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Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 per poem Theme: Where cosmic horror meets campy romantic comedy! Romance. Laughter. Tentacles... Welcome to where cosmic meets cute Welcome to the Necronomi-RomCom! About this Project On the face of it, blending the Necronomicom and a Rom-Com seems obvious.  Once the idea came into my mind in the summer of 2022, it wouldn’t leave until I decided to make it into a reality.  The goal is to see how many engaging ways people can blend humor, love, and the mythos. Love can be funny and it can be scary, why can’t it be both?  While also having big teeth, or tentacles, or even too many eyes? We hope this is just the first project that will link disparate concepts in unusual ways. Just because the cosmic flirts with disaster doesn’t mean it can’t flirt with other things! In this anthology, we’re looking for cosmic tales with a light romantic twist. Think couples visiting Leng on blind dates and Carcosa on their honeymoons, Valentine's Day roses tinted with the Color Out of Space, and brains in jars finding everlasting love with Mi-go. Think the lost pages of the Necronomicon written in sonnet form, Shoggoths shape-changing to impress the objects of their affection, and Nyarlathotep crushing on someone while Azathoth is piping a love song. Send us your best blend of cosmic and romance… just no erotica. Satire is great, and a little bit of dark is always welcome—after all, just because depressed, angry Deep Ones meet cute too doesn’t mean it’s all a bed of roses. That said? We look forward to reading your most imaginative comic romance fantasies! Open to poetry, and stories 1,000 to 6,000 words, in English. We are not considering stories written, or co-written, by AI at this...

Submission Window: April 2nd to August 31st Payment: Half cent per word Theme: Speculative Fiction taking place in the Wild West Graveyard Boots: The Old West. Lawless. Filthy. Challenges were numerous. Justice was haphazard. One could die from a gunshot, a snakebite, a disease, or any number of reasons. It was not a place for the weak of heart. And that was just the wild west all by itself. For “Graveyard Boots,” we seek stories that add creatures, gunslingers, ghouls, ill omens, bad luck, evil minds, monsters and more to the already desolate landscape and ghost towns. Yet there was still humor back in those days of yore, and with “Graveyard Boots,” stories with humor will give you a leg up. "Graveyard Boots" Guidelines: Here are a couple of tips to put your story in better position to be accepted. 1. Fit the theme. Old West. Horror. Of course, Jolly Horror Press loves humor. 2. Be within our word count guidelines (for “Graveyard Boots”, 2500 to 5500) or query us for shorter/longer. 3. No matter how good your story is, if it hasn't been edited, there is a big chance we won't accept it. In the past, we've accepted stories that needed a lot of editing work, but it took so much effort to make them presentable. We aren't doing that anymore. If within a page or two of reading the story we find a bunch of editing issues, it's going to be rejected. 4. Be unique. No matter what the theme of the anthology is, you should always be unique. If it's a stalker anthology for example, and your ex or some guy you work with is your stalker, it's trite. If your grandma is stalking your fiancée, well, that's unique. 5. At Jolly Horror Press, we prefer subtle horror. We generally don't like gruesome and overly bloody stuff. If someone...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: Royalties and a contributors copy Theme: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 CORE CONCEPT: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 – from (and including) the Spanish Civil War to the immediate winding down of conflicts after World War Two. Weird fiction is a mode of writing which includes the subversion of many standard tropes, or more imaginative interpretations, and has a strong psychological component, so please bear that in mind. SETTING: Geographically, stories should fall in the zone from Ireland to Russia, the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean shores. Stories can be set during direct military conflicts or far from battle, where distant wars have local repercussions for society or individuals. We’re not looking for ‘war stories’ so much as stories set DURING the war across Europe and showing some awareness of its impact. This was a bleak time for most. Go inventive with this one, such as (a few throwaway illustrations): Something unnatural walking through the fires of the London Blitz German occupiers learning terror in an isolated Norwegian village Dread and disquiet amongst the Free French in Tunisia US troops lost in the Ardennes Families in Britain sensing a wrongness about returnees Torn loyalties and minds in Ireland Horror in the snows of the Eastern Front An Italian soldier dealing with fear by disassociating from reality Balkan partisans trapped in the mountains Communities trying to pretend that there is no war APPROACH: Submissions could cover themes such as the intrusion of the ab-natural into the natural, the changing nature of society, and psychosocial issues at any level. Cosmic Horror is very relevant — explore the realisation that we are potentially insignificant in the cosmos, and that our understanding of the...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: AU$5.00 - under 3.000 words,. AU$10.00 - between 3,000 and 7,000 words, AU$15.00 - between 8,000 and 11,000 words, AU$20.00 - between 11,000 and 20, 000 words Theme: All genres, all themes! Yabblins is our theme-free collection. All themes, all genres, all the time. Deadline: August 31 2023 Word count: 1000 - 20,000 words Payment: AU$5.00 - under 3,000 words AU$10.00 - between 3,000 and 7,000 words AU$15.00 - between7,000 and 11,000 words AU$20.00 - between 11,000 and 20,000 words Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines and format your submission accordingly. If you have any specific questions please contact us using the form on the home page or via the listed social media accounts. To help make sure that your submission gets to the correct place, please include the following in the subject line of your email: Yabblins - Story Title. Via: Gypsum Sound Tales.

