Events

Deadline: May 1st, 2020 Payment: $20 Open for submissions from the first of May, 2019 until the first of May, 2020. After much back and forth about what the third volume would focus on, we have realized that all roads were leading back to the Rome (as it were) of Folk Horror, and we are immensely excited to explore the fields and hollows, tenements and seashores, where the notions of folk tradition abut and subsume the contemporary. Where the past and the now collide. We do hope you’ll join us. GENERAL GUIDELINES THINKING HORROR is a journal dedicated to exploring horror in literature exclusively. We do not publish articles or essays concerning any other medium (such as films, television, or games). The unofficial theme of the literature journal is “Why Horror?” We are looking for non-fiction articles about the genre written by the people who generally think most about it. Interested contributors must submit a short proposal to the editors outlining the proposed topic. It needn’t be long, just so long as it communicates the topic and the goals of the essay. This will help prevent repetition, or work on something that ultimately does not fit the journal’s intentions. We are not accepting interview proposals at this time. When imagining ideas for the literature journal, please keep in mind the idea of ‘timelessness’. In other words, material that would date the journal isn’t encouraged, unless a strong case can be made for it. The hope/goal of the journal is to have its issues remain releveant in perpetuity. We do not publish articles or essays concerning any other medium (such as films, television, or games). The sorts of articles we envision/encourage: • analysis of specific authors and how their work illuminates the genre as a whole • discussions of movements like Splatterpunk and New Weird • essays on the different facets of written horror (i.e. Nightmare Horror, Folk...

Deadline: May 1st, 2020 Payment: 1c per word Theme: Note: Texas authors only TEXAS’S 1ST AND ONLY HORROR ANTHOLOGY—Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers—is currently accepting submissions for Volume 5 (RK5). THE GUIDELINES REMAIN THE SAME: Texas tales by Texas writers. Stories must take place in Texas and be written by native or naturalized Texans. Be original. Be scary. Be weird, wild, wacky and/or insane. But be scary. SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE BETWEEN 2,500 AND 10,000 WORDS IN LENGTH. We’d like to pay more, but for this edition of Road Kill we’ll be shelling out one cent per word. That means a 10,000-word story will receive a check for $100 USD. We are buying first publication rights. Stories must be original, never before published tales designed to haunt, shock and terrify readers in a big way. Contributors will be free to publish the story as a reprint elsewhere after two years. RK5 will be compiled and edited by award-winning author and Road Kill co-creator, E. R. Bills, and published by HELLBOUND BOOKS PUBLISHING. Send your best, finely polished yarns to erbillsthinks at gmail.com. Include ‘RK5 Submission’ in the subject line. Include your current address and phone number. Submission deadline is May 1, 2020 But submitting sooner rather later, earns you brownie points. PLEASE read and adhere to our submission guidelines. * Word format saved in .doc, or .docx * 12 pt times new roman * single-spaced * 2.5K-10K word count * Write ‘RK5 Submission’ along with your name and story title in the header of your submission *The body of your submission email will be considered the cover letter. Attach your story to email. *Make sure that you check your manuscript for grammar and punctuation. NO REPRINTS—ORIGINAL UNPUBLISHED WORKS ONLY.      Payment—1c per word for first rights

Deadline: May 1st, 2020 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Theme: Story must begin with: The door was locked. 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 three to 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. 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 lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense. Fiction: All stories must be written with the first line provided. The line cannot be altered in...

Deadline: May 1st, 2020 Payment: 3 cents per word and a contributors copy Theme: Extreme horror which involved alcohol Some call it courage in a bottle while others perceive it as the devil’s cocktail. Alcohol comes in all shapes and sizes, bringing along with it the temptation of sin, the eagerness of confusion and the psychological bombardment on the mind and senses forcing us to play a game between life and death. BREWTALITY will dive deep in the subconscious where the demons swim, blinding our judgment and guiding us to make bad decisions without revealing the consequences. 3,000 word max Must have elements of Extreme Horror. NO REPRINTS No simultaneous submissions No violence/sex towards children Pay: 3c per word paid through Paypal + (1) print contributor copy 1-year exclusive rights Send as a .DOC or .DOCX attachment to [email protected] with the subject line: BREW SUBMISSION: Title by Author Name Do not copy/paste story in body of email. Include a very brief bio just to break the ice. Deadline May 1 Responses by June 1 Via: The Evil Cookie.

