Events

Contest: Drabble Monthly Challenge – 12 DAYS of CHRISTMAS

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Prize: 0.04 USD per word via Paypal SEPTEMBER 2019 SUBMISSIONS THEME : Horror. Theme is 12 DAYS of CHRISTMAS (choose one day) This theme will be open for submissions from 1st September 2019 and will close midnight 30th September 2019 (last place on Earth).  Submissions received outside of this timeframe will not be read. You must include the theme in your email subject (as shown above). Reading will start once the submission period has closed. The BEST 12 drabbles will be chosen for publication in DECEMBER 2019. Word count : EXACTLY 100 words, excluding title Author eligibility : Open only to authors who have already been successfully accepted into one of our anthologies Reprints : Not allowed Simultaneous Submissions : Not allowed Multiple Submissions : One per author, per month << IF YOU SEND MORE THAN ONE, WE WILL REJECT THEM ALL, UNREAD Publication : Online in Dark Moments.  May be included in a single anthology in print and digital formats at a later date (but within one year of initial publication) Author compensation : 0.04 USD per word via Paypal How to submit : See our submission guidelines for formatting. Send your story as either a Word format attachment to [email protected]. Your document name must include your pen name and story title. Your email title should be “ – – ” Please include a 50 word bio and ONE link Via: Black Hare Press

Taking Submissions: Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 11

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: 2 Contributor's copies We are open till September 30 for submissions to the latest in our series of short story anthologies, featuring the best new writing from around the world. You can find examples of what we like in our back issues and also in our Story of the Month features, as well as in the periodicals listed under Links. We're generally looking for literary fiction not genre stories. The only payment we can offer at this time is two copies of the book when it is published.  Full details are set out in the submission form area below. "Willesden Herald: New Short Stories 11" will be published simultaneously in the US and UK in early 2020 and will be available from the main online booksellers by print on demand. We can also do print runs on favourable terms when bulk orders are requested. See our New Short Stories blog and The Willesden Herald for updates and features that may be of interest. What You Need to Know We're seeking literary fiction. Please see our back issues for examples of what we like. Click Anthologies Language: English. Previously unpublished. Entirely your own original work. Word range: 1500 to 7000. Only one submission at a time please. Please do not include quotes for which copyright permission would have to be obtained, e.g. song lyrics or other excerpts, including epigraphs, unless the quoted text is in the public domain. Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced is good but it's not the be all and end all. Document formats accepted: .doc, .docx, or .RTF. Unfortunately we cannot accept PDF format. If you don't know what any of that means, don't worry. It's the file you upload, and it should be fine. Consideration: Two copies of the book will be awarded to the writer of each short...

Taking Submissions: Split Lip Magazine

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: web issues will receive $50 (paid via PayPal). Print issue contributor payment is $5 per printed page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies and 1 year subscription. Note: While they do have pay to submit options, there are free-to-submit options through the end of the month at the bottom of the listing. Split Lip Magazine* is a voice-driven literary journal with a pop culture twist. We publish online monthly and in print annually. We accept fiction (flash and short stories), memoir, and poetry. Please read our guidelines and submit accordingly. We appreciate you taking time to check us out and look forward to reading your work. WE ARE NOW A PAYING MARKET! As of May 2018, contributors to web issues will receive $50 (paid via PayPal). Print issue contributor payment is $5 per printed page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies and 1 year subscription. *Split Lip Magazine is an independently-run offshoot of Split Lip Press, If you have a question about Split Lip Press, please visit their website for contact information. Other important details:  We're open for FREE submissions during the months of December, February, April, June, August, and October. We are open for TIP JAR submissions only during the months of January, March, May, July, September, and November. We offer an EXPEDITED submission option, which puts your submission to the top of our reading pile. You can expect a response within two weeks (usually sooner). It does not guarantee acceptance. Occasionally we may shut FREE subs early due to an overwhelming response (e.g., our free sub cap with Submittable maxes out). If the fees are a burden, please get in touch, and we'll see what we can do. Please submit in one genre only (choose your best and let us do the rest) at a time. Should you receive a rejection, please wait one month before submitting...