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Prizes: First Place – £20, Second Place – £10, Third Place – £10 Theme: Halloween Short Stories We are currently OPEN for submissions. The winners of the 2023 Halloween competition will be announced in October. We’ll be back with another competition in the new year! Keep an eye out for the next theme. Submit stories to [email protected] – please read the below guidelines before submitting. 2023 Halloween Short Story Competition We want your spookiest horror short stories! Anything goes: from your classic ghosts, vampires and werewolves to something a little stranger. We are looking for short stories of no longer than 2,500 words that include horror elements. This means the overall genre can be non-horror, but there must be something in there that is spooky and gives us a scare. It could be a monster story, a killer on the loose, someone/something unnatural, or somewhere haunted. It’s up to you! If it keeps us up at night, it counts. Closing Date: August 31st 2023, 11:59 PM Winners Announced: October 2023 Prizes: First Place – £20 Second Place – £10 Third Place – £10 The top 15 to 20 stories will be published in our Halloween anthology in October 2023. For this competition, all submissions from young writers (aged 16 and under) will be judged separately for our Young Writer’s Award. The prize for this is £10 and website publication. Submission Guidelines Your story must be no longer than 2,500 words (not including the title) Only one story permitted per person; you can enter again if you entered our previous competitions Stories must be in English All stories should be written in Times New Roman, in 12pt, and double spaced. Stories must be submitted in Microsoft Word Please include your name (or preferred pseudonym), age, story title,...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 2 cents per word and royalties and a paperback for US authors Theme: Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows. Finish it off with a twist of betrayal! Our 2024 edition. Submissions open on June 1, 2023. Theme: Hidden Villains: Betrayed– Bold, imaginative fantasy, horror, and sci-fi sculpted to thrill and entertain readers with the bizarre or delve into the shadows. Finish it off with a twist of betrayal! Betrayed- double-cross, fail, deceive, cheat, sell-out, let down, stitch up, rat out, turn traitor, rat on, expose, reveal, lay bare, stab in the back. There is no restriction as to how you incorporate the theme into your story as long as the genre falls within Speculative Fiction, including Sci-Fi or Fantasy. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion. Suspense and thrillers are encouraged over horror for this anthology, but a great horror story will rise to the top. Stories that contain infanticide, rape, or gratuitous gore will not be accepted. Submission Period: June 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023 Submissions: 1 per author; no reprints, no simultaneous submissions, no AI; Submission Cost: Free Word Limit: 2,000 to 8,000 words Submission Guidelines: Anonymous submission with no author name in document; 12 pt Times or Arial; .Doc or .Docx; double-space; first line indent; no tabs used. Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi Anticipated Pay: .02 per word + Royalty share from all Draft 2 Digital sales. A paperback author’s copy will be provided for US authors. Authors outside of the US will receive at least a digital copy, depending on shipping costs on a case by case basis. Each story will receive a share from Draft 2 Digital’s wide...

