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Deadline: March 13th, 2022 Payment: US: $40 + author copy/non-US: $45 + ebook author copy Theme: Short horror stories that explore the "dark carnival" concept. Quill & Crow Publishing House is opening submissions for our second anthology for 2022, Carnival Macabre: An Anthology of Gothic Horror, due to be released in May. For this collection, we are looking for short horror stories (5,000 - 8,000 words) that explore the "dark carnival" concept. Think H.H. Holmes during Chicago's World Fair (Columbian Exposition), horror at a 1920s Boardwalk, or even an eerie Victorian tale.  This anthology will be more open to horror themes, but we're looking for substance over gore. As always, keep those Gothic undertones. Things we are looking for: carnival horror gothic horror historical horror literary horror gothic/macabre elements modern settings considered ONLY if they maintain a Gothic feel Things we are not looking for: young adult extreme horror/extreme erotica rape/child abuse heavy sci-fi overtly modern adaptations ​ Submission Requirements Please note: Submissions that do not follow requirements will not be considered. 1. We are accepting original works only. You must own the copyright to your submission. 2. Submissions period is from Dec 20th - March 13th, 2022. Please submit all stories to [email protected] with the subject line: Carnival Macabre / Your Title / Genre. Emails sent to other email addresses will not be considered. 2. All submissions must be in English and follow standard MLA formatting (double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font). Work must be polished and edited (to the best of your ability). Please submit as a .docx file and include your name, title, and word count on the front page. 3. Story length is 5,000 to 8,000 words. Submissions below 5,000 words and above 8,000 words will not be considered. 4. Accepted authors will receive compensation per contract agreement (US: $40 +...

Deadline: March 15th, 2022 Payment: US 3¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25 Theme: Notional Ekphrasis Eye to the Telescope 44, Notional Ekphrasis, will be edited by F. J. Bergmann. Ekphrastic poetry consists of poems based on visual art; “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden is a classic example. The work does not necessarily need to be described in the poem, nor is it considered necessary to view the image in order to appreciate the resultant poem. Notional works of art are those that do not actually exist; fiction (and poetry) are replete with instances of these; another classic example is “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning. Notional exphrastic poems, therefore, would be poems inspired by works of art that exist only in your own imagination (or that of others), from any period in time or space. We are eager to read what you send! Submission Guidelines SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Use the form at  to submit. Please submit 1–3 poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx or .txt) and include a short bio. Translations from other languages are acceptable with the permission of the original poet (unless public domain). Inquiries only to [email protected] with “ETTT” in the subject line. Deadline: March 15. The issue will appear on April 15, 2022. Payment and rights Accepted poems will be paid for at the following rate: US 3¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $3, maximum $25. Payment is on publication. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association normally uses PayPal to pay poets, but can also send checks. Eye to the Telescope is an online publication. Therefore, First Electronic Rights (for original unpublished poems) are being sought. Who can submit? Anyone writing speculative poetry. What is Speculative Poetry? Speculative poetry is poetry which falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism,...

Submission Window: February 15th-March 15th, 2022 Payment: $0.08 per word Theme: Human Monsters, Horror A new horror anthology edited by Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Saywers of Night Worms. “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” -Stephen King Dark Matter Magazine is proud to announce our first foray into trade publishing with a new horror anthology edited by Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Saywers of Night Worms. The anthology will include at least 80,000 words of new horror fiction curated by Sadie and Ashley, and the book will be included in a future Night Worms book box. The tentative publish date for the anthology is October 2022. Submission Guidelines From Sadie and Ashley: We are looking for stories centered around one of our favorite sub-genres, Human Monsters. We enjoy twisty-turny, dark, psychological, thrilling, dangerous, menacing, gothic, strange, ugly, murderous, messed-up tales of people doing awful, no-good, very bad things to one another. We are not looking for anything cosmic, paranormal, science fiction, cryptid/creature, or supernatural at this time. Just monsters in human skin, please. Tell us what they do. Genre: Horror Sub Genre: Human Monsters Word Limit: 2000-4000 words, no exceptions Language: English and English translations Reprints: No. Unpublished works only. Pay Rate: $0.08/word, paid at least 30 days prior to publication, or before October 1, 2022 Rights: Dark Matter Magazine, LLC is buying first English language rights for print, electronic, and web. We are asking for exclusive rights for a period of six (6) months after publication. Multiple Submissions: Yes, but our submission system will only allow for one submission from you at a time. If your story is rejected, please feel free to submit again right away. Simultaneous Submissions: Sure! But please notify us or withdraw your story from consideration at Dark Matter if it is accepted elsewhere before we render our own decision. NOTE: Other publishers have their own...

