Deadline: February 1st, 2025
Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $10 per poem, $25 for interior art, $50 for cover art
Theme: Mistaken Identity
Note: Reprints Welcome

NonBinary Review is currently open for submissions on the theme of MISTAKEN IDENTITY.

How often have you waved to a friend across a room, only to realize the person you waved to isn’t who you thought they were? These benign little episodes of mistaken identity can be laughed off, but there are so many times and so many ways mistaken identity can be humiliating, criminal, traumatic, life-altering, transforming. Whether you are the one who made the mistake or the one who is being mistaken for someone else, there are so many ways it can happen, and so many ways to respond.

We want your weird, wonderful, bizarre, impossible stories of mistaken identity. We don’t want “I accidentally met the love of my life because I mistook them for my friend” stories. More like “I accidentally stopped the Earth from being blown to bits because I mistook the alien invaders for mosquitos and sprayed them with bug spray.” We want to be captivated by the unlikeliness of a story that probably could never really happen.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Zoetic Press does not accept AI generated content. If our editors judge that your content is AI-generated, it will be declined.

All submissions must have a clear relationship to our theme, and be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or they will be rejected. NonBinary Review  pays 1¢ per word for prose with a limit of 3000 words.

If your work was accepted for Issue #37: False Memories or Issue #38: Rituals, we’re sorry, but we cannot accept your work at this time (see our general guidelines.)

We have different teams evaluating poetry, prose, and art. If you submit to the wrong genre, your submission will be declined.

Zoetic Press publishes the best in speculative lit – experimental, interstitial, luminous. We welcome submissions from EVERYONE. The only requirement is that they be in English, or translated into English (we love a translation). If your writing is outstanding, no matter who you are, we have a place for it.

NonBinary Review

Our award-winning themed lit journal is published quarterly. Each issue revolves around a specific theme, but we’re asking contributors to go beyond the old familiar media tropes – we want speculative work that looks at our theme from unexpected angles.

We’re looking for work we can read with our whole body – work that gives us goosebumps, makes us see the world differently, has the tang of authenticity, makes us sit up and listen, and smells like….something. This analogy got out of hand. What we’re saying is that we’re not looking for re-hashes of images or stories we’ve read before. We want contributors to explore every facet of our themes, really getting in between the cracks, in the corners, all the forgotten places that no one ever thinks to explore. We want to read work that makes us think “I never would have thought of this, and yet, it’s so fitting!”

What we’re NOT looking for is work that centers violence, rape, misogyny, racism, ableism, or degrading stereotypes of any kind. We know you’re not that kind of writer, but we thought it should be said.

Some caveats:

• While there is a published close date for submissions, we have an acceptance cap for each issue, and submissions will be closed once we reach that cap, so don’t wait until the last minute.
• NonBinary Review accepts reprints, but we do ask for previous publication details so they can be credited.
• Please ensure that you are submitting to the correct category, as we have different editing teams for each. Submissions sent to the wrong category (e.g., poetry submissions sent to the prose category) will be declined.
• If your work has recently been accepted for publication in NonBinary Review, we will not consider any submissions from you for the next TWO ISSUES (e.g., if we accepted your work for Issue #1, we will not consider your work again until Issue #4.)

Our pay schedule:

• Prose submissions (for which we pay 1¢ per word) should be 3000 words or fewer in length, double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman font or similar.
• Poetry submissions (for which we pay a $10 flat fee) should include no more than 3 poems, each of which may be up to 3 pages in length. Please include each poem as a separate file.
• Art submissions (for which we pay a $25 flat fee) should include no more than 5 pieces. Each piece should be at least 300dpi, and at least 600 pixels on its smallest side. Any piece chosen for cover art will pay $50. We do not accept any submission that consists of links to an artist’s website.

Dear Horace Greeley

Our advice column invites writers to ask questions about writing, submitting, publication, and any other aspect of the literary life that baffle them, and we’ll answer them online. We don’t promise that we have all the answers, but we do promise that we’re here for you!

Feedback for Poets of Color

This is just what it sounds like. People of color may submit ONE poem, up to 50 lines, for consideration. Two poets per month will be accepted, and the Poetry Editors will work with those two poets to edit, improve, and strengthen their work. Acceptances are done on the first of the month, although submissions are open year-round.

Heartbeats: Visual Verse

Zoetic invites poets to push the boundaries of poetry. We’re looking for poetry that combines narration, music, and visuals to create a complete experience. We’re not looking for a static reading or words scrolling down a screen – we want interplay between visuals and audio that create something more than the sum of its parts. Poets may submit work of up to 140 seconds in length. We pay a flat fee of $25 per accepted video.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Zoetic Press does not accept AI generated content. If our editors judge that your content is AI-generated, it will be declined.

Via: Non-Binary Review.