Deadline: August 31t, 2023 Payment: $5 Theme: Weirder Still As Quarter Press continues to grow, we’re adding another coin to our pocketful of change. We want to offer a space for shorter works to mingle with art and other bits of nonsense, so we bring you The Quarter(ly): It just makes cents. 2023’s Themes and Deadlines: Weirder Still (Aug. 31) What’ve you got to show us? Stories and / or Poems For Stories: We’re open to micro works all the way up to 10,000 words. Just keep two things in mind: We want to be engaged and the submission must be completed (no pitches, please!) For Poems: We’d love to see up to five poems from you, but you can always just send one, too. Art As long as it has some tie to the current issue’s theme, we’re open to see any art created in any medium at any time. Just know that it will need to “work in print” and—might—be presented in black and white. For ART ONLY, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com Graphic Stories Show us your comic strips or complete short works; we’d love to see them all! Please try to keep submissions to 20 pages or less. Feel free to also send a collection of comic strips / one shot comics, as well. (Please note that our publication size / dimensions might change between issues. Our “Norm” is 6x9”). These must be COMPLETE works. For Graphic Work / Comics, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com Analysis / Interviews / Reviews As long as it is tied to the theme in some way, we’d love to see any and all media analysis (film, music, literature, etc.), interviews...

  Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $20 + a contributor copy of the magazine. We pay $10 (per piece) for work published in our online venues. Theme: ALL genres of horror, as well as sci-fi and dark fantasy Broken Antler is a literary magazine and publisher of work that is dark, speculative, experimental, unsettling, and absurd. BAM Quarterly, Broken Antler’s online journal, publishes creative work four times a year (during the months of October, January, April, and July). Submissions for Issue 1 open June 1 and close August 31. The Marrow, Broken Antler’s blog and home of our LGBTQIA+ creator series, is updated biweekly and currently accepting pitches for interviews, reviews, and essays, as well as creative submissions of micro fiction, poetry, and art. And Broken Antler Magazine is our annual print publication, featuring creative and critical work from emerging and established writers, artists, creators, and individuals working within the horror space. What We Publish: Broken Antler publishes ALL genres of horror, as well as sci-fi and dark fantasy. The editors are partial to a wide range of subgenres—body, cosmic, folk, gore, etc. (and our EIC likes any writing that screws with her sleep schedule). If your work fits into the horror genre, or is some version of fucked-up, send it our way. For poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid submissions, we’re looking for work that is haunting and monstrous, weird and bizarre. Extra points if your work is experimental or doing something unusual with form. Do NOT send us work featuring gratuitous sexual assault, violence against women and/or marginalized groups, or hate speech. Broken Antler is 100% run by women, several members of our editorial staff identify as LGBTQIA+, and we are committed to uplifting these and other previously silenced voices. NOTE: Submitted work should be previously unpublished. We do...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $50, three physical copies of the anthology, and a lifetime subscription to all future Solar Press Horror Anthologies Theme: All forms of horror welcome. A brand new anthology project designed to give new voices in the genre a chance to be heard. Whether you write subtle, gothic ghost stories, or extreme, high-concept body horror, if it's good, we want it! 1. Stories must be provided as a .doc or .docx file, attached to an email. 2. Email subject must be formatted as follows: , , by . 3. The body of the email must only contain a plot synopsis. No other information. 4. 10,000 words maximum, no minimum. 5. Stories must be in English. 6. Stories must be fully edited and ready to print. 7. Stories made (or contributed to) with AI will be immediately rejected and you will be banned from submitting stories to future anthologies. 8. Author must be willing/able to provide exclusive worldwide reprint rights for a period not exceeding 1 year, and non-exclusive worldwide reprint rights for as long as the anthology remains in print. 9. No more than 2 submissions per author. 10. Submissions are international. If you can get your story to us, we'll consider it. Submissions close August 31st. If you have not heard from us by September 30th, please feel free to contact us about the status of your submission. Accepted stories will receive slight formatting edits if required. Outside of obvious typos or spelling errors, the text itself will not be edited. Not a word of your story will be changed. Contributors included in this year's anthology will receive $50, three physical copies of the anthology, and a lifetime subscription to all future Solar Press Horror Anthologies. All profits from this year's anthology will be donated to charity. TIPS: 1. We...