Deadline: March 15th, 2022 Payment: 2.5 cents per word Theme: South Asian speculative fiction Tasavvur is now open for short story submissions! Send your South Asian speculative fiction our way! Please submit your stories before 15th March 2022 using the form below or send to [email protected] Submission Guidelines Give us your dreamscapes and nightmares, your soaring fantasies, your futuristic miasmas. Give us also your unstructured ramblings, where a story exists at the edges, dripping with lush, brilliant prose. We are not sticklers for the usual 3-act, 5-act structures, because great storytelling is so much more than that. So send us your lores written in reverse, written in verses, written in the form of email exchanges across multiverses, or haphazard POVs. Which is not to say we won’t accept a story with a usual structure. A good hero’s journey is a good hero’s journey. But if you’re doing that, take chances, and twist it! There’s no topic that’s strictly taboo for us, but anything that contains the following is a hard pass from us. Needless animal cruelty Violence against minorities Gratuitous violence and sex. Guidelines Set in Stone Stories should follow proper manuscript format (Please follow this Example) PDF or Doc/Docx only please (Don’t send your story in the body of the email) Please add your name in your file name, e.g. Sultana’s Dream by Begum Rokeya Maximum of 5,000 words. Minimum of 1,000 words. 12 Pt. Font, Double Spaced, any font which is easily readable. Eg. Times New Roman, Arial, Cambria etc. Original content (Never published before, even on personal blogs) Author Compensation Tasavvur pays 2.5 cents per word, up to a maximum of 5,000 words. Stories slightly more than 5,000 words may sometimes be accepted on editor’s discretion. Payment will be made at the time of publication (To submit, click the link below:) Via: Tasavvur...

Deadline: March 15th, 2022 Payment: Complimentary copy of the magazine. Short stories are $0.08 (eight cents a word) USD. Drabbles and poems are $50 (fifty dollars) USD. Theme: Medusa Title: Tempered Tales: Medusa Type: Magazine (horror/fantasy/dark fantasy/mystery) Theme: Medusa. The work can be set in any time period, including now or the future. It can rely heavily on her mythology or just give it a nod. It should be her story, good or bad. Horror, fantasy, dark fantasy, mystery, or any combination of mash up welcome. How and What to Submit: Submissions should be as a Word doc Stories: 500-1,500 words Poems: up to 350 words Drabbles: 100 words exactly Titles not included in the word count. Include your full name, title of your submission, word count, trigger warnings, email address, author bio, and social media handles with your submission. Email all submissions to [email protected] Use MEDUSA as the subject of your email. No graphic or explicit content. No reprints. Multiple submissions will be accepted (up to 3 works per writer), but only one work chosen per writer. Submissions will open on March 1 to March 15th 2022 Payment: Complimentary copy of the magazine. Short stories are $0.08 (eight cents a word) USD. Drabbles and poems are $50 (fifty dollars) USD. Questions about the anthology? Send an email to [email protected] . Author notifications will be emailed by April 30, 2022. IF WE EMAILED YOU AN ACCEPTANCE ALREADY, YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESUBMIT. YOUR WORK IS STILL ON FILE AND WILL APPEAR IN THE MAGAZINE. Via: Brigids Gate Press.

Deadline: March 18th, 2022 Payment: $100 per accepted story and $25 for reprints, and two contributors copies Theme: science fiction, fantasy, and speculative short stories Note: Stories by disabled authors who live in the United States Note: Reprints welcome Forest Avenue is seeking science fiction, fantasy, and speculative short stories by disabled authors who live in the United States. The anthology will be edited by disabled bookseller Annie Carl and published in paperback and ebook in the fall of 2023. Forest Avenue is distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West. If you’ve written a literary story with a touch of genre, send it our way. Horror isn’t our primary focus, but if you’ve written a story that borders on horror, we’d be happy to take a look. We are seeking stories of 5,000 words or less. Flash fiction is welcome. We will consider reprints, but hope to feature at least 80 percent new material. This is a paid opportunity. Rates are $100 per accepted story and $25 for reprints, plus two print copies. Our focus is celebrating and spotlighting disabled authors within these genres. If you do not self-identify as disabled, please do not submit. The disabled community is intersectional and we want this project to reflect that intersectionality. We are especially eager to see stories from disabled folx of color and queer folx. Neurodivergent writers who self-identify as disabled are welcome to submit. Authors may choose to put their diagnoses in their bios and/or cover letters, but it’s not necessary. We will consider your story based on its merits. If your disability prevents you from submitting via Submittable, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll assist with the process. This is a case-by-case situation, please do not email submissions without permission from the editor. Via: Forest Avenue Press's Submittable.

Submission Window: March 14th-18th, 2022 Payment: 8 cents per word (unclear if AUS or USD) Theme: Witches Note: Must be a BIPOC author to fit in this window Following on from the award-winning success of The Book of Dragons, Harper Voyager will publish an exciting new anthology, The Book of Witches, edited by Jonathan Strahan in the Fall of 2023. Like The Book of Dragons, The Book of Witches will be a big, inclusive, illustrated anthology of fiction and poetry, this time looking at “witches” (more specifically your witch and what it means to you). So far writers who have agreed to contribute to the book include Linda Addison, S.A. Chakraborty, Zen Cho, P. Djèlí Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Nalo Hopkinson, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Karen Lord, Usman T. Malik, Tochi Onyebuchi, C.L. Polk, Rebecca Roanhorse, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Rivers Solomon, Andrea Stewart, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Tade Thompson, and we are reserving up to three spots in the final book for new BIPOC writers. If you are a BIPOC* writer – regardless of whether you’re widely published or just starting out – and would like to see your work appear in a major anthology like The Book of Witches, we’d love to hear from you. Just check out the submissions guidelines below and send us your story. * Black, Indigenous, and other People of Colour Guidelines for open submissions Submissions must not have been previously published in any form, whether by digital-only publisher, traditional publisher, or self-published. Submissions must be in English and be between 1500 and 6000 wordsin length. Submissions must be in a standard word processor format (MS Word or similar). No PDFs. Submissions should be accompanied by a short author bio (no more than 200 wds). You are welcome but not required to share any identity...

