Events

Deadline: July 31st, 2025 Payment: $30 plus 1 cent per word and a contributors copy Theme: Genre-bending stories that feature Polarities Autonomous Press is now accepting submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry for the 10th volume of Spoon Knife, our annual genre-bending lit anthology. Please read this whole page carefully before submitting; some details have changed this time around! Theme The theme for Spoon Knife 10 will be Polarities. Polarities: pairs of opposite forces or qualities or tendencies. Good and evil. Love and hate. Life and death. Heroism and villainy. Feminine and masculine. Night and day. Vice and virtue. Old and new. Order and chaos. The public persona and the hidden shadow self. The mundane everyday world and that which lies beyond. What polarity lies at the heart of your story? In what ways does it manifest? What happens when the two sides of the polarity come into contact or conflict, or when one transforms into the other? What We’re Looking For One of the things that’s always set Spoon Knife apart from other anthology series is the wild diversity of genres represented in each volume. Each volume has its own theme, and we aim to show how that theme can be woven into stories across multiple disparate genres. In a given volume of Spoon Knife, you might find the theme explored in tales of magical realism, science fiction, absurdist satire, swords-and-sorcery, historical romance, and horror, not to mention creative nonfiction and poetry. We especially love stories that defy established genre categories or creatively blend genres. Ultimately, our criteria for assessing a submission boil down to this: is it a good, engaging, and well-written story that plays with the volume’s theme in an interesting way? If you’re not familiar with Spoon Knife, please have a look at our most recent volume (that would be volume 8...

Deadline: July 31st, 2025 Payment: One free paperback OR $10 USD Theme: Stories that involve vampires. Your vampire(s) can be the whumpee, whumper, and/or caretaker. We will also consider stories about vampire-adjacent creatures such as dhampirs, succubi, etc. Bring out your vampires! For WPP's fourth anthology, we’re looking for stories that involve vampires. Your vampire(s) can be the whumpee, whumper, and/or caretaker. We will also consider stories about vampire-adjacent creatures such as dhampirs, succubi, etc. Word Count: Up to 17,500 words   For this anthology, we are looking for stories in the following categories: Micro-fiction: 250 words or less Flash fiction: 251-1,000 words Short Story: 1,001-7,499 words Novelette: 7,500-17,500 words Each author can submit one story per category. So for example, you can submit a short story and a micro fiction but you can’t submit two micro fictions. Compensation: ebook contributor’s copy, one free paperback OR $10 USD, and discounts on additional paperbacks 50% of proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to charity. Submissions Open: November 1, 2024 Submissions Close: July 31, 2025 Expected Publication Date: October 2025 Submit here! The Nitty-Gritty (aka more details about submitting) Via: The Whumpy Printing Press.

Deadline: July 31st, 2025 Payment: $50 and a contributor’s copy. Theme: Horror stories set in the Ozark mountains Calling all Ozark writers, storytellers, folklorists, and tale collectors!Parlor Ghost Press, an imprint of Watertower Hill Publishing (publishers of 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘏𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘴, and 𝘏𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘴), is taking submissions for our upcoming anthology, 𝘚𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸: 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘖𝘻𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳, edited by Heather Daughrity, to be released February 2026.What we are looking for: horror stories set in the Ozark mountains--either your own take on a story from Ozark folklore or an original tale featuring Ozark locations/atmosphere/beliefs/etc.We want all the spooks, haints, hags, and boogers. Give us the mist rising out of the hollers and the mysterious sounds from the woods, the strange lights in the sky and the distant cackle of Old Granny in her hidden shack.We want horror, but we want it PG—no extreme horror or erotic horror, please. Just a good modern take on the venerable myths, magic, and monsters unique to the Ozark area.Submissions are open from April 7 to July 31, 2025.Word Count: 3,000 to 6,000 words.Payment: $50 plus a contributor’s copy.Send submissions to: [email protected]. Put “OZARK” in the subject line.Submissions should be double spaced with Times New Roman 12-point font. Please ensure that your name, address, email, and word count are located at the top of your document. Send submissions as attachments to your email; stories included in the body of the email will not be accepted.We look forward to reading your stories! Via: Watertower Hill Publishing.

Deadline: July 31st, 2025 Payment: Royalties Theme: Lovecraftian horror Cthulu: Dreams – our Lovecraftian anthology Cthulu: Dreams– This is horror. Express yourself as the theme moves you. Incorporate the Lovecraftian theme as you will into your horror story. Not all need contain an eldritch horror, remember The Alchemist. Good writing will triumph over concepts tightly aligned to a perception of the theme. We encourage you to weave the theme into an engaging story with well-developed characters and deep emotion. Stories that contain infanticide, or rape will not be accepted. Consideration might be made for gratuitous gore, if the story calls for it. Submission Period: May 1, 2025 to July 31, 2025 Submissions: No AI, 1 per author; no simultaneous submissions, no reprints; Submission Cost: Free Word Limit: 2,000 to 7,000 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: Horror Anticipated Pay: Royalty Share of D2D sales and Kickstarter Share Each story will receive A D2D royalty share from the sales on the D2D platform and a percent of the Kickstarter. This does not include: wholesale to authors; or non-D2D retail outlets. Links will be available to direct your customers to D2D outlets. Timeline Projections: Submissions close: July 31, 2025 Review: Aug 2025 Acceptance / Rejection: Sep 2025 Edits: Oct 2025 Production: Oct 2025 Kickstarter: Oct 2025 Published: December 2025 Upon acceptance, the author is expected to work with the editor on at least one round of revisions in MSWord. Our publication goal will be the late fall of 2025; however, the extensive time needed to review and edit submissions may vary depending upon the submitted works and author’s response times. Inkd Publishing LLC will hold first publication rights for four months after publication...