Submission Window: July 30th to August 31st, 2023 Payment: 5 cents per word Theme: Horror that takes place in shopping malls There’s something amiss at the mall. Elderly mallwalkers are being devoured by an unseen creature. A mad scientist is building a doomsday device out of Radio Shack parts. Post apocalypse, survivors attempt to recreate their 90s memories in a ruined mall. Each day when a boy checks Google Maps, the fancy new mall looks bigger—and closer to his village. Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors is a new collection of horror and dark sci-fi stories about shopping malls past, present, and future. Emerging in the United States as a paragon of post-World War II prosperity, the shopping mall was imagined as a cheery, futuristic, well-designed alternative to the messy and hazardous downtowns of old, providing housewives and children with a safe space to shop and entertain themselves. Malls served middle-class suburbanites dependent on cars and eager to spend their disposable income on mass produced goods. The mall has often been a subject of derision as a harbinger of cultural zombification and whitewashing. As the decades have passed, the mall has declined in prestige but also become more accessible to broader groups of people in the US. Shopping malls, too, have spread to most countries around the world. Pop-culture has viewed malls through many lenses: optimist and innovative, symbolic of racist city planning and policing, a source of nostalgia for freer spending and youthful naivety, a place for community, and a signifier of a nation’s wealth and connections to a global consumer network. But in this collection, one thing is universal: something ominous is happening at the local mall. Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors is a document of one-stop shopping gone wrong. Kickstarter We’re raising $3500 to help defray the costs of publication—but...

Submissions Window: August 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word Theme: Upbeat and/or comedic fantasy, science fiction or horror stories Got an original, unpublished story? We would love to feature your upbeat and/or comedic fantasy, science fiction or horror story. Our next submission window will be 1st August to 31st August. Submissions will be accepted via an email address that will be posted here at that time. Formatting   We accept documents as .doc, .docx or, if you must, .rtf. Please follow Shunn’s modern manuscript format. Multiple Submissions   Please submit one story at a time. Unless otherwise directed, please wait 7 days to submit in the event that your story isn't a good fit. Word Limit   100-6,000 words. We intend to accept an equal number of flash-fiction and short stories. Simultaneous Submissions   Submitting to us and others at the same time is not only accepted, but encouraged! We do ask that you notify us as soon as possible if your submission is accepted elsewhere. Payment and Rights   We pay $0.01 per word for original, unpublished fiction. Payment is via PayPal only. We require First Print and Digital rights with a six-month period of exclusivity from the date of publication. All other rights remain with the author. Time Length   We aim to make our final decisions within a month of the submission window closing. You will often receive a response much sooner. If you haven’t heard from us by that time, please query via e-mail with query in the subject line. What we don’t want: Non-speculative fiction   If there is not an element of fantasy, science fiction or horror then we are not the target market for your story. Reprints   We accept reprints by request only (Although we do intend to change this...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: $20 Theme: An LGBTQ+ Alice in Wonderland themed anthology We’re opening the call for our newest anthology, Queens in Wonderland. This is an LGBTQ+ Alice in Wonderland themed anthology, and we want want to see it all. Throw some of those iconic characters into space. Put them in an urban fantasy. We’d love to see a cyberpunk or decopunk (or any punk!) version. A classic Lewis Carroll version would be good too. Feel free to take any of the characters (don’t forget about the White Queen or the Dormouse) or use any of the world-building from the classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There you wish. If you need more inspiration, consider these prompts: It’s time for tea, but your main character’s running late The Queen of Hearts has invited your character to a garden ball The Mad Hatter is nowhere to be found The White Knight is talking backwards and you need them to solve a mystery Cheshire has appeared in an urban downtown, and is directing you down an alley Requirements: 1,500-5,000 word count LGBTQ+ Nothing with gratuitous violence, rape, or abuse of animals/children Cursing is fine, within reason Romance and sex is fine within reason, but no erotica Submissions close on Aug 31st Payment: We will be paying $20 USD dollars upon signing of the contract and you’ll receive an e-book once publication is complete. Paperback contributor copies at cost plus $2.00 will be available too. How to submit: Please format according to these standards Double spaced, readable font, aligned to the left 12 Font Times New Roman Please don’t hit “tab” Please don’t put two spaces between sentences This article goes into other details that make a huge difference in the presentation of...

