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Deadline: February 29th, 2020 Payment: Maybe. Funds are being raised on the side to pay contributors if they hit a certain goal. Note: I don't usually list markets that won't be a guaranteed paying market but it is for a good cause AND I love the concept of the anthology. Many writers and creatives are plagued by depression and anxiety, often referred to as “The Black Dog.” Ironically, it is during these dark days that our furry friends become our strongest supporters.I’m working with a fantastic team to put together a horror/dark fiction anthology with a strong, canine theme where all sales go towards supporting mental health and suicide prevention charity: The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. Open call for submissions We are excited to share this open call to writers of horror and dark speculative fiction. We want you to submit your best short story between 2,000 and 6,000 words for our forthcoming charity anthology “Black Dogs, Black Tales”. This will be a dark, doggy-themed collection where absolutely anything with a canine connection goes, with one essential caveat – the dog does not die. Everyone else can be slaughtered by zombies, or lost in the depths of deep space, but the dog (or dogs) will always survive. What are we looking for? We want you to think outside the box (or kennel) with this one. Perhaps the dog is the killer, or maybe the dog kills the killer. The dog might be your protagonist, unreliable narrator, or any other major character. We welcome robot dogs and Frankenstein-creature dogs, mutated or evolved dogs, dogs with a sixth sense, or dogs that are just very special in their own right! They can be real life dogs, ghost dogs, demon dogs, or the proverbial black dog. Most importantly, surprise us with your best writing....

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: short story, $25; short-short piece (up to 1000 words), $10; poem, $10; artwork, $25 for cover, $10 for interior page display. Upcoming premises (target themes) and deadlines for submission : Not of this World To download a PDF file of the guidelines, click here . ALL SHORT STORIES, ESSAYS, POEMS, PHOTOGRAPHS and ART MUST RELATE TO ONE OF THE PREMISES SPECIFIED ABOVE. NOTE: Previously published pieces are welcome, provided that the submission fits the theme and that the author owns the copyright. The premise (target theme) must be an integral part of the plot, not necessarily the central theme but not merely incidental. Fewer than 20 double-spaced typewritten pages preferred. Indicate premise (target theme) on title page. Be sure to Indicate target theme in cover letter or on first page of manuscript. Include self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) with each submission. Rejected manuscripts unaccompanied by an SASE will not be returned. Response time: 3 months after premise deadline. NO READER'S FEE. Mail to: THEMA, Box 8747, Metairie, LA 70011-8747. Outside the US: email [email protected] On acceptance for publication, we will pay the following amount: short story, $25; short-short piece (up to 1000 words), $10; poem, $10; artwork, $25 for cover, $10 for interior page display. Copyright reverts to author after publication. THEMA isn't for everyone. To find out why, click here. New to submitting manuscripts to journals? Click here to download a PDF file of a few basic guidelines. Unlike many publishers, we prefer works submitted by the authors themselves, without the involvement of an agent. Be sure to indicate premise and include SASE for each submission. BE SURE to include a separate SASE for each premise. No handwritten manuscripts will be considered. NOTE: We do not accept e-mailed submissions EXCEPT from authors who live outside...

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: Pro-order split and six contributor copies Note: Must be a subscriber to Chris Morey’s free e-mail newsletter As a lifelong fan of survival horror I've been aching for years to create a project in that vein. I'm very excited to announce to you Survive the Night - Three at Dusk, One at Dawn, a new survival horror anthology from Dark Regions Press. Now available for preorder at darkregions.com/survivethenight and 10% of the total preorder sales are added to the writing contest prize pool until the last day of the contest timeline. Thanks to everyone who joins us for this fun and exciting new Dark Regions Press writing contest. If you have any questions or concerns please contact darkregions.com/contact We can't wait to read your survival horror stories! SURVIVE THE NIGHT - THREE AT DUSK, ONE AT DAWN WRITING CONTEST GUIDELINES   THEME: Survival horror story involving three central characters (optional secondary characters) who become trapped at dusk with one or more forces outside that are capable of killing them. Only one of the three central characters survives until dawn.   WORD COUNT: 3,000 to 8,000 PAY: Contest with growable $3,000 prize pool (10% of Survive the Night preorder sales at darkregions.com/survivethenight get added to the prize pool until contest ends March 1st 2020) – Prize pool will be evenly divided among the selected authors. Editors will select at least 7 up to 10 winning stories from the open submissions contest. Selected authors receive 1 ebook and audio option, 5 trade paperbacks and 1 deluxe signed & numbered hardcover as free author copies.   ENTRY FEE: None but you must be a subscriber to Chris Morey’s free e-mail newsletter at chrismorey.com/newsletter to qualify.   SUBMISSION RULES: No reprints or stories published anywhere else before including author websites. No multiple or simultaneous submissions. Only...