Deadline: May 1st, 2020 Payment: $30 Theme: Modern faerie tales to explain the 20th and 21st centuries Myths and faerie tales have been historically used to explain the world or enforce societal behaviors. The Gray Sisters are looking for tales that explain the events or enforce the behaviors of the 20th and 21st centuries in fanciful ways. The stories don't strictly need to take place in this world, but they do need to relate back to its existence or behavior. ​ Examples:        - A new explanation for a phenomena or occurrence that has happened or conceivably          will happen within your lifetime.        - Using old characters or creatures in new stories.        - Telling an old story in a modern way, (it should be nearly or completely unrecognizable          from its old form.) ​ Submissions may have adult themes and language and they may be violent or graphic. However, these things should be used for the quality of the story and not shock value or shortcuts. ​ Submissions should be between 1000 and 3000 words, in English, fully edited and on theme. ​ If you have any further content questions, please see the FAQ section or the Contact Us sections of this site. Submissions for our Summer 2020 Issue are open from December 22nd 2019 to May 1, 2020. Selections will be emailed out from mid to late May, and critiques (for those who chose them) will be emailed out before the next issue is published. Submissions should be between 1000 and 3000 words, in English, fully edited and on theme. ​ If you submit a piece you are attesting that                                              - it is your own work,  ...

Deadline: May 1st: 2020 Prizes: £75 (1st), £50 (2nd) and £25 (3rd) Themes: One Last Chance It’s 2020 and believe it or not, our fifth year of producing audio anthologies! Keeping this show on the road entails a lot of work and money, but I’m sure you’ll agree the outcome has been very entertaining. What makes all of this possible though are your stories that you submit and the precious time our judges give up to read the shortlisted work. So with it being our fifth anniversary we wanted to do something a little different and run a theme for this year’s anthology. The title will be ‘One Last Chance’. There’s no specific names or worlds, it’s simply going to be an image. All of the other rules around submissions still apply which you can check here, only the tale must include the scene from the picture below… CLICK HERE TO SEE IMAGE Stay tuned as we release further updates on this year’s judging lineup and the additional authors that will share a spot with our winners on Remastered Words 2020 Audio Anthology. Also why not take a look at some of our Write Advice articles on short story writing to get you started. We can’t wait to see what you’re going to come up with and the tales you’re going to tell! Prizes Authors of the top three selected stories will receive a one time payment of £75 (1st), £50 (2nd) and £25 (3rd), as well as having their stories produced as an audio work by Remastered Words. Samples of these stories will be made available to listen to on our website and will also be created into an audio anthology. Authors will receive a 30% share of the royalties that will be split between the winners.   Schedule We are open...

Deadline: May 2nd, 2020 Payment: .10/word Theme: Horror and dark fantasy, cosmic horror, swords and sorcery, dark science-fiction, and downright weird. Stuff that doesn’t really fit elsewhere. Cross-genre stories welcome. Stories that define ‘weird’. Our next issue will be out this summer and we’re starting work on the issue after that. Although we have a solid roster of amazing talent, I’m holding ONE slot for open submissions. Here are the submission guidelines. THEME: Horror and dark fantasy, cosmic horror, swords and sorcery, dark science-fiction, and downright weird. Stuff that doesn’t really fit elsewhere. Cross-genre stories welcome. Stories that define ‘weird’. EXCEPTIONS: No gratuitous sex (story appropriate sexuality is okay). Harsh languages is not a problem. LENGTH: 5-8k words. No exceptions. PAYMENT: .10/word on acceptance FORMAT: Word document only (no RTF or PDF) Times New Roman, 12 point, double-spaced. Standard 5-7 character indent on paragraphs; no extra spaces between paragraphs except to indicate specific breaks in the story. No exceptions. MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS: Yes, but as separate emails. SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: No. REPRINTS: No. We are only considering original works. FIRST PAGE: Include your name, address, email address, and word count on the first page of the story. No additional title page. SUBMISSION DATES: The window for submissions will be open for ONE WEEK, from Sunday, April 26, 9m Eastern time to Saturday, May 2nd, midnight Pacific Time. SEND TO: [email protected]  Put WEIRD TALES OPEN CALL in the header (without that the story will not be read). IMPORTANT NOTE: Please follow the submission guidelines. -Jonathan Maberry Editor, WEIRD TALES MAGAZINE -Dana Fredsti Submissions Editor Via: Weird Tales.

