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Deadline: August 1st, 2021 Payment: Short Story-2,500 words or less. $20 upon acceptance and a digital copy of the magazine issue Poems-less than 200 words $10 upon acceptance and a digital copy of the magazine issue Theme: Dark Shadows: The Gay 90s; closeted, cast out, or converted. Short stories and poems from the female gaze. The Last Girls Club The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an homage to the scary comics and zines of the late 20th century. Please check on the website for the theme in detail. Submissions will be accepted from Jan 1-Feb 1, April 1-May 1, July 1-Aug 1, Oct 1-Nov 1. Final notifications will be Feb 15, May 15, Aug 15, Nov 15. No more than two fiction stories per author per submission period. Fiction is limited to 2,500 words or less. Flash fiction must be under 1,000 words, no more than two from an author. No more than three poems per poet. Poems are limited to 200 words or less for each poem. I prefer to use PayPal to pay authors, but will work with authors where PayPal is not available. Nonfiction columns will must be pitched to editor in chief before submission. Email your idea to [email protected] MORE Fall Issue The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an homage to the scary comics and zines of the late 20th century. This season's theme is Dark Shadows: The Gay 90s; closeted, cast out, or converted. This issue is dedicated to my dear friend Paul, who died of cirrhosis in '00s. We worked the graveyard shift together at a Texas gas station in the...

Deadline: August 2nd, 2021 Payment: Poetry: $25 per poem, Flash Fiction: $25, Short Stories: $50, NonFiction: $50 Theme: Identity Horror Dark Dispatch is excited to announce we’re teaming up with Laurel Hightower (Crossroads, Whispers in the Dark) for The Dead Inside, an anthology of identity horror. Explorations of what happens when our core identities are stripped, altered, suppressed, or denied to us, whether by choice or not. The way parenthood turns you into a different person. How toxic masculinity shapes us and robs boys of their childhoods. Suppression of race, culture, or ethnicity to stay safe, get the job, or grab that publishing contract. Being forced to stay closeted for safety, acceptance, or love. How does a lifetime of suppression and self-hatred affect us? What might our lives have been like if we’d been able to break free? Who do we become when we perpetuate the same patterns? And who are we, really, when we strip down the outer skin of what we are? Submissions open May 15. Editors: Laurel Hightower and Sandra Ruttan Publisher: Brian Lindenmuth Submission Guidelines Opens May 15 to submissions of original works focusing on the theme of identity horror. Submission window closes August 2, 2021 midnight EDST. We accept submission of the following: Poetry Flash Fiction (we favor submissions 400 to 850 words in length) Short Stories (we prefer submissions 2,000 to 6,000 words in length) NonFiction (we favor submissions 1,500 to 3,000 words in length) Pay: Poetry: $25 per poem for print and ebook rights Flash Fiction: $25 per story for print and ebook rights Short Stories: $50 per story for print and ebook rights NonFiction: $50 per piece for print and ebook rights Reprints will be considered on a case by case basis and will be subject to a different pay rate. Submission format...

Submission Window: July 13thth -August 3rd, 2021 Payment: $15 and a contributor's copy Theme: Stories which truly capture the essence of Kate Bush Kate Bush: an Anthology Our first Weird Pop collection. SUBMISSIONS CLOSED. Window open July 13th-August 3rd. We hope to curate a truly strange collection of tales brought to life from a place of love and admiration for Kate and her artistry. Plant a seed plucked from her lyrics, music videos, imagery, or persona. Let’s cultivate something magical and bizarre together. We are still ironing out the details, but the following guidelines are set in stone: 1,500–4,000 words. Must contain some element of weird or dark fiction (we are partial to horror, bizarro, and magical realism, though we are not limiting our scope). Original ideas must be drawn from the work of Kate Bush, though the end product need not closely resemble its inspiration. Experiment! Files should be .doc or .docx. We prefer Times New Roman, but we aren’t picky as long as it’s legible. Please use a format similar to the following as the subject line for your email: Submission, “Story Title”, Your Name, Kate Bush Anthology In your cover letter, please include a short author bio of no more than 200 words, and a short description (<200 words) explaining how the piece was inspired by Kate Bush. Payment is $15 plus a physical copy of the book upon publication. Limit 2 stories per sub. We will NOT accept reprints, but simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you withdraw your story ASAP if accepted elsewhere. Email your submissions to [email protected] (please do not submit before July 13 or after August 3). Look to Kate for inspiration, and get your stories ready for July 13th! A few notes: For transparency: a small number of contributors were invited to send in their entries ahead of the submission...