Deadline: March 1st, 2019 Payment: $20 “Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers. Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? We have published long stories on the belief...

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: $25 flat rate per story Theme: Short story submissions that explore the implications of non-cisgender life within the context of furry. As furries, we base large swaths of our identity around species. We search for what fits, we let our species choose us, and find ways to be happy as such. Species isn’t the only portion of identity that we explore within this subculture, though; given the relative safety of our community, gender is also something that we frequently explore. More than 8% of furries describe themselves as non-cisgender, and a further 6% describe their gender as ‘complicated’ (via the 2016 Furry Survey). Furry is often a means of wish-fulfillment for us, the players of our characters and the bearers of our avatars, so we often present ourselves as we desire to be seen. Within a fictional furry world, though, there’s little reason to expect that similar statistics around gender identity and expression would not also be the case. Genderful: Green and Gold — How would those in a such a world explore their gender in a day-to-day context? What are the mechanics of hormone replacement therapy - transdermal patches obviously being out of the question - or of gender affirming surgery? What are the social implications of gender transition in a society already differentiated by species? Genderful: Blue and Silver — How would those in a such a world explore their gender in a sexual context? What are the effects of hormone replacement therapy or of gender affirming surgery on one’s sexuality? How does sex and sexuality work in a setting with complex scents and sensitive noses? Dating, already scary, gains a new layer of tension; romance, already complex, gains a new layer of difficulty; and sex, already fraught with gender, becomes even more complicated. About...

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: Short story: $10/printed page (up to a maximum of $100), Flash: $25 per piece Theme: fiction and poetry that shocks, surprises, moves, and tickles - not genre work Funicular Magazine publishes quality fiction and poetry that shocks, surprises, moves, and tickles us. Maybe all of those things in a single piece. We are a Canadian magazine and we want to publish Canadian voices, but don't be shy if you aren't Canadian. We love sharing international writers with our readers too. General Guidelines ✅ Font: We don't care, just make sure we can read it or, y'know, we won't ✅ File Type: PDF, Word, Text file ✅ Simultaneous Submissions (please withdraw your piece if it is being published elsewhere) ✅ Multiple Submissions (see specific submission limits below) ❌ No previously published stories (in print or online). Self-published is fine. ❌ No genre fiction. There are places for genre fiction. One of those places is not here. ❌ Do not put your name anywhere in the document or filename. We read submissions blind. What We Want If we like your work, we will ask for online and/or serial publication rights. Short Fiction Julio Cortazar said that the novel wins by points, the short story by knockout. Think about that when sending us your work. A short story can normally be read in one sitting, and if your sciatica is acting up you usually won't be sitting for very long. 3000 words max. You can go a little over the limit. Don't stress. Everything is going to be fine. Submissions Allowed Per Entry: 1 Poetry William Carlos Williams, Ford Maddox Ford, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Henry David Thoreau, William Butler Yeats, Edward Estlin Cummings. These are the names of some poets we know with three names. If you are...

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: Contributors Copy Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for its fourth volume of its HOWLERS series, Nefarious Nature. Deadline: March 1, 2020 Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable People versus nature has a long tradition in horror genre. This anthology seeks to celebrate and transform that narrative trope. Categorized into six different parts, the stories in this anthology will tackle the many ways Mother Nature can be a horrific...well...force of nature. Below are the six parts of the anthology and examples of how the element manifests in horror literature. Please note we are a progressive press and do not publish any conservative works. Examples in film and literature: Fire: Stephen King’s Firestarter, Freddy Kreuger’s entire backstory, Clive Barker’s “The Forbidden” Water: Black Water, Peter Benchley’s Jaws, Open Water Earth: any of the premature burial stories, any of the Medusa stories, Blood Beach Wind: The Fog, Snakes on a Plane, The Wind, Sharknado Plants: The Ruins, Little Shop of Horrors, R. L. Stine’s Stay Out of the Basement Animals: Stephen King’s Cujo, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Rats in the Walls,” Arachnophobia We will NOT accept: Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light. Pedophilia or sex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light. Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light. Snuff or Necrophilia presented in a positive light If you are in doubt, ASK. Better to ask then to get a straight up rejection! If you are unsure, just shoot me an email at [email protected].(restrictions borrowed from Voice: https://t.co/MWykJ6RY36) You can submit up to three stories, but we will only accept one per author (if any). Reprints are fine, but you have to own full permission of the work in...