Events

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: $5 Theme: Graveyard-themed Horror Madame Gray is excited to announce a call for graveyard-themed submissions for her new anthology, Madame Gray's Graveyard of Blood! Open to all subgenres of horror, as long as the story takes place in, or is connected in some way to a cemetery. The more ghoulish, the better! The scarier, the merrier! And a bit of gallows humor is always welcome, but not required. Well-written tales that are off the beaten path with a twist ending stand the best chance of getting accepted. Compiled and edited by Gerri R. Gray (Madame Gray's Poe-Pourri of Terror, Toilet Zone 2 & 3) and published by Hellbound Books, this anthology (the fourth in the popular Madame Gray series) is open to undiscovered writers and established voices alike. Stories must be original and previously unpublished. Multiple and simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know straight away if your story is accepted elsewhere. No poetry or flash fiction, please. Payment is $5.00 plus a free contributors copy (ebook). PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines...  * Word format saved in .doc, or .docx * 12 pt times new roman * Double spaced * Absolutely NO extra lines between paragraphs! * 2.5K - 8K word count * Write 'GRAVEYARD' along with your name and story title in the header of your email *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. * The submission documents are to be separated and Word (.doc or .docx) documents are to be attached to your submission email. To submit, email your polished story to [email protected] - Make sure that you check your mss for grammar and punctuation, use our guidelines to help you: DOWNLOAD YOUR HBB GUIDE TO GRAMMAR HERE (PDF) Deadline: Aug 1st, 2023 NO REPRINTS - ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED WORKS ONLY Capped at...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: £20 and a contributors copy Theme: Evil or demonic toys Title: Terrors from the Toy Box Story Length: 2K words – 7K words Pay: £20 regardless of story length plus a paperback and digital (pdf & Epub.) copy. Deadline: 1st August 2023 Release Date: 1st October 2023 In a dark corner of the attic lies a wooden box burgeoning with forgotten relics from bygone decades. Evil effigies of plastic claw their way out of their dusty confines into your very nightmares. Devil dolls and terrifying teddies, abominable action figures and gruesome games all lying in wait for the opportunity to be free to wreak terror once again. What we want: For our anthology, ‘Terrors from the Toy Box’, we are looking for original short horror stories, from 2K words to 7K words max, with a toy theme.  Works slightly under 2K words or slightly over 7K words may still be considered. We ask for five months exclusive print and digital rights, and non exclusive rights thereafter. You will retain copyright ownership of your work. What we don’t want: We don’t accept simultaneous submissions. We don’t want stories about existing toy brands, toy lines or real people; it needs to be fully fictional, although mentioning toy lines here and there in your story is acceptable. We don’t want to read anything detailing animal cruelty, harm to children, gratuitous sex or any sort of prejudice. We don’t accept flash fiction or poetry.  Format: The anthology will be released in paperback print and ebook formats and sold via Amazon. How to submit: Send your manuscript as an attachment to [email protected] or [email protected] Please follow the Shunn Manuscript Format leaving out headers and page numbers. On the first page, please include: Your pen name, The story title, Approx. word count, Your email...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: High-End Cannibals It’s that time again. PsychoToxin Press is issuing an open call for our next anthology. What we’re looking for this time is cannibal stories. Now when we say cannibal stories, we’re not looking for stereotypes like headhunters or TCM style hillbillies. What we’re looking for is elevated cannibals. Stories that occur in places like high-end restaurants or secret societies. Maybe it’s a cannibal cooking show on the darkweb. Maybe it’s an exclusive invitation to a dinner. Anything outside of the same tired stories. Submissions should be between 2,000-10,000 words. Pay is $10 plus a digital contributors copy. Please include contact information both in your email and on the first page of your submission. Given that we’re asking for cannibal stories, our guidelines are a little more relaxed for this one, however please keep the following in mind… No excessive gore or violence without a reasonable explanation. If it fits the story that’s great, but gore for the sake of gore is just lazy. No graphic sexual assault or violence against animals or children. Again it’s just lazy and oftentimes only used for shock value. You must hold the rights to publish the submitted work. You wouldn’t want anyone stealing your work, and we expect the same honesty from all contributors. PsychoToxin Press does not claim to hold copyright over your work if chosen for publication, all we ask is that you don’t reprint the story anywhere for at least 3 months after publication of the anthology. All submissions must be submitted by August 1st to be considered for inclusion. All submissions should be sent to [email protected] with your name and title in the subject line. Thanks in advance and we look forward to reading your work. Via: PsychoToxin Press.