Submission Window: August 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: August 6th, 2021 Payment: $0.01 per word for each accepted short story, $10 for each accepted flash piece. Theme: All forms of dark speculative fiction, see below Starward Shadows Quarterly is an online dark speculative fiction magazine seeking stories between 500 and 8,000 words. We’re interested in exploring the wicked, strange places that walk the line between reality and nightmare—the alien, the absurd, and above all else, the weird. Short fiction, flash, and artwork submissions are currently OPEN! Genres We Accept: Cosmic Horror, Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, High/Epic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Lovecraftian/Cthulhu Mythos inspired tales, Gothic Horror, Space Opera, Dark Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, New Weird, Grimdark, Slipstream, and Cyberpunk. However, feel free to send us anything that falls under the incredibly broad umbrella of “speculative fiction.” Inspirational authors: H. P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Michael Moorcock, J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Ruocchio, Tamsyn Muir, Robert E. Howard Things we love: Monsters, vampires, aliens, psychological horror, first-person unreliable narrators, eloquence, themes of neurodivergence, angst done right (think “Interview with the Vampire), death cults, weird religious undertones, wraiths, trickster kings, black metal, stories where the bad guys win, character-driven narratives, and stories that take place somewhere strange and far away where humanity isn’t even mentioned at all. Anything with a Dark Souls, Morrowind, or Oblivion vibe will have us foaming at the mouth. Also, one of the editors has also had a lifelong, questionable obsession with A Clockwork Orange and those old Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comics . . . Things we hate: Post-apocalyptic settings, dystopian fiction, parodies, rock-hard SF, zombies, mermaids, sirens, pandemic stories (we lived it and we’re sick of it), and political and/or moral soapboxes. If you’re going to send us anything falling into these categories, you’d better have completely and utterly reinvented it for it not to...

Deadline: August 7th, 2021 Payment: $20 and a contributor's copy Theme: Speculative poetry and short fiction with monstrous, mythical, or mechanical arthropods Do you have a story or poem featuring insects, crustaceans, arachnids, or myriapods? We want to publish it! We are looking for speculative poetry and short fiction with monstrous, mythical, or mechanical arthropods for our upcoming Arthropoda anthology! The call is open to original fiction and reprints, poetry and short fiction up to 45 lines and 7,500 words respectively. Please submit no more than two short stories. Shunn manuscript format, simultaneous submissions permitted. Deadline August 7, 2021. Arthropoda will be edited by JW Stebner (of Hexagon Magazine) and published by Perennial Press in mid-to-late 2022! All selected authors will be paid a $20 flat rate, and given either a print or PDF contributor copy. We will not accept submissions that contain any excessive profanity or explicit content. We will not tolerate submissions that support or suggest any form of racism, sexism, or any other kind of discrimination. About Perennial Perennial Press archives truths through fiction and poetry. We are committed to highlighting and uplifting voices & perspectives that have traditionally been underrepresented in literature. About Hexagon Hexagon is an online magazine created to take our readers to fantastic worlds and to meet incredible characters. We specialize in the weird, the wondrous, and the whimsical! Via: Perennial Press's Submittable.