Submission Window: August 15th - 31st, 2023 Payment: $0.05 per word for fiction, $50 per poem Theme: Reclamation Apparition Lit is open for poetry and short story submissions four times a year. February 15-28 (March 1-7 BIPOC creators only) May 15-31 (June 1-7 BIPOC creators only) August 15-31 (September 1-7 BIPOC creators only) November 15-30 (December 1-7 BIPOC creators only) Submissions received outside of posted open dates will be deleted unread. Please note that we will not accept AI-generated content submissions. This includes stories or poetry that are written or co-written by AI. We will only accept previously unpublished, complete stories between 1000-5000 words. If the story is complete with an extra hundred words, then it will still be considered. Any stories over 5,100 words, excerpted from a larger work, or incorrectly formatted, will automatically be rejected. Apparition is a semi-pro magazine, paying $0.05 per word, a minimum of $50.00 USD (excluding flash contest). If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year. We are now accepting submissions through Moksha. Please follow the guidelines below when submitting your work: Format the story using the Shunn manuscript  — you do not need to include your physical address or phone number. Please only use Times New Roman or Arial font in your document. Name the file using the story title and your last name, i.e. THE SWAMP EXCHANGE_Barker. This helps us find your story in the submissions list. Provide a brief cover letter that includes your full name, the title of the short story, word count, and any relevant publications. Please do not include a synopsis. All acceptances and rejections will be emailed by the 15th day of the following month after submissions close. We currently do not have the available time...

Submission Window: Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 for poetry, 1 cent per word for non-fiction, $35 for cover art Theme: Speculative fiction It's our goal to publish diverse voices from around the world, and to do that, we are actively seeking stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces by authors from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy canon. Our submission cycle is therefore split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone. Guidelines for Fiction We are seeking stories in the English language up to 6,000 words by writers from around the world. We favor submisions that have not been published before (including on your own website), though we do accept a limited number of reprints not currently appearing anywhere online. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra. We pay 1¢ per word for fiction, and we try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks. We will also accept a limited number of previously published stories, so please indicate on the form if your submission is a reprint. All submissions must use the Shunn manuscript format (we prefer Courier New) and be either .rtf, .doc, or .docx. We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we've finished. We're more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and emotional depth. Meditative stories that...

Submission Window: August 1st - 31st, 2023 (Listing early so you can start writing.) Payment: 10 cents per word and a contributors copy Theme: Why doesn't your character just leave the scary situation that they find themselves in? Why Didn’t You Just Leave submission call (August 2023) Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios are excited to read your submissions for Why Didn’t You Just Leave, an anthology of original horror short fiction. It’s the question asked of any story about a haunting: why didn’t you just leave? If accounts of people who have stayed in haunted houses are any indication, it’s never that simple. There are a lot of reasons why people don’t just leave scary situations, and we’d like to see smart, spooky stories that reflect the complexity behind that question. A link to our Moksha submissions portal will appear here on August 1, 2023. What we’re looking for: Stories that focus on all the possible reasons why people don’t just leave haunted places – including finances, family, legal restrictions, health, etc. Stories about “ordinary” people and places (including apartments, workplaces, schools, military bases, hospitals, churches, etc.)  as well as extraordinary situations. Our editorial team is BIPOC and queer, and we especially encourage submissions from writers of marginalized and traditionally-underrepresented groups. Timeline This anthology will be funded via Kickstarter in summer 2023. Our submissions period will be open from August 1 – August 31, 2023. Acceptances will go out in September 2023, with edits to follow in the fall. We anticipate publication in spring of 2024. Word count 500 – 5,000 words. Simultaneous submissions are fine – just let us know if your story gets accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions are fine – maximum 3 per author. No reprints, please – we’re looking for original fiction only. Formatting: Format your story in...

