracial adoptees, and anyone whose heritage and history includes ‘here and elsewhere’. We especially encourage BIPOC creators who identify as the above to submit their work.

When reading submissions, we take in good faith that you identify as an immigrant or member of a diaspora as described above. If you still aren’t sure if you should submit, please email [email protected].

We kindly request individuals who do not identify as such to support the magazine by reading our stories, subscribing, and helping spread the word instead.

What we want

We are looking for short fiction under 5,000 words. Because we are a new journal, we have a stricter budget and therefore prefer stories under 3,500 words. Anything over 5,000 words will be rejected without being read.

Stories must contain a speculative element in order to be considered; if there isn’t some element of fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc. in the story, it’s not for us. The speculative element should be integrated into the piece—a random mention of a ghost on page 12 of 16 isn’t going to be the right fit.

Please submit stories through our Moksha system. Please submit based on length — stories ≤1,500 words should go into our flash queue, while stories 1,501-5,000 words should go into the short story queue.

UPDATE 10/2022: We now allow authors to submit one story each to the short story and flash queue. We do not allow authors to submit more than one story every submission period to a given queue.

Please format your story using the Shunn modern manuscript format (details at this link: https://www.shunn.net/format/story/). Authors are not expected to provide their mailing address until acceptance.

Cover Letters

Cover letters aren’t mandatory, but there are a few things that are really helpful for us to see from you.

  • Submission status: If the piece is a simultaneous submission, please let us know in your cover letter and withdraw the piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. Being a simultaneous submission won’t impact whether or not we accept the piece.
  • Content warnings: Please include content warnings in your cover letter and in the text of your piece. Content warnings will not impact whether or not we accept your piece; we’ve published some really dark stories. However, they do let us assign stories to our First Readers more thoughtfully. More on content warnings in the next section.
  • Genre: Please include the general genre of the piece in your cover letter (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc.); this makes it easier for us to assign it to our First Readers according to their preferences. Submissions that omit this won’t be penalized — it’s just a little more convenient for us. 🙂
  • Feedback preference: We can’t provide feedback on every piece we receive, but we try where we can. If you do not want feedback, please let us know in the cover letter! We’ll respect your wishes.
  • Author bio: Tell us a bit about yourself! This can include, but is not limited to, your identity; past sales; inspiration for the piece or particular qualifications for writing it (e.g., if you are an internationally renowned chess player and your story is about chess, tell us!).

Content Warnings

If your story requires a content warning, please include a brief description below the title of your piece as well as in your cover letter. In addition, please check the box indicating that your story has content warnings on the submission form. Including content warnings will not negatively impact your chances of getting accepted—in fact, noting them where they are warranted actually helps your chances, since that means we can get the story to the right First Reader!

If you’re not sure if your story requires content warnings, it’s better to err on the side of caution. We’ve included a list below for some ideas of what could constitute a content warning, so just flip through it and see if your story contains any of the terms.

If you are fundamentally against the concept of content warnings and refuse to include them on principle, then we are not the right venue for you and we wish you the best of luck submitting your work elsewhere.

  • Sexual Assault
  • Abuse
  • Child abuse/pedophilia/incest
  • Animal cruelty or animal death
  • Self-harm and suicide
  • Eating disorders, body hatred, and fatphobia
  • Violence (specifying graphic, against children, domestic violence, etc. is helpful)
  • Pornographic content
  • Kidnapping and abduction
  • Death or dying (specifying death of a parent, child, etc. can be helpful)
  • Pregnancy/childbirth
  • Miscarriages/abortion
  • Blood
  • Illness (e.g., cancer, seizures)
  • Mental illness and ableism
  • Racism and racial slurs
  • Sexism and misogyny
  • Classism
  • Hateful language directed at religious groups (e.g., Islamophobia, antisemitism)
  • Transphobia and transmisogyny
  • Homophobia and heterosexism

Source: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/inclusive-classrooms/an-introduction-to-content-warnings-and-trigger-warnings/

What we don’t want

Please do not send us stories with gratuitous gore or violence; fridging (where a character dies or undergoes pain in service of the protagonist’s story or to serve as character development); overwhelming racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc. elements that are not subverted or challenged; clichés; “it was all a dream” endings; stories where a person from a non-marginalized group experiences life as someone from a marginalized background.

