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Deadline: July 2nd, 2021 Payment: $15 Theme: Mythos Reborn Volume I, Issue VI ​ Theme: Mythos Reborn ​ We all know Zeus as king of the Greek panoply of gods and a ruthless tyrant. But we don't know what Zeus did when he wasn't mercilessly pursuing those who defied his will. Maybe he was a great baker. Maybe he liked to sing in the shower. ​ For this issue, we're looking for stories that give us a unique take on mythological figures and characters from all the cultures of the world. Retell a classic tale from a minor character's perspective. Reintroduce us to a story lost to the ages. Or invent your own mythology. ​ Deadline: July 2, 2021 Word Limit: 6,000 words ​ Compensation: flat $15 fee upon publication, plus a digital copy of the magazine (which you're free to share). ​ Format: We will accept short-form fiction any way you want to write it. This can include poetry, flash fiction or short stories. We're particularly interested in the subversion of form. We don't care about hard and fast rules, so don't worry too much about formatting. If you feel its good, chances are that shines through in the writing. And we want to read it. ​ Genre: Anything that's dark, creepy, weird and just a little off-kilter. We're open to genre fiction, particularly anything related to horror, science-fiction, speculative fiction or weird fiction. But we're also interested in anything that twists or subverts these genres in some unexpected way. ​ Simultaneous submissions: We will accept simultaneous submissions, but please inform us if this applies to you. If a story may be pulled away from us at the last minute, we want to know as this may affect our decision on acceptance. ​ Multiple Submissions: We do not accept multiple submissions. ​ Reprints: We do not...

Submission Window: June 20th -July 3rd, 2021 Payment: $0.01/word Theme: Any aspect of horror that contains element(s) specific to Generation X Note: Open only to writers of Generation X (aka born 1965-1980. A year wiggle room is okay.) Dark Ink Books, the home of Kane Holder’s and Tom Savini’s official biographies as well as acclaimed horror anthologies Ghosts, Goblins, Murder, and Madness: Twenty Tales of Halloween and Unburied: A Collection of Queer Dark Fiction, is excited to announce its next open call for short story submissions:   Title: Generation X-ed   Specifics: Open only to writers of Generation X (aka born 1965-1980. A year wiggle room is okay if you truly feel you’re one of us, but don’t claim that “Xennial” crap: you’re over 40. Deal with it). Please don’t submit if you’re not a member of Gen X. payment $0.01/word, eBook copy, and discounted pricing on print copies length: 3000-6000 words (a sprinkling over/under is okay but not a shower) Content should fall within horror genre parameters, any sub-genre, including splatter-punk, psychological, quiet, body, sci-fi terror, creature-feature, dark fable, or paranormal horror, etc, (though we’re not big fans of bizarro fiction or glittery vampires) AND contain element(s) specific to Generation X. This includes (but is not limited to)   -The music (hair metal, rap/hip-hop, grunge * keep in mind copyright restrictions on use of lyrics), fashion, television, movies, and media post-Woodstock but pre-Patriot Act   -The birth of cable television, VCRs, microwaves, AIDS, crack, slasher films, riot grrrls, Satanic panic, and Stephen King fiction, and the death of the Cold War Though historical fiction is absolutely welcomed, it is not a requirement.    Stories will be chosen based on adherence to call parameters, quality of writing, originality, and fit with the other stories in the collection. Some preference will...

Submission Window: July 1st-3rd 2021 Payment: $50 Theme: Healers, Midwives and Cunning Folk. Hi there! We’ll no doubt write more about this later in the next year, but for now, what follows below will tell you all you need to know. And the theme? It’s “Healers, Midwives and Cunning Folk.” (No more submissions are being accepted for publication in December of 2020–but we will be publishing stories that have already been accepted.) The following is relevant to all submissions for 2021, and the first submission window opens Jan. 1. More below.   Writing opportunities for 2021 include:   New Fairy Tales: Fairy tales that are almost or entirely new or are just new takes on old tales are all welcome. Mashups of existing fairy tales are welcome as well. Submissions must follow the theme below to be considered.   Essays: Nonfiction articles about any aspect fairy tales and folklore are being sought. The term “essay” just means you’ll be writing about fairy-tale related matters in a nonfiction article.  Creative nonfiction is welcome. You do not have to stick to the theme, but you can.   Poetry: Poetry inspired by fairy tales and that follows the theme is also welcome.   Please read the following in its entirety before submitting.   Want to know what is likely to get published here? There are well over 10 years of stories, essays and art on this current site. It’s the best place to start if you want to be published here.   HERE IS HOW YOU SUBMIT AND FORMAT   Only the kind of submissions outlined below will be accepted at EC in 2021.   * Writers will have a chance to submit fairy-tale inspired stories/essays/poems 11 times this year. Since we will be choosing four works per publishing month, there are 44...