Submission Window: August 1-31st, 2023 Payment: $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue Theme: Any genre, short story Mission = Revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful. Payout = Base Pay of $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Wait, you mean if this substack gets thousands of subscribers, the winner would get thousands of dollars? Yes! The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story and I sincerely hope to go way past that. What does the timeline look like? Submit stories by the end of the month, winner to be announced on the 15th. There is ONE story that wins and receives the full payout. Where do I send submissions? [email protected] What are the rules for submitting? 1. No Fees 2. Send in Microsoft Word or Google Doc form 3. Any genre 4. 6- 10,000 words. Yes, just 6 words, like Hemingway's famous 6-word story "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." 5. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute. 6. Acknowledge Distribution Rights on this Substack - You can still sell your story elsewhere but we need to be able to save and publish it here. The goal is to create a library for subscribers. 7. Only the winner will be published and rights will only transfer for the winning story. What do I get for subscribing? One beautiful story every month. The complete library. The joy of supporting artists and doing something interesting. What if I can’t pay right now? That’s ok! If you publish a blurb about this site on your website, blog, or social media, I will send you one full story of your choosing. Best of all, it is on the...

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 10 cents per word Theme: Stories that are ghoulish or "fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky" We are…blown away by this cover, and we can’t wait to fill it with a bunch of gnarly stories. That’s where you come in. What we are after: short stories that fit our personal definition of the word GHOULISH, which is “fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky.” Note that we said fun, not funny. Comedic stories are definitely allowed, but it’s not all we’re looking to receive. We want stories that remind us why we love the horror genre. We want to have a perverted little smile across our face while reading. Make us slobber like idiots. Turn us into the Sickos.jpeg meme. We are also interested in non-fiction about the horror genre. GUIDELINES: Deadline: August 31, 2023 (11:59 PM CST) Word count: 5,000 max (short stories); 3,000 max (non-fiction) Payment: 10c per word Simultaneous Submissions: Yes Multiple Submissions: No (Please only submit one story per open call. If we reject you, do not resubmit until we reopen for the next issue.) Reprints: No AI Submissions: No. Please note if you are caught sending us an AI story, you will be blacklisted from ever publishing with us in the future. Don’t do it. How to submit: Send all stories & essays to ghoulishsubmissions @ gmail dot com with – – in the subject line. Please do not copy/paste the story in the body of the email. We prefer Word doc attachments if possible. All inquiries can also be directed to the same address. As you wait, feel free to come hang out in the GHOULISH discord. Thank you and good luck, ghouls! Via: Ghoulish Books.

Deadline: August 31st, 2023 Payment: 10 cents per word for the magazine (free to submit) $3,000 for the contest (fee to submit.) Theme: Write a story involving Sunken Secrets, and a jewel. Note: Elegant Literature has a magazine that is free to submit to and a contest that there are fees to submit to. We're obviously hyping the magazine portion as we don't believe in fees but want to include all of the details for those who are interested. Plunge into the abyss. Embrace the cold, unfathomable depths. What secrets lie beneath these waves? Descend, deeper still, until the sunlight becomes a distant memory… Shipwrecks, submersibles, and silence. Ancient secrets in watery graves. Strong currents pull you through cities cloaked in coral, where unknown creatures lurk in the shadows. Siren songs echo in the deep. A mermaid’s melody—Poseidon’s puzzle. Down here, far from tides and tempests, the world above is a lifetime away. Or is it what you’ve anchored deep within yourself, a buried truth? The pressure turns your own thoughts to monsters. Claustrophobia, drowning, the unknowable void. The frozen sea of an icy moon, the magic at the bottom of a Faerie pool, the treasure lost in quicksand. There’s life below, so dive into the abyss or the subconscious. Sunken Secrets are ready to be revealed… can you handle them? This contest invites you to explore Sunken Secrets, whatever that means to you. Elegant Literature is the first short fiction magazine to pay professional rates but not accept submissions from pros. Our mission is to help new writers earn their first publishing credits—and their first dollar—from writing stories. To date, we have published 165 new authors across 21 issues, and put over $100,000 into the hands of writers around the globe. It’s free to submit to the magazine, and...