We are currently not accepting novelettes or novellas, but hope to expand in the future. We may also consider serialized stories one day.

We do not accept multiple submissions, unsolicited resubmissions, or reprints.

Please do not withdraw and resubmit the same story in one submission window; stories that are caught doing this will be rejected. Stories are assigned to first readers at least once per day and usually read quite quickly.

Stories over 5,000 words will be rejected without being read. Please don’t try to “trick” us.

Submission Process

Each story is assigned to a first reader, who reads the piece in its entirety before scoring it and providing an initial recommendation (reject or pass up to editors). This step is usually complete within a couple of days.

Regardless of score, an editor reviews each story before finalizing the decision. While most stories have their first read complete within a couple of days, this second step tends to be our bottleneck, since there’s just a small team reading the Fiction stories, and we usually get ~400/window.

Therefore, having a high queue number does not mean your story hasn’t been read already. For this reason, please do not withdraw and resubmit the same story in one submission window; stories that are found doing this will be rejected.

If you made a truly horrific mistake (like, you submitted the wrong file), reach out to [email protected] when you make the discovery and we’ll figure out if there’s a way to make things right.

A typo does not count as a horrific mistake; we haven’t rejected a single story because of a typo. Realizing you could have rewritten a few sentences or added/killed a paragraph does not count as a horrific mistake either, and stories that are accepted go through a revision process; however, please make sure your story is ready and final before submitting it.

What we offer

Payment at SFWA pro rates ($0.08/word $0.10/word).

What we ask for

At a high level, we ask for:

  • Non-exclusive, non-assignable, non-transferrable first-world English-language rights to publish in digital, ebook, and print
  • Right to republish in an anthology of stories that have previously appeared in the magazine within 24 months of initial publication in our magazine
  • Nonexclusive, non-assignable, non-transferable license to archive the story on our website for at least 36 months
  • Nonexclusive right to record audio and share it on our website for at least 36 months

Any rights not granted explicitly to us by the contract are retained by the author.

Via: khōréō.

Taking Submissions: Mythaxis April 2024 Submission Period (Early Listing)

Submission Window: April 23rd-30th, 2024
Payment: €0.01 per word, with a €20 minimum.
Theme: Diverse sci-fi and fantasy fiction.

We are open to submissions within the following periods:

  • January 23rd-30th
  • April 23rd-30th
  • July 23rd-30th
  • October 23rd-30th

Submissions received outside of these dates will unfortunately be lost and therefore not responded to. When open, we seek and offer the following:

  • Length: 1,000-5,000 words. These are firm limits. Shorter or longer works will be considered, but the further a story goes outside these bounds the more it will need to impress.
  • Compensation: €0.01 per word, with a €20 minimum. Please be aware that payment is via PayPal only.

If you do not receive an acknowledgment within 24 hours of submission, please get in touch. We aim to accept or reject within 14 days of acknowledgment, but rl (real life) and rl (reading load) can get in the way. If you do not hear from us after 30 days, feel free to query.

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Taking Submissions: Sundog Literature 2024 Window #1

Deadline: March 1st – May 1st, 2024
Payment: $50
Theme: Writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in.

A Note on Our Aesthetic

We believe there is beauty in scars on smooth skin, in the small fissures where things begin to break apart. Sundogs are not the sun itself but phantom stars appearing on the horizon, illusions produced by the play of the sun’s heat with crystals of ice. They shed their light all the same. Many are tinged with color.

We look for this same quality in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. We want writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in. We seek a diversity of voices speaking from visceral, lived experience. We like truth we can stare at until our eyes water, words so carefully chosen we want to reread them as soon as we have finished.