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: $.03 per word Theme: Alternative Leadership B Cubed Press is pleased announce an Open Call for Alternative Leadership.    An anthology about leadership. Leadership by the under-represented, by those too often forced to watch as those less qualified, less capable rise in a system that cannot see the value of diversity and change. We’re looking for broken barriers of all kinds.  Can a man lead the National Organization of Women? Can a woman lead the NFL Players Association?  Not in our current world, perhaps, but maybe in alternative worlds? This will be a book about those things, in government, in the PTA, in the Horde, in the town or village.  In the world. About the Orc would be King of the Goblins, the woman who would be Pope.  The only limits are those of your own imagination. So understand there is no magic formula for sex, orientation or race of your protagonist.  We want our readers to enjoy the story, sometimes laugh, but always think. The Alternatives series often uses humor and satire as a way of looking at issues.  You don’t have to write satire or humor to sell us a story, but it sometimes helps. We are unabashedly social justice fans and love redemption.  Your story doesn’t have to reflect progressive perspectives, but again, it helps. But most of all, we want our readers to think about the story after they’ve put down the book. We are looking for good writing, first and foremost. We also want imaginative scenarios, and a good bit of humor in stories, essays or poetry is always appreciated. Write of successes. Write of failures. Write of the perfect, the imperfect, the noble, and the wretched. Write the story of the person who said, “I can be more.” This book...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Theme: Story must begin with: "As soon as Harriet entered the building, she headed to the seventh floor." Fall: As soon as Harriet entered the building, she headed to the seventh floor. Due date: August 1, 2023 We love that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually four weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines. And, just to be clear, we do not accept simultaneous submissions. One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: Royalties: one (1%) per cent of net sales Theme: “Life is the dance between choice and chance.” “Life is the dance between choice and chance.” How did you come to the point in life where you now find yourself? Two factors were likely in play: choice and chance. The choices you make are clearly a factor in shaping your life. For example: a woman in one universe elopes with her high school sweetheart, but they are too young to make the marriage work and divorce at any early age; in a second universe, she marries him after they graduate from university and happily becomes a stay-at-home mom; in a third universe, she doesn’t marry him and pursues a successful career. Making different choices about the same life goal can lead to very different lives. It’s also true, though, that chance, forces that are out of our control, shapes the choices that are available to us. This may be because of the choices of others which directly affect us, or it may because of the society into which we are born. For instance: a black man sleeps in his car in the drive-thru lane of a fast food restaurant. In one universe, two white cops are sent to deal with him; forty-five minutes later, one of them has shot him dead. In a second universe, one of the white cops and a psychiatrist are sent to deal with him; after a tense confrontation, he is arrested and his car impounded. In a third universe, the psychiatrist and a social worker droid are sent to deal with him; he is sent home to sleep it off and told he can pick up his impounded car the next day. The different outcomes are a product of chance, the...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: Icing out your enemies, femme-presenting antiheroes, Medusa, the White Witch, snow queens in general Icing out your enemies, femme-presenting antiheroes, Medusa, the White Witch, snow queens in general, Nina Maclaughlin’s Wake, Siren, Madeline Miller’s Circe, Spring Breakers, Merricat from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle; Promising Young Woman, Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I’m Worthless, burning your ex inside of a bear, Ottessa Moshfegh, murderous kitsunes, Onibaba, Bunny by Mona Awad, Lady Vengeance, Emma Frost, The Low, Low, Woods by Camera Maria Machado, Lady Tremaine, sirens in general, revenge ghosts, Carol Ann Duffy’s “Medusa” and The World’s Wife, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Carrie, Lady Macbeth, fashion bitches, Cathy Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights, Fairuza Balk in The Craft, bell hooks’ killing rage, Bertha in Wide Sargasso Sea, Shakira cursing her ex and mother-in-law from the balcony of her home, Sylvia Plath, femme fatales, Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt, Cersei Lannister, Fragment of the Head of a Queen by Cate Marvin, blud by Rachel McKibbens,  Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, spitting on graves, villain equality, Lisbeth Salander, Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of Anger,” PJ Harvey, Beyonce’s Lemonade, Kali, Katherine Faw’s Ultraluminous, coming to your house in the middle of the night to cut up all your wigs. If you see yourself in the mirror, submit your work to the newest incarnation of Grimoire by AUGUST 1, 2023 B E F O R E   Y O U   S U B M I T The best way to know what we want is to look in our mirror (see below) and to read past issues of the magazine. You can find our archive here. D R E A M S Regardless of issue theme, we’re also always looking for dreams for our resident dream expert, Billy, to...