How to Format Your Submission

Double spaced manuscript in Courier or Courier New.

Use italics, not underlines.

For other questions, follow the Standard Manuscript Format per William Shunn (I really mean it, too):  http://www.shunn.
net/format/story.html.

Have your contact information on the first page of the manuscript, including your e-mail address.

Please be sure to send us a manuscript free from spelling/grammar errors, because we are unlikely to finish reading a story
with much of that (we don’t mind the occasional typo, but we expect you or your trusted grammar expert to proofread
your story and correct your errors before you submit).

How to Submit

We accept RTF or Doc files via e-mail only to the anthology editor, Cynthia Ward, at [email protected].

Do NOT send Docx, ODF, WPD, Plain Text formats, or anything else (I can’t even open some of these formats, so you
can bet they’ll be bounced unread).

Put the words DIVERSE WEIRD WESTERN SUBMISSION in the subject line with the title of your piece.

Send us a virus and we will never accept anything from you again.

We’re defining “Western frontier” in the United States as the states and territories west of the Mississippi River, including
Alaska and Hawaii.

What are the Acceptable Time Periods for this Anthology Project?

Stories set primarily between 1925 and 2014 will be rejected.

What Precisely Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Diverse’ Weird Western fiction?

This includes – but it not limited to – fiction by and/or about:

– indigenous peoples (see definition below)

– people of color

– people who identify as mixed race and/or mixed ethnicity

– women (includes anyone who identifies as a woman or girl)

– immigrants

– working-class

– the economically disadvantaged

– middle-aged characters / older characters / elders (wise and otherwise)

– non-Angophone / non-English speaking

– diversity of body type

– diversity of physical ability / differently abled / disability / physically atypical / biologically atypical / spoonie

– diversity of mental/cognitive/intellectual/psychological/neurological ability, including the autism spectrum and the
neuroatypical

– non-Protestant Christians and under-represented Christian religions, faiths, spiritual practices, and belief systems
(includes, but is not confined to, African-American denominations and churches, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Greek
Orthodox, santeria, syncretic vodou, Shaker, Quaker, and Mormon [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, “Jack
Mormons,” and others])

– theistic and deistic non-Christian religions/faiths/spiritual practices/belief systems and believers – may be monotheistic or
polytheistic (includes, but is not confined to, Deism, Judaism, paganism, Ifa, nonsyncretic vodou, Hindu, Islam, Shinto,
Taoism, Theosophism, Rosicrucianism, Ordo Templi Orientis, Wicca, Witch-Cult, theistic Buddhism, theistic
Unitarianism/Unitarian Universalism, and all Native and indigenous religions, faiths, spiritual practices, and belief systems)

– nonbelievers and the undecided (includes, but is not confined to, atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, nontheistic Buddhists,
nontheistic Unitarians/Unitarian Universalists, other nontheists, and skeptics)

– lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, asexual, pansexual, fluid, questioning, and undecided (includes, but is not confined to,
anyone who identifies with the LGBTQIA spectrum and/or QUILTBAG spectrum).  (If you’re unfamiliar with the term
QUILTBAG, see http://www.apex-magazine.com/reaching-into-the-quiltbag-the-evolving-world-of-queer-speculative-
fiction/.)

– genderqueer, fluid, trans*, and intersexual (includes, but is not confined to, anyone who identifies with the LGBTQIA
spectrum and/or QUILTBAG spectrum).

– aromantic, polyamory, polyandry, polygyny

– professions and pursuits which existed in the “frontier West” but which are rarely (if ever) seen in Western or Weird
Western fiction

The above divisions are somewhat arbitrary and categories may overlap.

“Indigenous peoples” are defined as Native American (whether from North, Central, or South America); Native Hawaiian;
Native Pacific Islander; Australian Aboriginal/Native Australian/Tasmanian/New Zealander; and all other indigenous races.
We are particularly interested in Native American indigenous / aboriginal contributors, characters, and perspectives.

Do You Want a Cover Letter?

If you wish, please feel free to note in your cover letter if you consider or define yourself as belonging to one or more of
the above peoples, religions, categories, or groups.  This is very helpful, but also purely voluntary.

Do You Allow Erotica, Ultra-Violence, or Splatterpunk?

Is There Anything You Definitely Do NOT Wish To See in Submissions to the Diverse Weird Western
Anthology?

* Historical / anachronistic mistakes or cluelessness (i.e., unless you’re writing a damned convincing *alternate* history,
don’t put Wicca or Ordo Templi Orientis in a story set in the 1850s, don’t put the women’s vote in the United States in
1791, don’t have legal slavery in the Southern states in 1867, and don’t think I won’t fact-check)

* Protagonists who are white, straight, male, cisgender, able-bodied, thin/muscular, Anglo/white American males under the
age of fifty.  I enjoy such stories, but that’s a description of almost every protagonist I’ve ever encountered in a Western
story, movie, or TV show [weird or mundane] in my 53 years on the planet.  Hence, our theme of diversity.

Is There Anything Else You Don’t Want to See in Submissions to your Diverse Weird Western Anthology?

Why, yes.  Yes, there is:

•    Bigotry, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, ageism, sizism, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamic prejudice, anti-atheist prejudice,
anti-religious prejudice, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Latino/anti-Hispanic prejudice, anti-immigrant sentiment, misogyny,
misandry, and any and all other forms of prejudice on the part of the story or author (this is distinguished from bigotry /
prejudice on the part of character(s), including but not confined to viewpoint characters)
•    Tokenism (

Also, while steampunk and zombie stories are allowed, I expect to see disproportionate numbers of steampunk Weird
Westerns and zombie Weird Westerns in the slush pile, so both will be a very hard sell.  Avoid these subgenres and you
will greatly increase your odds of placing a story in this anthology.

More generally, if you are unfamiliar with the Weird Western, here is a good starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_West.
Please note that, while we may make an exception or two for mundane cross-genre Weird Western stories (i.e., a non-
speculative Weird detective Western, a Weird Western romance, etc), we are looking for stories in which the Western
genre is mixed with one or more speculative and/or fantastic element(s) (i.e., science fiction, fantasy, supernatural horror,
speculative fiction, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, alternate history, steampunk, steamfunk, dieselpunk, dieselfunk,
magic realism, fabulism, ghost story, occult detective fiction, etc).

Yes, it is OK to combined more than two genres/subgenres; it’s even encouraged.

Thank you very much for your interest.  We look forward to reading your story.

Via: Wolfsinger Publications.