Deadline: July 7th, 2021 Payment: $50 Theme: Sleep and dreams: the forgotten language of fairy tales. This category is for prose submissions to our eighteen print issue, The Lilac Issue, which will be published by Wayne State University Press in March 2022. "There is no 'as-if' in the dream." –Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language Theme: The Lilac Issue is themed around sleep and dreams: the forgotten language of fairy tales. For prose: Writers may submit a single piece up to 1,000 words. We welcome short fiction, essays, lyric nonfiction, and scholarship. Scholarship will go through a standard peer review process. Prose submissions should be formatted with standard margins, double-spaced, 12-point serif font, and include page numbers. Payment: For the first time, we will offer a flat payment of $50 to each contributor upon publication. Contributors also receive two (2) issues of The Lilac Issue. We welcome submissions directly from authors or agents. GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Specific genre guidelines for submissions to Fairy Tale Review can be found below. We ask that all submissions adhere to the following general guidelines: All work must be submitted using our Submittable portal. We do not accept submissions via email or postal service. Submissions must be previously unpublished, both in print and online. Writers should submit only once in a given genre per submission period, unless encouraged to submit again by our editorial staff. Multiple submissions will go unread. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please note as such in your cover letter and withdraw the submission immediately if accepted elsewhere. Withdrawals can be done through Submittable. If you’ve submitted a packet of poems and must withdraw one but would like the rest to remain under consideration, please add a note to your submission in Submittable. Fairy Tale Review is committed to contributor diversity and inclusive engagement. In the tradition of fairy tales, a minoritarian art, we strongly encourage submissions from women,...

Submission Window: July 1st - July 7th, 2021 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Original fantasy and dark fantasy stories. All types of fantasy and dark fantasy are welcome. Note: This is an early listing to give you some time to plan ahead for next month or to remember to finish revising your story for the upcoming month! Note: We are trusting that the submission windows listed in the ongoing call are valid for this publisher. If they are not, please let us know and we'll look into revising accordingly. Instructions for submitting to Fantasy Magazine follow. Please read everything on this page and read the magazine before submitting. SUBMISSION PROCEDURES Submission Periods: Fantasy is open to submissions the first week of every month (1st-7th). Please do not query about submitting outside our open submission periods. Anonymous Submissions: Fantasy only accepts anonymous submissions. Do not include your name, address, phone number, or other similar identifiers on the manuscript. All original short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry submissions will be read anonymously on first read: moving out of slush depends on the merits of the story alone. Please make sure the title is on the manuscript. Simultaneous and Multiple Submissions: We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions. Please do not submit more than one set of poems at a time, more than one piece of flash fiction at a time, or more than one story at a time. You may, however, submit a single entry in each category at the same time: you can submit one batch of poems, one flash fiction piece, and one short story all at the same (or overlapping) time, and each category will be considered a separate submission. If we are already considering work in any given category, please wait until you have received an acceptance or rejection before submitting again in that same category. Instructions: All...

Deadline: July 9th, 2021 Payment: Two-Sentence Stories: $10, Flash Fiction: $25 per story, Short Stories: $50 per story Theme: Deadly Love Note: Reprints welcome at a lower, undisclosed pay rate. The second issue of Dark Dispatch will be a themed issue, featuring stories on Deadly Love. Let your mind wander to the dark places and share your horror love stories about relationships gone wrong. This submission call opens May 5, and will be open until July 9, 2021. Submission Guidelines Opens May 5 to submissions of original works focusing on the theme of deadly love. Clarification: romantic horror should be an element in the story. It should focus on love gone wrong. The stories can fall within the dark fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and crime genres. Submission window closes July 9 at midnight EDST. We accept submission of the following: Two-Sentence Stories Flash Fiction (we favor submissions 300 to 999 words in length) Short Stories (we prefer submissions 2,000 to 5,000 words in length) Pay: Two-Sentence Stories: $10 Flash Fiction: $25 per story Short Stories: $50 per story Reprints will be considered on a case by case basis and will be subject to a different pay rate. Submission format for original unpublished works: All submissions should be attached as .doc or .docx files. – .rtf and PDF files will not be read. All submissions should use Times/Times New Roman/Courier New font. Text should be in black ink, text size should be 12pt, and the file should not display editing changes or comments. The email’s subject line should have the type of content-submission title-author’s name-word count-submission date. For example, if Windbags McBlowhard is submitting a 2,200-word story called Foul Wind, their subject line should read as follows: Short Story-Foul Wind-Windbags McBlowhard-2,200-May 16 The email should include the following: Paypal address 50-100 word bio written in third person A pitch or summary of...