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: $40 per original poem or per page of original art., $20 per reprinted poem or per page of reprinted art., $0.04 per word for original prose, based on final published word count., $0.02 per word for reprinted prose, based on final published word count. Theme: Chapter Wizards in Space believes that all writers and artists deserve compensation for their work. In line with this belief, all creators with pieces accepted will be paid and retain rights to their work. Submissions are opening June 19th, 2023, for Issue 09: Chapters. All chapters must have an end. A final sentence, a closing line. And so does Wizards in Space. For our ninth and final issue, we’re ready to hear about the chapters of your own journeys. Which pages have you turned, and which are you now opening? We want your cliffhangers, we want your tidy knots, we want your open endings. Fresh starts and sweet farewells. Send us stories that tell half-truths, that contain muddled middles, or cold opens. Pieces that reflect on an adventure — whether you’re still riding it out or looking back with nostalgia. Share with us the chapters of your life that most want to be shared, the ones that spill over their lines and beg you to keep reading. We invite pieces that say hello, how have you been, or until we meet again. We want this issue to be a reflection of everything that Wizards in Space has been over the years: a beginning, a middle, and now — an end. You write the chapters, we’ll put it in the book. And then we’ll start looking for the sequel. After all, the end of one chapter means the start of another, and whatever is next for us and for you, these...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: Short Stories: $400, Narrative Comics and One-Act Plays: $300, Poetry, Flash Fiction, and Graphic Arts: $100 Theme: Speculative fiction written by Latinx authors in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America. We are looking for works that take classic utopian ideas and reexamine them through a radical Latinx lens and create something compelling and new. Editors: Alex Hernandez, Matthew David Goodwin, Sarah Rafael García, Sara Rivera We are currently taking original and unpublished short stories, poetry, plays, and graphic arts for Not Your Papi’s Utopia, an anthology of speculative fiction written by Latinx authors in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America. We are looking for works that take classic utopian ideas and reexamine them through a radical Latinx lens and create something compelling and new. The submissions should not be perfect visions of an idyllic society, but gripping tales of a society trying to do better, to be more in harmony with the environment, and to build more equitable societies. Conflict is necessary for most good stories, but a general sense of optimism about the future or a viable pathway to hope is a must for this collection. We are accepting any of the speculative genres that fit the general theme, but here are some genres we are actively seeking: AfroLatinx Futurism, Indigenous Futurism, Speculative Metafiction, Solarpunk, Ecofiction, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Slipstream, Apocalyptic/Post- Apocalyptic Fiction, Speculative Non-Fiction, Alien Environments, Alternate Histories/Futures, Multiverse or Parallel Worlds, Secret Histories/Futures The anthology will affirm the diversity of interests, and concerns of Latinas/os, as well as the overlapping identities that contribute to the Latinx experience. Although the anthology will be published in English, submissions can be in English, Spanish, or any Latin American indigenous language–or a mix of all of these. Multiple submissions accepted. The majority of what we’ll be taking...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: Short Story-2,500 words or less. $0.01 USD per word/$25 USD max, Poems-less than 200 words $10, Flash Fiction-less than a 1,000 words $0.01 USD per word/$10 USD max Theme: This One's for the Weirdos The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an homage to the scary comics and zines of the late 20th century. This season's theme is This One's for the Weirdos. Most of us know what it is like to not fit in, to not know how to fit in or to even want to. This one is for the freaks, the geeks, the neurospicy, and the monsters who can't quite make themselves fit the mold. The villagers are out there with the pitchforks and torches. What are you going to do hotshot? Or are you the one that fits in and undermines from the inside? Take it where you want. No more than two fiction stories per author per submission period. Fiction is limited to 2,500 words or less. Authors are paid $0.015 USD per word upon acceptance ($37.50 USD max). Flash fiction is limited to under 1,000 words. Authors are paid $0.015 USD per word upon acceptance ($15 USD max). No more than three poems per poet. Poems are limited to 200 words or less for each poem. Poets are paid $10 USD upon acceptance. I prefer to use PayPal to pay authors, but will work with authors where PayPal is not available. Nonfiction columns will must be pitched to editor in chief before submission. Email your idea to [email protected] The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an...

Deadline: August 1st, 2023 Payment: $25 per poem, $50 for stories less than 1500 words, $50 for Art (1-3 Images), $100 for Art (4+ Images), for work more than 1501 words Theme: "Relief" that is also hybrid, cross-genre work of both emerging and established creatives who often reside outside traditional artistic disciplines. Brink is open for hybrid and cross-genre submissions of any length engaging the theme RELIEBrink is open for hybrid and cross-genre submissions of any length engaging the theme RELIEF. Relief is a form of ease, yes. It’s a delicious feeling of release. It’s that hopeful buoyancy caused by reassurance that overrides our systems when pain and distress are alleviated. Relief is physical. It’s emotional and mental, too. But as a concept, relief implies so much more than deliverance from discomfort. Relief connotes the remains of a thing left behind; the residue, the leftover, the left behind. That which stands when everything else lifts away. Relief is assistance that arrives in the form of aid, support, or help in a time of danger, need, or difficulty. Relief is a distinct vivid contrast. You can throw things into relief. You can bring things into relief. Show us, create for us, those exact things. Take us to the edge, the brink, of relief. Brink has two reading periods per year: January and July. Between July 1 - 31, we will open for submissions engaging the theme of Relief. Through Submittable, we accept a variety of creative work from Nonfiction to Fiction, from Poetry to Translation. But our hearts beat strongest for hybrid work that falls into the cross-genre category we call Evocations. We are interested in work that presses boundaries, uses more than one medium to tell a story, and both looks and feels different on the page. Additionally, we look for submissions...