Events

Taking Submissions: Propagule Issue Three

Propagule

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 Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material.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...

Taking Submissions: World West Revue – First 2023 Window

World West Revue

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...

Taking Submissions: Eye to the Telescope #49

Eye to the Telescope

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...

Taking Submissions: Neon Magazine: Childhood

Neon Magazine

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...

Taking Submissions: Witch House Issue #3

Witch House Magazine

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,...

Taking Submissions: Thank You For Joining The Algorithm

Tenebrous Press

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...

Taking Submissions: The Other Stories #94

The Other Stories

Deadline: June 24th, 2023 Payment: 15GBP Theme: Artificial intelligence If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 150k+ monthly listeners, then we want your stories! If accepted, we’ll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week. (Vol 94) Artificial Intelligence II: deadline 24th June 2023 SUBMIT YOUR STORIES USING THIS FORM If this form isn’t working, please email your submission to [email protected] as a last resort. Title your email with the following syntax: “SUBMISSION | STORY TITLE | THEME | WORDCOUNT”  (e.g. SUBMISSION | THE MARTIAN | SPACE | 1,982) Submission Guidelines • Stories must be 2,000 (10% tolerance +/-) • Save stories in a Word document - Times New Roman font, size 12 • Include a 1-2 sentence log line for your story at the end of the document • Ensure that your name and an email address are somewhere on the document • Stories must fit an upcoming theme • By submitting your story to us, you are confirming that you are the original creator of the story • We will consider entrants whose work has been entered and published elsewhere, however please ensure you state where and when your story has been used elsewhere on the document • You will be allowed to place one call-to-action for your own work at the end of the episode. Be sure to include this at the end of your document, underneath the log line • Payment per accepted story is 15GBP • 2x entries per theme permitted   When will I hear if my story has been accepted or not? We carefully review every single submission that comes through our...

Taking Submissions: Another Name for Darkness

Sans Press

Deadline: July 12th, 2023 Payment: €150 Theme: Stories that respond to the name "Another Name for Darkness" that fits with the cover art provided From June 8 to July 12, we are reading short story submissions for our new collection, Another Name for Darkness! We are looking for stories of all genres that respond to our title and/or cover art, and selected writers will receive a flat rate of €150 for accepted submissions. The lion sleeps in the sun. Its nose is on its paws. It can kill a man. Wallace Stevens, Poetry is a Destructive Force The face in the mirror, the eyes gleaming in the night – are they friend or foe? Real or imagined? Or just your own reflection? And if you got close enough to see it for what it is, and hear what it has to say, would you ever feel the same? For our sixth anthology, we've decided to go looking in the shadows to meet what lurks out there! Maybe it's a monster, or maybe it's a hidden side of yourself (or maybe both are the same thing); maybe it's the unexpected, or what you've always known to be true. Another Name for Darkness is an anthology for stories that dare to face the dark, looking at it with honesty and seeing what it reveals. We want the real and the supernatural, joyful and melancholic, light and dark – as long as it's sincere. We are looking for stories inspired by our title – Another Name for Darkness – and the cover artwork below, created by artist WOLFSKULLJACK. All genres of writing are welcome, as long as they explore a story of facing the dark (which can be as real or as metaphorical as you see it)! More than any specific story or...

Taking Submissions: Alone on the Borderland

Belanger Books

Deadline: June 30th, 2023 Payment: Paperback copy, percentage of Kickstarter, percentage of first year of royalties Theme: Weird and strange fiction set between 1901 and 1919 Tales of Edwardian Dread SUBMISSION PERIOD: 1 FEBRUARY 2023 – 30 JUNE 2023 inclusive. GMT. CORE CONCEPT: An anthology of new weird and strange fiction set between 1901 and 1919 – from the death of Queen Victoria to the immediate aftermath of the Great War and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. Weird fiction is a mode of writing which includes the subversion of many standard tropes, or more imaginative interpretations, and has a strong psychological component, so please bear that in mind. “There are millions and millions and millions… with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they well be taught it in fire and bloody and anguish.” An Inspector Calls, J B Priestley (set in 1912) SETTING: The broad Edwardian period was a time of huge changes in society, including developments in science, religion, psychiatry, suffrage, class roles, labour, and the nature of warfare. Consider desperate attempts to cling to outdated ‘Victorian’ values, or a blind rejection of change — even an eager embrace of new concepts, with worrying results. Consider the worm inside this last ‘summer’ apple of grand houses and disenfranchised masses in Britain; remember the industrialisation of Japan and the growing revolutions in Russia. Hint at war to come, if you wish, or explore the weird through a war which changed many societies forever (please note, though, this is NOT...

Taking Submissions: Freeze Frame Fiction 2023 Call #1

Freeze Frame Fiction

Deadline: June 30th, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: A complete story in any genre What are we looking for? Good flash fiction is like a freeze frame—a snapshot of a real story about real characters. The word count is low, so many of the details are left to the reader to fill in, but they’re there. Flash fiction is neither a vignette nor a character sketch. Something must happen, and there must be an ending, whether explicit or implied. So first and foremost, we want a story. A complete, interesting story. 1000 words or less, any genre, no content restrictions. We want your science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, drama, literary works, satire, bizarre fiction, or anything else you can come up with or mix together. The more original, the better. The weirder, the better. The best way to find out what we’re looking for is to read what we’ve already published! Check out our current volume, free to read at https://freezeframefiction.com/. What are we NOT looking for? We are 100% okay with explicit content, so long as it serves a purpose to the story and/or characters. Profanity for the sake of profanity—or the same thing for sex, violence, or gore—does not impress us. Also, animal cruelty. Please just send that somewhere else. We do not publish fan-fiction, i.e., stories based in worlds or using characters created by other authors. All content must be original. The following things might be accepted, but will be a very hard sell: stories involving vampires, zombies, or werecreatures (read an exception here) pure romance with no other significant elements the now-ubiquitous young adult paranormal romance military fiction or stories of battles or wars stories with a religious message or theme We’re also pretty tired of reading about straight cis white guys, honestly. We get it; they’re everywhere. Give us some diversity,...