Deadline: August 7th, 2021 Payment: 1st place : $100 2nd place: $50 3rd place: $25 Theme: Flash fiction (500 words or less) that can be classified as cosmic horror, dark science fiction, or weird. CHM wants to find the very best cosmic horror flash fiction. SHOW US WHAT YOU GOT. Submissions will be ongoing and open the first week of every month for that month’s contest. THREE stories will be chosen per month to be published the month after they were submitted. (If you submit a story on October 3rd and it is chosen, it will be published in November.) THE FIRST SUBMISSION PERIOD WILL BE THE FIRST WEEK OF AUGUST 2021 Submissions are open monthly from the 1st to the 7th. We are looking for flash fiction (500 words or less) that can be classified as cosmic horror, dark science fiction, or weird. If you are unsure if your work qualifies, submit it and let us be the judge! Payment 1st place : $100 2nd place: $50 3rd place: $25 Make all submissions to [email protected] with the writing pasted into the body of the email or attached as a word document (.docx). Thank you and best of luck! Via: Cosmic Horror Monthly.

Submission Window: August 1st - August 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: August 7th, 2021 Payment: 8 cents per word (USD), plus a pro-rata share of 50% of royalties. Theme: speculative stories on the theme of plants and growth, featuring queer characters Note: Apologies for the short window, just stumbled across this one. The basics Editors: Isabela Oliveira (she/her) and Jed Sabin (they/them) Deadline: Saturday, August 7th, at 9pm Pacific Length: We've set the upper limit at 10,000 words to allow for flexibility, but most acceptances are likely to be under 7,000 words. There is no minimum. Rate: We pay a minimum of 8 cents per word (USD), plus a pro-rata share of 50% of royalties. Simultaneous submissions: No, please do not submit an original (non-reprint) story anywhere else while we are considering it. Multiple submissions: Yes, you may submit up to 3 stories to us at once (filling out the submission form separately for each story). There is no limit on total number of submissions as long as there are not more than 3 under consideration at one time. Reprints: We will consider previously published stories, including those that have been self-published online, as long as previous publication is disclosed in the submission form. Reprints are paid at the same rate as originals. Audio rights must be available. Identity statements: We do not require or expect authors to disclose queer or other identities to us, and if authors do choose to share their identities, we will not disclose that information to others without permission. We aim to respond to every submission by the end of August. We encourage submissions from authors who have never submitted their fiction to a paid market before, and we've tried to develop these guidelines to be clear to those who aren't familiar with industry norms. Please don't hesitate to submit for fear of doing it wrong, and feel free to contact us here with questions or accessibility requests....

Submission Window: August 1st through 7th, 2021 Payment: $100 Theme: Anti-fascist splatterpunk stories Note: This extended period is for women and non-binary writers This summer, I’ll be editing ANTIFA SPLATTERPUNK, an anthology dedicated to–you guessed it–anti-fascist splatterpunk stories. In addition to pure splatterpunk, I’m also open to extreme horror with weird, bizarro, historical, or science fiction elements. Just keep it anti-fascist. The anthology is open to all writers, but I would especially like submissions from antifascist writers of marginalized groups. Note that some writers have specifically been invited to contribute. The anthology will be a mix of solicited stories and stories selected from the open call submission period. Stories should be between 2,000 and 4,500 words. Multiple submissions are not allowed. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but withdraw your submission immediately if it gets accepted elsewhere. No reprints. Open for submissions July 1st, 2021 – July 31st, 2021. I will announce accepted submissions by August 31st, 2021. Anthology will be published as both an electronic and print book in winter 2021. OTHER SUBMISSION CONSIDERATIONS If you’re retreading old ground and well-established tropes, make it fresh. I’m fine with horror that has erotic elements, but emphasis should be on the horror. Yes, make it anti-fascist, but don’t be moralizing. I want nuance. Stories that deal with bigotry are fine, but bigoted stories are not. I don’t want stories with graphic depictions of sexual violence. This is a splatterpunk anthology, so gore and extreme elements are encouraged, but make sure they serve story, character, and theme. FORMAT Use standard manuscript format. Send a doc/docx attachment. Do not copy-paste your story into the body of the email or submit it in any other format. We won’t read it if you do. Please send submission to [email protected]. Include your name, story title, and word count...