Events

Deadline: July 31st, 2023 Payment: $20 plus 1 cent per word Theme: Smoke & Mirrors Autonomous Press is now accepting submissions of short fiction, short literary memoir, and poetry for the eighth volume of Spoon Knife, our annual genre-bending lit anthology. We are accepting submissions until July 31st, 2023. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by the end of 2023. Spoon Knife 8 will be published in Spring 2024. The theme for Spoon Knife 8 is Smoke & Mirrors. All submissions should touch in some way or another on this theme, but it can be interpreted as broadly and strangely as you like, and as literally or figuratively as you like (i.e., actual smoke and actual mirrors need not appear). Please note that above all else, Spoon Knife is an anthology of stories, which we select primarily based on the quality of the storytelling. Many would-be contributors, in past years, have been unclear on the nature of Spoon Knife and have wasted their time sending us pieces that read more like blog posts or political activism. We highly recommend reading a recent volume of Spoon Knife in order to make sure you understand what this series is and what it isn’t. All submissions must be sent as Word documents (.doc or .docx files). Prose submissions (fiction and memoir) must meet the following criteria: 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced. First line of each paragraph indented. No extra whitespace between paragraphs. Consistent use of Oxford commas. Thoroughly proofread and spell-checked. If you’re submitting poetry, you may send up to 3 poems (please put them all in a single document). Poems should also be in 12-point Times New Roman font, but do not need to be double-spaced. Maximum length for submissions is 10k words. Exception: you can assume this limit to be as flexible as you need it to be if you’re...

Deadline: July 31st, 2023 Payment: $75 and Royalties - 50% author share to be divided equally among the authors Theme: Superheroes who have their powers for 5 seconds - details below Live Real Press is stepping into the anthology publishing business. Our first offering is a collection of stories set in the 5 Second Rule universe. Submissions are open. This is being published in partnership with writer and game creator Laura from Lucky Newt Games. Here is the game’s description: “You are participating in a new study by L&G Inc. Though the compensation isn’t very good, they could be the key to your dream of having superpowers. After weeks of pokes and prods, and far more mental and physical tests than should be legal, you are one of the few whose power awakens! The catch? You’re stuck in this facility with a few powered individuals until you learn how to work together as a team of superheroes. Oh yeah, and everyone’s power- including yours- is limited by 5 seconds in some way. So why go through all this? Because someone mentioned there would be a portal at the end of this training that could take your group anywhere, anytime. And did you catch the part about being a superhero?“ If you’re interested in learning more about the lore of the game, click here. Laura has also made the game pay-what-you-want for the duration of the submission period. There is a discord channel dedicated to answering questions about this. Click here. Guidelines Details: An unpublished short story set in the 5 Second Rule Universe. Looking for 15 contributors. If we get enough, we will produce a second volume. Wordcount: 2500 to 7500 words. Genre: Superhero, specifically in the 5 Second Rule universe. Rating: For those in the US, we’re looking for a TV14 rating, something that can air on broadcast TV...

Deadline: July 31st, 2023 Payment: $25 and a contributors copy Theme: Stories of the Sley Siblings (details on them below) in the genres of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, noir mysteries with dark elements, and thrillers. We are looking for well-written short stories in the genres of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, noir mysteries with dark elements, and thrillers, each around 6000 words. We would like 18-21 previously unpublished stories to fill this year's anthology. We'll stay open at least through July 31st, and possibly after that date if we haven't filled all slots. In the subject line, write "SUBMISSION -- story genre + Story title -- word count". In the body of your email, tell us a little about yourself and a little about the story.  If you've been published elsewhere, tell us about that also. We will pay $25 via PayPal upon contract signing + 1 eBook copy & 1 print copy. We also offer a discount on any future print copies. ​ TALES OF THE SLEY SIBLINGS   Publication Date: Halloween 2023 The Sley siblings, pictured above, are the backbone of our publishing house, and their stories are just as dark and mysterious as any we tell. Your job, in this first-ever anthology, is to help us tell these stories. RG (pictured far left) is the eldest, and can often be found in his laboratory. His interests lean towards cosmic horror, arcane magics, and spells. Before he was confined to a wheelchair, he would scour the world looking to become a powerful magician and sorcerer. Charles (center) has always loved books. As the middle child, he often spent hours in the library, reading the classics, and has spent his life in pursuit of examining the truth behind classic legends. The youngest, Genevieve, is as at home in her garden as she is in...

Deadline: July 31st, 2023 Payment: 10 cents per word up to 3,000 words, $500 for novelettes, $50 for short poems, $100 for longer poems Theme: Qualia: instances of subjective, conscious experience; the internal and subjective component of sense perceptions arising from stimulation of the senses by phenomena; the way it feels to have mental states. Nous: intellections; awareness; perception; understanding; reason; thought; intuition; the faculty of the human mind; having the ability to understand what is true or real; practical intelligence. The first volume of Qualia Nous (2014), edited by Michael Bailey, won the Benjamin Franklin Award for science fiction and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology. It was a Foreword Reviews Book of the Year finalist in horror, science fiction, and a bronze winner for anthologies, as well as a silver medal finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Awards, a finalist for the Indie Book Awards, and a winner of the International Book Award. It was also the first Written Backwards anthology (of eventually many) to contain work by Stephen King. Usman T. Malik’s “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” was a finalist for the Nebula Award and tied to win the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction with Rena Mason’s “Ruminations.” And Marge Simon’s poem “Shutdown” (the only poem in the anthology) won the Rhysling Award from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. So, a second volume of Qualia Nous was inevitable, albeit 10 years later, and will again not only feature legends of the craft but showcase today’s emerging talent. What does the title mean? It’s up to interpretation. Qualia: instances of subjective, conscious experience; the internal and subjective component of sense perceptions arising from stimulation of the senses by phenomena; the way it...

