Events

Deadline: June 6th, 2023 Payment: 2.5 cents per word Theme: Dreamscapes and nightmares, your soaring fantasies, your futuristic miasmas. Note: Authors of South Asian origin and other BIPOC authors Fiction Submissions are open for fiction from May 06th 2023 to June 06th 2023. Please submit using the form at the end of this page. Non-fiction Submissions for pitches are open on a rolling basis. You can submit you pitch via email; please send us your pitch at [email protected], but please go through this page for information on format and what we’re looking for first! Word Limits Fiction Minimum 1,000 words, maximum 5,000 words. Non-fiction Pitches Minimum 250 words to maximum 500 words. Commissioned pieces are usually around 2,000 words depending on the topic. Payments Fiction We pay 2.5 cents per word for stories up-to 5,000 words. Non-fiction We pay a flat rate of $100 for commissioned pieces. What We’re Looking For Fiction 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! Non-fiction While we are welcome to any pitches you may have that pertain to South Asian spec fic in any manner, we are particularly interested in publishing the following type of work: Critical essays of South Asian speculative fiction, such as through a feminist, queer,...

Submission Window: June 1st-7th, 2023 Payment: $25 Theme: The struggle for freedom JULY SUBMISSIONS (opens June 1 - 7, 2023) — Freedom, in any sense, is rarely obtained without a struggle. From illness to interpersonal drama to all-out war, the object a person chooses freedom from sets the level of conflict encountered. And freedom itself, though touted in this country in a jingoistic sense, is much broader in ways we seek it than the American definition allows. We can seek freedom from any number of things—relationships, work environments, addiction, incarceration, even simply expectations. Help us celebrate this July in true RHP fashion, by sending us stories of characters engaged in personal bids for a freedom they desire. What happens when they get it? And can they ever truly be free? Stone’s Throw is the monthly online companion to Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, delivering shorter, sharper content on a regular basis in an electronic medium, before collecting all 12 stories for an annual print anthology. Each month, writers will be given a submission prompt, and the best of the best, by our estimation, will be posted here the following month. INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING? Stone’s Throw will open for submissions the first week of every month, from 12AM on the first through 11:59PM on the seventh. We’re looking for all the same dark fiction, crime and noir as our usual submissions, but with a target length between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and aligned with the monthly submissions prompt (see below). We’ll read through the best, choose the one story that shines brightest, and publish it online the following month, paying $25 per accepted story. After a year, we’ll collect all twelve stories into a Stone’s Throw Anthology, to be published alongside our other print issues. PLEASE NOTE — If you...

Deadline: June 13th, 2023 Prizes: Grand Prize: $3,000, with the second- and third-place winners receiving $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will each receive $300. Theme: Writers from all over the globe to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world. Grist is excited to announce our third-annual climate fiction short story contest, Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors. Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers from all over the globe to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world. We dare you to dream anew.  * * * Submissions for our 2023/2024 contest are now open. We’re looking for stories of 3,000 to 5,000 words that envision the next 180 years of climate progress — roughly seven generations – imagining intersectional worlds of abundance, adaptation, reform, and hope. Submit your story now A great Imagine story showcases creative climate solutions, particularly through narratives that center the communities most impacted by the climate crisis, and that envision what a truly green, equitable, and decolonized society could look like. We celebrate fiction rooted in hope, justice, and cultural authenticity, and aim to amplify voices that have been, and continue to be, affected by systems of oppression. There is no cost to enter. Submissions close June 13, 2023, 11:59 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time. The winning writer will be awarded $3,000, with the second- and third-place winners receiving $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will each receive $300. All winners and finalists will have their story published in an immersive collection on Grist’s website. Stories will be judged by a panel of literary experts, including acclaimed authors Paolo Bacigalupi, Nalo Hopkinson, and Sam J. Miller....

Submission Window: June 1st - 14th, 2023 Payment: 8 cents/word for originals, $100/short story or $20/flash piece for reprints Theme: Guiding Sparks Between the Words: How Stories Illuminate the World Around Us Every year in September, Cast of Wonders celebrates Banned Books Week, an annual international event celebrating the freedom to read and raising awareness of the immense social value of free and open access to information. Joining the editorial team for this year’s call is Cast of Wonders Associate Editor, Simon Pan. Thank you, Simon, for the wonderful theme this year! Guiding Sparks Between the Words: How Stories Illuminate the World Around Us In times of conflict, division and change, it is more important than ever to build bridges of understanding.  We most commonly encounter the stories of others through news articles or in classrooms, kept at a scholarly or journalistic distance and often biased to favour privileged perspectives. Our own truths may also remain unvoiced and unknown, misunderstood even by those around us. When it comes to illuminating these truths, stories have a key part to play: they help us to learn and appreciate things from perspectives we might never otherwise consider, and allow us to reshape our own experiences within the transformative lens of fiction. When we share our stories, we guide sparks of kinship and understanding, using narrative and emotion to help others experience a small window into another’s reality. For Banned Books Week 2023, we want to see stories of discovery, of learning, of misconceptions unraveled, and how stories can serve as a guiding light to help us understand a new perspective, or to teach us valuable lessons when all other methods fail us. What that something is…well, that is up to you! At Cast of Wonders, we welcome stories that portray the full spectrum of human...