Deadline: July 11th, 2021 Payment: $20 Theme: Stories about the other, moodier season of change from Summer to Fall AUTUMN NOIR: A Crime, Mystery, Noir, Suspense & Thriller Anthology Announcing our FALL anthology! The slide from Summer into Fall can sneak up on you, like footsteps keeping pace until they speed up and overtake you. We’re inviting fellow writers and artists to create original pieces that sweep us up in stories about the other, moodier season of change. Send us work that skews toward the gritty, the atmospheric, the strangely, dangerously beguiling. Whether the mystery unfolds as gently as a wisp of chimney smoke or brings the heart-thumping thrills of an end-of-summer storm is up to you. Just make sure to bring your creations to life with language as vibrant as Fall foliage and dialogue as crisp as Autumn air. *We’re looking for stories, poems, and/or artwork that follow these THREE guidelines: Respect the genre norms from the Crime, Mystery, Noir, Suspense, and/or Thriller genres (and their associated sub-genres). For an excellent overview of the elements within and differences between these genres, check out this link. Feature the Autumn season prominently in the setting of their story or are depicted in their poem or artwork. Are inspired by and/or incorporate an element* from any ONE of the following (four) quotations in a way that is important to your storyline, poem, or image: “In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb.” (Dennis Lehane) “The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go.” (Unknown) “Dark sides are important. They should be nurtured like nasty black orchids.” (Gillian Flynn) In the autumn of a woman’s life, there comes always one mad moment when she longs for romance, for...

Deadline: July 11th, 2021 Payment: 12.5 cents per word for accepted stories. Theme: Work loosely themed around science and technology: the joy of discovery, the systemic barriers in place that prevent equal access to advanced knowledge, and how new tools and machines can both empower and disenfranchise marginalized voices. At that time, we will be open to short stories and poems for consideration by guest editor Hal Y. Zhang. Hal would especially love to see work loosely themed around science and technology: the joy of discovery, the systemic barriers in place that prevent equal access to advanced knowledge, and how new tools and machines can both empower and disenfranchise marginalized voices. Don’t limit yourself to strictly future settings or science fiction — think broadly in terms of any method or system that explores the world through experimentation, such as an ancient sorcerer investigating rules of magic. We have no other submissions dates to announce at this time. Please subscribe to our newsletter if you’d like to be the first to find out about our future submissions dates. During open submissions periods, there will be a form on this page for uploading your submission. (Click the link at the bottom of this post to get to the page with the form.) General Guidelines We welcome previously unpublished work (where “published” includes work posted on Patreon or on a blog) in English from all writers anywhere in the world, and we are interested in seeing work from people of color, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, members of religious minorities, and people outside the United States. We strongly encourage submissions from people of those backgrounds, and all others whom traditional publishing has historically excluded. If you have any questions about how to submit, please email us at: [email protected]. (Any submissions sent via email will be deleted unread.) Accessibility We use...

Deadline: July 15th, 2021 Payment: 8¢ a word for original work, 4¢ a word for reprints Theme: Visions from a Gender-Inclusive Future Note: Trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer artists and writers Note: Reprints Welcome About Issue 1: Visions from a Gender-Inclusive Future Inclusive Future Magazine is an anthology of speculative prose, poetry, and art in the guise of a pop culture  magazine from the future. IMAGINE: It’s the year 2068, and we’ve achieved gender equality in the broadest sense. Not only are  genders outside the binary widely acknowledged and accepted, but people of all genders are paid equally for equal work, have equal opportunity, are included in scientific studies, and are marketed to equally. You are writing and making art from this future, roughly fifty years from now, and you are submitting a piece of work to an international culture magazine whose target audience includes English-speaking adults of all genders living anywhere in the world.    What does this gender-inclusive future look like? What language do we use around gender? In what ways have our societies been reshaped in order to include people of all genders? How might inclusion look different in different cultures and systems (including religious ones)? How might advancements in science and technology change our perceptions of gender? What challenges might trans, non-binary, and genderqueer people still face and be fighting to overcome? ​ While your submission does not have to be about gender, it definitely needs to contain elements that make it gender-inclusive. A simplistic example: a pop science article about Mars colonization that uses pronouns beyond the binary. Via: Inclusive Future Magazine.

Deadline: July 15th, 2021 Payment: $20 per story Theme: Electric Spec prefers science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we're willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres. Please don't query us about your story submission. We don't have the manpower to answer such queries. An editor will email you back as soon as possible with the decision about your story. This can take a few days, or, up to three months. We make every effort to get back to authors in a timely manner but we get a lot of submissions so sometimes it's not possible. A note on our editorial policy: before publication we may work with the author to edit the story for length or readability. However, we always remain true to the spirit of the story and the author has final approval. Issues are published at the end of February, May, August, and November. We reserve the right to shift publication date slightly, as necessary. We have reading periods for each issue, though we never close to submissions. February closes January 15 May closes April 15 August closes July 15 November closes October 15 Please do not submit the same story more than once, and please submit only one story at a time. We consider any story between 250 and 7000 words with speculative fiction elements. We prefer science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we're willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres. We do not consider poetry, stories with over-the-top sex or violence, serials, novels, fan fiction, or non-fiction. We don't accept multiple submissions; in other words, only submit one story at a time and wait for a response before submitting another. We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you let us know up front and tell us as soon...