Taking Submissions: Resistance Art Attack

Deadline: September 30th, 2019 Payment: Royalties At Not a Pipe Publishing, we believe we must fight fascism with our voices while we still can. We can’t wait around to speak out against the horrors of the Trump administration after more lives have been lost. We need to be screaming right now! After some brainstorming with writer Isaac Dye and our publisher, author Benjamin Gorman, and reflecting on the success of our anthology of stories by women writers, Strongly Worded Women, and our success raising money for The Alzheimer’s Association through our project as part of their The Longest Day fundraiser, we’ve decided to curate a collection of short stories around the theme of resistance to the disastrous and corrupt presidency of Donald Trump. As writers know, a novel can often take years, even decades, to craft and polish. While a short story is no less a product of careful skill and craft, we hope this anthology can be amalgamated on a much shorter timeframe and give writers an opportunity to use their gifts to speak truth to power through fiction (not “alternative facts” or “fake news” but the deeper truth that only fiction can provide). If you are a fiction writer, we would love to include your story. Genre fiction is our brand, so if you want to try your hand at dystopian sci-fi and imagine a world where the horrors of a Trump presidency are allowed to metastasise, go for it! If you write fantasy and want to write an allegory for Trump in a world of monsters and magic, cast that spell. If you write paranormal and want to populate Trump’s America with ghosts and vampires and werewolves, we’d love it. For this anthology, we’ll accept stories that are more explicitly horror than we normally look for because,...

Taking Submissions: The Dark Frontier

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Payment: $25 and a contributors copy WILD WEST PRESS IS OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS FOR AN ANTHOLOGY CALLED THE DARK FRONTIER. The Dark Frontier is a grim wasteland dangling on the edge of an apocalypse. Teetering on the precipice of civilization breakdown, the inhabitants of this bleak wilderness must do whatever is necessary to survive the sinister forces surrounding them. We are looking for short stories to fit this narrative. The tales are to be western with horror, sci-fi, and/or fantasy incorporated into them. Black magic, demonic entities, and technology gone wrong are the kind of elements we are seeking. However, they are not limited to these conflicts. Whatever wicked forces you can devise to devastate the world is welcome. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 1) Email submissions to [email protected] 2) In the subject line, write THE DARK FRONTIER, the title of your story, and your name. 3) Minimum word count: 2000; maximum: 10,000 4) Attach story in word or docx files only. Anything else will be ignored. 5) DO NOT paste the story in the body of the email. It will not be read. 6) Simultaneous submissions are okay, just please tell us if your story is accepted elsewhere. 7) Previously published stories are acceptable as long as you own the publishing rights. 8) Multiple submissions are okay. 9) Deadline is October 1st. 10) If accepted, you will receive $25 and a paperback contributor’s copy. We will not be responding until after the deadline has passed. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. We look forward to reading your submissions. Via: Wild West Press's Facebook.

Contest: Owl Canyon Hackathon #3

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Prizes: First prize is $3000, 2nd prize is $2000, and 3rd prize is $1000 Writers are invited to create and submit a short story consisting of 50 paragraphs. The contest provides the 1st and 20th paragraphs, and the short story writer crafts the rest. First prize is $3000, 2nd prize is $2000, and 3rd prize is $1000 with the winning short stories published in a short story anthology, as well as an invitation to give a public reading at Inkberry Books in Niwot, CO. The twenty-four (24) Finalists will also have their short stories included in this anthology. ABOUT THE CONTEST  Owl Canyon Press provides paragraphs #1 and  #20, and the writer creates the other 48 paragraphs (i.e., paragraphs 2-19 and 21-50) to complete the story. CONTEST DETAILS There’s no cost to enter Anyone can submit, including outside the USA, but the stories must be in English 50 Paragraphs total – including the 1st and 20th provided in the submission form No maximum word count, but each paragraph needs to be at least 40 words – this isn’t flash fiction so feel free to use as many words as you need to tell the story Dialog is fine as long as it’s in a paragraph of at least 40 words Authors retain all rights to their short stories Winning authors agree to permit Owl Canyon Press to publish their stories in an Anthology Winners receive up to $3000 in cash awards, publication in a short story anthology, and an invitation to give a public reading at Inkberry Books in Niwot, CO Winners will be notified in December 2019 Failure to comply with any contest guidelines may result in disqualification For additional information check the Owl Canyon Press Hackathon FAQ  Via: Owl Canyon Press's Submittable.

Taking Submissions: The Cafe Irreal November 2019

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Payment: 1 cent per word The Cafe Irreal is a quarterly webzine that presents a kind of fantastic fiction infrequently published in English. This fiction, which we would describe as irreal, resembles the work of writers such as Franz Kafka, Kobo Abe, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Luis Borges. As a type of fiction it rejects the tendency to portray people and places realistically and the need for a full resolution to the story; instead, it shows us a reality constantly being undermined. Therefore, we're interested in stories by writers who write about what they don't know, take us places we couldn't possibly go, and don't try to make us care about the characters. We would also suggest you take a look at the current issue, archives, and theory (especially the essay, "What is irrealism?") pages on this web site. We accept unsolicited fiction up to 2,000 words in length. Translations are welcome. There is no minimum length. We accept only electronic submissions via e-mail at [email protected]. We cannot, due to the various computer viruses and worms, accept attachments anymore, so please paste your story into the body of the e-mail. Also include your name, address, e-mail address, and a short bio in the text of the submission; please put the word "submission" in the subject heading of the e-mail to ensure that your submission doesn't get lost among all the spam. We pay an honorarium of one cent U.S. per word ($2 minimum) to buy first-time internet rights (the story will then be archived). Payment is made upon publication. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE DON'T ACCEPT SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS and are only interested in reprints in unusual cases (e.g., the story has appeared in print but not on the internet). Therefore, if the story or translation has been published before,...