Deadline: June 15th, 2023 Payment: $5 per 1,000 words Theme: Short stories that are intrepid with regard to experimentation and oddity; the strange, the surreal, the atypical, the unexpected. What we are looking for: short stories that are intrepid with regard to experimentation and oddity; the strange, the surreal, the atypical, the unexpected. Traditional genre divisions do not matter to us—we do not care whether a piece qualifies as strictly ‘literary’; we only care that it is high-quality, that it is well-written, and that it is interesting. Please send us pieces that you feel do not fit in anywhere else, or are beyond the pale of any given trend. Send us content that causes us to experience feelings we do not have names for. We highly recommend reading our previous issues to get a sense of the kind of stories we are interested in; that said, we are also always looking to be caught off guard with unprecedented content. Currently we do not charge for submissions. (Editors note: If they ever start to charge for submissions, we won't be including them as per our rules.) Propagule is prepared to offer $5 per 1,000 words (up to a maximum of $20) upon our decision to publish your work. Submissions must be received by June 15th, 2023 to be considered for Issue Three. Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material. Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait until the reading period of the next issue to submit another story. Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been...

Deadline: June 15th, 2023 Payment: $100 for printed pieces, $25 for online pieces Theme: A place to reimagine ‘the west’ and ‘westerns’ from new angles, overlooked perspectives, in both analogue + digital. we’re into subversion and surprise. we're into road trips and weird americana, ufos and cosmic country—from the mountains to the deserts to the beaches to the plains. go west-ish. hi, we're looking for writing and art and whatever else you've got that engages with and reimagines the 'west.’ ideally you or your work will have some connection to the western usa, but this theme is wide open to your interpretation (though our print issues will be more focused and western-y than online, which will be more free-wheeling). we like  intersections and echoes, mythos and symbolism, and perspectives not as often seen. we like road stories and weird americana. most of all, tell us a great story. show us something cool. something we can't help falling in love with. our goal is to remain open to the unexpected—to what surprises us, to what moves us, to what makes us see ‘the west’ in ways we haven't before. still unsure? tune into word west radio, or catch a flick at the westword cinemas. maybe you'll find some inspiration? yeehaw ???? no submission fees. 1 submission per submission window. submissions will be open twice / year: september 15 - november 15 & march 15 - june 15. pitches for online content (reviews, interviews, etc.) will always be accepted. sim-subs totally fine. just please let us know if a piece is accepted elsewhere. 5k words or less for prose. up to 5 poems for poetry. pieces are read for both online and print. we aim to respond in 9-12 wks for print. online subs will likely be responded to sooner. $100 for each accepted print piece. $25 for each accepted online piece. thank you...

Deadline: June 15th, 2023 Payment: US 4¢/word rounded up to nearest dollar; minimum US $4, maximum $25 Theme: speculative poems based on the theme of trauma Eye to the Telescope 49, Trauma, will be edited by Tony Daly. TRAUMA: All humans go through trauma, physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, etc. Sometimes it feels as though traumatic experiences are a constant torrent drowning us, wrecking us, scarring us. Poetry is often used as a way of processing one’s emotions following a traumatic experience—a  distillation of emotion into a few well-chosen words. The writing can be cathartic. Reading others’ pain can show us a way through our own, or simply allow us to understand another may share our nightmares. Making the pain speculative can provide a distance that allows the writer and reader to see a traumatic experience from a different angle, recognize a light or a hope they never were unable to see. I am interested in poems that enter the screams, give voice to the pain, but don’t take the easy way out by wallowing in despair. Show me hope beyond trauma so that another on the path may follow your light out. Send me poems on the last survivor of an alien race, healing by preserving their peoples’ culture; soldiers freeing their PTSD-ravaged minds with an inhibitor chip; the priest who finds a way to contact God via a spaceship he built or a hallucinogenic tincture made by a witch because his wife passed. Let your imaginations go wild in the speculative, but ground your trauma in the human experience. And remember that only speculative poetry will be accepted. For a better understanding of what “speculative” encompasses, please refer to “What is Speculative Poetry?” below. Submission Guidelines SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Use the form at bit.ly/SFPAettt49 to submit. Please submit 1–3 unpublished poems in English (ideally, attached as .docx...