Deadline: May 4th, 2020 Payment: $30 for each accepted submission Theme: Digital Fingers, Digital Roots, Digital Families SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR FOURTH ISSUE, COMMUNITY THROUGH TECH, WILL OPEN APRIL 20TH AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MAY 4TH. Digital Fingers, Digital Roots, Digital Families In times of crisis, certain parts of us are put on hold, and other pieces may begin to come into play. Families crop up where they need to, communities fill new space. One thousand pairs of hands clap in unison and you step onto the narrow flap of a sun-starved balcony for one of only a handful of times. Turns out there are stars in this city, odors of plant-life rising from the tiles. Roads become rivers you cannot ford, the light from the window opposite feels further away than the world’s first telephone call. But we can still synchronize; we are still mass movements, one hopeful world of applause in the night. Our digital selves are never met with solitude; our digital selves are held by others’ digital arms, nets that buoy us when, otherwise, we might feel most alone. Many of us live online. We are the internet, an uprising of webpages tugging and turning us into new formations. What are we making with it, with each other? How many interiors can we unite within these collective spaces? Issue 4 of Kanstellation asks for reflections around the theme of what digital families and communities mean to you. How do you express and define your selves within and through the digital roots you’ve found or inherited? General Submission Guidelines Rights By submitting to Kanstellation Magazine, you are agreeing to grant us First Electronic Rights and Non-exclusive Archival Rights if your work is accepted. All other rights remain with the author. After that, republishing with attribution is welcome. All submissions...

Deadline: May 5th, 2020 Payment: 2 cents per word Theme: Black market businesses during a pandemic The COVID-19 quarantine has us all shut up in our homes. Businesses have ground to a halt, the economy is slowed to a snail’s pace, and nobody is entirely certain how long it is going to last. In the middle of all of this, black market businesses have begun to operate: underground hair salons, photography studios, businesses once completely legitimate and now illegal simply for operating. If I’d written this call a year ago, it would stop there–but that’s no longer speculative fiction. That’s happening. So instead, Impulsive Walrus is asking for stories about the long haul. What does our world look like if the quarantine just…stays? We’re looking for near-future science fiction stories exploring the comedy, horror, and human drama of a life spent six feet away from each other, and a world where our interaction is done digitally, lest we be ravaged by disease. Impulsive Walrus Books will be paying a semi-pro rate of two cents per word. Reading period will begin on May 5, 2020, and will end when the anthology has hit its goal of 80,000 words. Looking for stories of between 2,000 and 8,000 words. Please submit by e-mailing a .doc or .rtf file to [email protected] with the subject line GOING VIRAL SUBMISSION. Via: Impulsive Walrus Books.

Deadline: May 10th, 2020 Payment: $20 per piece of fiction / creative non-fiction between 1000-3000 words and $30 per piece between 3001-6000 words. We offer $20 per poem. Theme: Pieces related to all things love, sex, and eroticism.  **Submissions for UnSung Volume II Close May 10th** ​ Submissions should be sent through the submission page, but any inquiries or concerns can be sent to:    [email protected].  Share Your Sauciest UnSung Literary Magazine is accepting pieces of poetry, micro or flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction. We would also like to feature visual artists, and are accepting illustrations and photography. ​ UnSung Literary Magazine is choosing to focus on marginalized voices; priority will be given to artists and authors who are Black/POC, LGBTQ, or identify as womxn.  ​ We are looking for pieces related to all things love, sex, and eroticism. But, we want to see your sensual expressions living within intersections. Have a piece about a Black, Queer AFAB (assigned female at birth) late- night tryst? Maybe prose detailing your attraction to another lesbian with masculinity similar to yours? Show us the tender poem of how his hand grazing yours first time made your heart flutter. We want to know how the moonlight looked reflecting off of their dark skin that night at the lake. Formatting and Correspondence ​ If submitting poetry, multiple pieces are allowed, but please no more than 5 at a time; if poems are each longer than 2 pages, submit no more than 3. Not all submitted may be accepted. For prose, we're looking for flash (included micro) fiction, so please limit submissions to 3000 words. Please put SUBMISSION: – – – in the header to help us weed out spam. ​ Example: SUBMISSION: – – – We invite you to add a cover letter detailing your publication history (if any, non-mandatory) and any relevant details. These...