Taking Submissions: Saw Palm Issue 14: Florida Noir

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Payment: Contributor's Copy Note: Story must be related to Florida Saw Palm is a Florida-themed journal; however we welcome writers and artists from across the country and the globe as long as the work is connected to Florida (via images, people, themes, etc.). We also welcome creative works from Floridians that are not obviously about someplace else. Please check out past issues, available for download as free PDFs. Print journal submissions open July 1, 2019.  We accept submissions for Places to Stand year-round. ​We are excited to announce our special edition for Issue 14, Florida Noir. Send us fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and essays. We are looking for late nights, last resorts, storm clouds, and seedy neighborhoods. The orange that rots underneath its skin. You can define noir traditionally or interpret it in your own way. ​ We do not accept written work that has been previously published either online or in print. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please indicate simultaneous submissions in a brief cover letter and let us know immediately through Submittable if your work has been accepted elsewhere. The cover letter may also include a brief third-person bio. Send only one submission at a time per genre. If you have a pending submission, please wait for a response before submitting again. We make every effort to respond as quickly as possible while giving each submission the time it deserves. Our average response time is 3-5 months. After 6 months, you’re welcome to follow up with the appropriate editor. All submissions must be made electronically through our online submissions manager. We do not accept email submissions. Please upload text files in .doc or .docx formats only. Art and comics should be uploaded in .jpeg / .jpg format only. Any paper submissions sent via snail mail will be recycled unread. For queries or...

Taking Submissions: The Blue Route #23

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Payment: $25 Note: Must be an Undergraduate Student. The deadline for submissions for Issue #23 is October 1, 2019.   Prose – Submit 1-3 pieces of fiction or creative nonfiction totaling no more than 3000 words. Poetry – Submit up to 3 poems. We want good, highly imaginative writing about contemporary life as you see it. We’re not interested in genre writing (romance, detective, horror, sci-fi) unless it somehow rises above the conventions associated with those types of writing. If your writing is clichéd, inspired by TV, emphasizes end rhyme above all else, has flat characters, exhibits a general insensitivity to the beauties and subtleties of language, it will not find a place in this journal. No adult content. No racism. No sexism. If you’ve got to use profanity, remember a little goes a long, long way. We do not accept previously published work. However, we do accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.  Our response time is about three months. IMPORTANT: Undergraduate Students: Only previously unpublished work of current undergraduate writers will be considered. In order to verify your status as an undergraduate, we ask that with your submission you send along the email of a faculty member from your department. Until we gain confirmation of undergraduate status from this reference, we will not be able to publish your work. Note to Widener Students: At this time, work from Widener students will not be accepted. Widener students are invited to submit their work to Widener Ink, the university’s print journal. Frequency of Submission: If your work has been published in The Blue Route, we ask that you please wait at least one issue before submitting again. Terms: We pay twenty-five dollars upon publication. We acquire First North American Serial Rights, a one time, non-exclusive use...

Taking Submissions: Cherry Tree

Deadline: October 1st, 2019 Payment: $20 and 2 contributor's copies Cherry Tree welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary shade. We read manuscripts between August 1 and October 1. We only consider original, unpublished work. For accepted work, we purchase First North American serial rights. Payment is $20 per contributor and two contributor's copies. Submissions are only accepted via Submittable. From August 1 to October 1, 2019, we will be reading submissions for Issue 6 of Cherry Tree. Please review the submission guidelines below before submitting online: Please familiarize yourself with the mission statement of Cherry Tree before submitting. Please note: current students and those who have graduated from Washington College in the past four years are not eligible to submit work to Cherry Tree. If your work has been published in a previous issue of Cherry Tree, please wait 2 years before submitting work here again. For example, if you were published in Issue 4, please wait to submit again until we are reading work for Issue 6. All manuscripts should be paginated, with the author’s name and contact information on the first page. Prose should be double-spaced and include a word count. Writers may only submit once to each genre per reading period. Please wait until the next reading period before sending a new submission to a genre for which you have already submitted work, even if you have already received a response or withdrawn your work. Please send no more than 7 poems, 7 flash prose pieces, or 25 total pages of prose. If submitting flash fiction or nonfiction, please send no more than 7 flash pieces or 25 total pages of flash (whichever comes first). Poems and flash should be uploaded as a single file. We prefer to receive submissions in .DOC or .RTF format. Fill in the title(s) of the work(s)...