Deadline: March 22nd, 2022 Payment: 4 cents per word Theme: Essays exploring the intersection of queerness and the horror genre. Details for Divergent Terror: Essays exploring the intersection of queerness and the horror genre. Was there a specific film that you connected with that made you a horror fan? A type of horror or trope that speaks to you particularly as a member of the LGBTQ+ community? Tell us your story! 2500 to 5000 words in length Single submissions only Simultaneous submissions allowed (Please inform us when submitting.) No reprints Payment of $0.04 per word Submission Deadline: March 22, 2022 Off Limits Press LLC will retain English ebook and paperback rights for 6 months exclusively, non-exclusive thereafter. Guidelines: Please send your manuscript to [email protected]. Submissions should be double-spaced and typed in Times New Roman font, size 12. Please send submissions as an attachment in MS Word or PDF format. Please include a cover letter containing a brief bio in the body of your submission email. Please include the name of your submission, your name (and pen name if applicable), as well as the total word count of your submission in the body of your email. We cannot guarantee an exact response time-frame, but we aim for within 6 weeks after the submission call ends on March 22, 2022..   Funding for Divergent Terror is being raised via Kickstarter. For more information or to make donations, please CLICK HERE. Via: Off Limits Press.

Deadline: March 28th, 2022 Payment: $25 and a contributor's copy Theme: Folk Horror Submissions Open January 20 - March 28th, 2022 Night is falling, amplifying the stillness of the woods. There are several whispers calling your name, and whoever is watching you doesn't want you to leave. The looming threat is quite common in one of the most chilling subgenres of horror: folk horror. The genre blends the themes of horror and folklore to explore terror, alienation, displacement, and a sense of the other. Folk horror invokes fear using the elements of folklore. The stories are characterized by rural settings and themes of isolation, religion, nature's power, and the darkness of the rural landscape. These stories are often focused on naive outsiders coming up against these forces. The submissions are open for, THEIR GHOULISH REPUTATION, an anthology of Folk Horror. Short horror stories based on folk tales. We have made a spotify playlist for inspiration. Their Ghoulish Reputation Playlist What we are looking for:  Rural settings  Cult Creeps  Mythological Horror  Weird Horror  Cosmic Horror  Horror of real people  Ghouls, witches, basically everything that makes a folklore chilling.  Divers set of characters.  Strong female charaters(We mean it. Please don’t make the heroine a weak link. Let her take charge and fight, don’t just make her scream “Who’s there?”) What we don’t accept: Erotic themes, extreme gore, Homophobia, transphobia, or any derogatory term used toward any culture, race, or sexuality. Submission Requirements:  The submissions period is from January 20 - March 28th, 2022. Please submit us your best work to [email protected]. The subject line should read: Their Ghoulish Reputation Story Submission with (Author Name).  Word Count: 2500-10000.  Multiple submissions / Reprints are not allowed.  Only original stories are accepted. Must own the copyright to your work.  Make sure your final manuscript is...

Submission Window: May 1st-15th, 2022 Payment: 1 winner each month will win $10 Canadian Theme: A story at exactly 50-words If you’d like to have a 50-word story that you wrote featured on FiftyWordStories.com, first make sure that you understand exactly what a 50-word story is, and then read the submission requirements below closely. Submissions System Each month, submissions will be open between days 1 and 15 of that month. Any stories received on days 16 to 31 of a month will be deleted, but can be resubmitted the following month. You may only submit one story per month. From the stories received in those 15 days, the best stories will be selected to be published that same month. Only enough stories will be selected to publish two stories per weekday. There is no payment associated with stories. However, each month a “Story of the Month” is selected, and receives a prize of $10 Canadian. Stories that were not selected will not be published, will not roll over into the following month, and cannot be resubmitted in following months. Authors will be notified whether their story has been selected or not once all stories from the month’s submissions have been reviewed. How to Submit Please email your submission to [email protected]. Paste the story into the body of the email. Please include a title, your name, and a brief third-person bio. Feel free to include a link to your website! If you are submitting a story related to a specific date or holiday, please include that information in the Subject line of your submission. You can also send your story in using the form at the bottom of this page. Tips and Guides Looking for help with writing microfiction? Check out Bob Thurber’s Anatomy of a Microfiction page. Terms and Conditions Please keep the content of your submissions appropriate for...