Deadline: June 15th, 2023 Payment: Prose 2p per word, Poetry 20p per line, Photography £5 per image, Comics £5 per page Theme: Childhood Neon publishes dozens of writers and artists each year – all from unsolicited submissions. If you’ve got something which might fit the magazine, please read the guidelines below to find out how to get it published. Before sending work for publication… The best possible thing you can do to increase your chances of being accepted is to read the magazine! This is easy to do: the print edition costs less than a sandwich and a coffee (and ships to anywhere in the world) and you can set your own price for the instant-download digital edition. Download Now Not only will reading the magazine give you the clearest possible idea of Neon‘s aesthetic, but by subscribing, purchasing a copy or donating you’ll be supporting one of the UK’s longest-running independent literary magazines. On top of that, anyone who supports the magazine in any of these ways will receive expedited responses to submissions, complete with editorial feedback. If that’s something you’d value, please consider supporting the magazine before making your submission. What we’re looking for We prefer darker pieces, especially those with an element of the surreal or speculative, but are open to anything and like to be surprised. Images, comics, and graphic poems are also welcome, as are self-contained extracts. If you have any doubts about whether something is suitable, go ahead and send it anyway. Themes Most issues of the magazine are themed. We’re currently looking for submissions on the following themes: Machines (Deadline: 15th January 2023) Childhood (Deadline 15th June 2023) Please feel free to interpret these themes any way you like. Submissions with only a loose or tenuous connection to a theme are still very welcome. Terms We ask for non-exclusive, one-time, worldwide rights to publish your work in print and digital...

Deadline: June 18th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Atmospheric horror that emphasizes disturbing and suggestive settings Submissions: OPEN (Issue 3) • Submission deadline for our 3rd issue: Sunday, June 18, 2023 at 11:59 PM EDT. • Editorial decisions: Sunday, August 20, 2023. • Publication of Issue 3: Sunday, October 22, 2023. Fiction Guidelines: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets. At this time, only a single submission per author can be considered for a given issue of Witch House. Additionally, we’re only seeking original, previously unpublished stories. Fiction Style: We prefer atmospheric horror that emphasizes disturbing and suggestive settings. We prefer renderings of supernatural horror to be artfully sketchy and sublime. Documentary descriptions of monstrosity rarely works for us. We generally prefer the first-person perspective. We are open to experimental narrative techniques. Poetry Length and Form: Submit up to three short poems, no more than 500 words of verse total. We are open to both formal and free verse poetry. We have a soft spot for sonnets. Publication, Payment, and Rights: Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WITCH HOUSE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however,...

Deadline: June 20th, 2023 Payment: 3c/word (USD) originals; $25 (USD) reprints. $25 per poem, $70 per page for comics, $50 per piece of artwork Theme: (including but not limited to) humanism, machine-generation dangers, encroaching machine rule, algorithm overload, the chaotic crash point between the human mind and machine limitations, anticapitalism, advertising overload, self-destruction, the violence and humanity of creation, philosophy. THANK YOU FOR JOINING THE ALGORITHM is a special edition dark speculative fiction magazine concerning humanity's rage against the devaluing of the light. All proceeds from the sale of this publication—every cent remaining after printing, shipping, and taxes—will be donated to organizations that fight for the rights of human artists and pursue the regulation and limitation of machine-generation in the arts. We are looking for dark speculative fiction stories, poetry, comics, illustrations, haikus, etc. at the meeting point between humanity and technology. GENERAL SUBMISSION INFO Submissions Window: May 17th to June 20th Themes: (including but not limited to) humanism, machine-generation dangers, encroaching machine rule, algorithm overload, the chaotic crash point between the human mind and machine limitations, anticapitalism, advertising overload, self-destruction, the violence and humanity of creation, philosophy. Genres: Weird Horror, Dark SF, Tech-Horror, Post-Apoc, Eco, Cosmic, Slipstream, Dark Lit. Reprints: Yes Simultaneous Submissions: Yes Multiple submissions: Yes, try to keep it to a reasonable number Target Age Group: Mature Audiences Rights: World English first rights in print, electronic, and ebook, including a six-month exclusivity period. All copyright belongs to the author. Response times: 1-2 months. All submissions will be responded to. Diversity: Marginalized and first-time authors and artists are emphatically welcomed. AI Disclaimer: Machine/AI-generated content is explicitly forbidden. Authors and artists should anticipate contracts declaring that no part of their submission was machine/AI-generated. Those who submit machine/AI-generated content will be permanently blacklisted from Tenebrous Press and our network. HOW...