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Taking Submissions: Solar Punk Magazine April 2024 Window

Submission Window: April 1-14th, 2024
Payment: $.08 per word for fiction ($100 minimum), $40 per poem. $75 for for nonfiction, $100 for reprint cover art, $200 for original unpublished cover art, $50 for reprint interior art, $100 for original unpublished interior art
Theme: All forms of Solarpunk, however, this issue is open to BIPOC authors only

Solarpunk Magazine publishes hopeful short stories and poetry that strive for a utopian ideal, that are set in futures where communities are optimistically struggling to solve or adapt to climate change, to create or maintain a world in which humanity, technology, and nature coexist in harmony rather than in conflict. We also publish solarpunk art as well as nonfiction that explores real world, contemporary topics and their intersection with the solarpunk movement for a better future.
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Taking Submissions: Cunning Vision: Sound and Vision

Deadline: March 20th, 2024
Payment: Does not say in this call, previous payments were: £100 per article, interview or short story and £50 for poetry and rituals
Theme: Sound and Vision
Note: Not open to fiction submissions from North America at this time

We are open to print magazine submissions.

Our next theme is Sound and Vision.

Artists have long spoken of the mysterious nature of creation – where do their great works come from? Tell us about found stories, the automatic process, of pictures and songs invoked in séances, of musicians and poets who found magic by unorthodox means, and occult-derived art. Some songs and paintings are like spells, speaking to our unconscious and activating something within us, from war cries to the songs with revolutionary spirit to the secret chords that please gods and the folk songs that invoke lives lead outside the mainstream. Tell us about subliminal messages in advertising and how the aesthetic and auricular world influence us. A pioneering artwork might predict the future, or change the course of history. It might show us a piece of the world and mind we never knew before. Sight is a privileged sense – what is it to see clearly, or to not see at all? Visual aids such as spectacles changed our ways of seeing – so too did the emergence of various -mancies and scrying mirrors that offered an alternative perspective; there is seeing with our eyes and then there is seeing with our other senses. For this issue, we draw inspiration from Hilma af Klint, David Bowie, William Burroughs, Ithell Colquhoun, Leonora Carrington, WB Yeats, William Blake and a whole host of other artists, musicians and writers who had visions. We are looking for interviews with musicians and artists, personal essays, articles, rituals, poetry and short fiction that speak to sound and/or vision. Submit fiction or poetry and pitch non-fiction by 20th March 2024.

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Ongoing Submissions: Flash Digest

Payment: Original Stories: 1 cent a word, Cover art: $15.00, Interior art: $5.00
Theme: Original stories that are entertaining and/or have a serious point to them. We prefer to see stories with plot, tension, suspense, conflict, and character development.

Flash Digest is published quarterly, in January, April, July, and October, in print and as an ePub and PDF. It presents original science fiction, fantasy, and spooky horror stories of flash fiction length, which we regard as less than 1500 words. The lead editor is Terrie Leigh Relf.

Flash Digest wants non-AI original stories that are entertaining and/or have a serious point to them. We prefer to see stories with plot, tension, suspense, conflict, and character development. Remember, if readers do not care what happens to your main character[s], they won’t read the story. The narrative should maintain a sense of wondering what’s going to happen next; of what’s lurking just around the corner. Showing is better than telling. Frex, instead of telling the reader that it’s cold, show your character shivering, stomping feet, or having ice form on beard or hair. The inner thoughts and emotions of your character[s] are just as important.

As we will publish no more than six to eight stories per issue, we will be very picky with what we select. Just sayin’.

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Taking Submissions: Astrolabe Spring 2024 Window (Early)

Submission Window: March 20th to April 20th, 2024
Payment: $50 upon publication
Theme: Stories about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection in all genres with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit

At Astrolabe, we’re looking for work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection. Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another.

And then, once we find one other, the myths we make.

We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky.

We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit.

Read about Astrolabe for details on our mission and what we’re doing with the Universe.

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