Deadline: July 31st 2023 Payment: Royalties Theme: Pick a famous incident, an unknown one, or make up your own and let us know what really happened! Note: Not looking for 'extreme' horror What Really Happened (Tentative Title) Swamp gas? Weather balloons? Ball lightning? That couldn’t really have been an atmospheric reflection of Venus, could it? Heck no! And we want you to tell us what it REALLY was! Pick a famous incident, an unknown one, or make up your own and let us know what really happened! I mean, we’re not saying it was aliens, but… Submission Guidelines: Submissions will be open May 1st to July 31st 2023. Send submissions to [email protected] Please attach your story as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file. No PDFs or cloudsharing will be accepted. Anthology expected to be published in or around November, 2023. Word count maximum (firm) of 7,000 words. Anything under 2,000 words will be considered flash fiction. Flash fiction is welcome and will be paid at 1/2 rate. Payment is royalty sharing through Draft2Digital’s Royalty Sharing Program. **If you are not willing to obtain a Draft2Digital account in order to receive royalty shares as payment, then DON’T SUBMIT TO US.** For this anthology, please no extreme horror or graphic sex. Though we want dark stories and even horror, we are not interested in the extremes of the genre. Please keep content and language limited to the equivalent of a “PG-13” rated movie. Please remember, Knight Writing Press will not accept a story that glorifies, supports, encourages, or gratuitously includes hate, hate crimes, rape, sex, sex crimes, or any other forms of inhumanity. There are no genre restrictions on this anthology, as long as the story fits the theme, which means if it is not sci-fi, it’s going to be a hard sell!...

Submission Window: June 1st - July 31st, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Stories of any genre as long as they have a witch, wizard, warlock, or combination of them within! THREE COUSINS PUBLISHING, an imprint of WEST MESA PRESS, will be accepting submissions for its next anthology, WITCH WIZARD WARLOCK from June 1, 2023 until midnight July 31, 2023. Stories submitted before or after the submission period will not be considered. We’re looking for stories that fit the anthology title. Submissions must feature a witch, wizard, warlock, two of those, or even all three. Horror, humor, fantasy, science fiction, or even some entertaining, but bizarre mashup of genres that we haven’t considered. Your characters may be young or old and the time frame may be from the dawn of mankind to the far future. Here’s the short list of guidelines. Pay attention, please. These are important. 1, Stories should be submitted in standard format. Here’s a link: https://www.writersdigest.com/.../how-to-submit-short... 2. Double spaced, no tabs, use the indent function in ‘paragraph,’ no extra spaces between paragraphs, and Times New Roman 12 point font. 3. Signal scene breaks by ###. 4 If you want italics, use them. 5. Stories must be between 4,000 and 5,000 words. No slack. Rewrite and edit to fit before submitting. Longer or shorter submissions will be deleted unread. 6. No reprints, but simultaneous submissions are fine, as they always should be, but let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere. 7. Put your contact information on the first page and your 150 word bio and bibliography in your cover letter. Submissions must be in the form of an attachment, doc, docx, or rtf. 8. Email the submission to [email protected]. Put “Submission, your story title, and your name in the subject line, otherwise the gremlins might send your story...

Deadline: July 31st, 2023 Payment: $100 Theme: Fiction or poetry that mix art and Taco Bell Taco Bell Quarterly is a literary magazine that explores the intersection of Art and Taco Bell. Our only guideline is that it must contain a Taco Bell reference. We publish art that explores, provokes, and tests the conventions of creative writing as it relates to Taco Bell. Whether or not you believe any of this is up to you, the creative writer. We are looking for short stories, non-fiction, prose, essays, poetry, art, comics, flash, films, undefinable auras, experiments, and completely ordinary shit that will peak in the seventh issue of a literary magazine in a corner of the internet. You are, were, and always will be a Literary Writer. We are looking for innovative ways to lower the bar. We are looking for ways to degrade ourselves with flair. We are looking for universes that could be extremely traumatizing if the writers weren’t cowards. We are looking for ways to address the nightmares more directly. We are drawn to writing that is urgent. We are drawn to screams and fever dreams. We want to publish: the stuff that no one else gets, the stuff that speaks to the moment, the stuff that speaks to nothing at all, the stuff that is grilled and nacho stuft. Have fun. Make stuff.  Screw your Koch Perception Boxes. Send us your panorama shoeboxes. Run for the border so that we can dismantle the borders altogether. We want to hear from everyone, especially queer writers, trans writers, writers of color, neurodiverse writers, disabled writers, non-literary writers, genre writers, not-even-writers and total outsiders. Simultaneously subbed? Previously pubbed? We have no rules. Shoehorn a bean burrito in it and send it. Taco Bell Quarterly loves you. We pay $100. Is...

Deadline: July 31st, 2023 Payment: $25.00 for original stories, $7.00 for reprints. $6.00 for each poem. $20.00 for original articles, $6.00 for reprints. $7.00 for reviews and interviews. $5.00 for interior art Theme: The paranormal Submissions are accepted Feb 1 – Mar 31, Jun 1 – Jul 31, Oct 1 – Nov 30. Anything submitted outside those periods will be deleted unread. We no longer accept simultaneous or multiple submissions. ​ No matter how far we move forward as humans, we are still bound by the instincts and ancestral memories of our animalistic past. None of these are so strong as the fight or flight response. However, there are times when we seem to be perfectly safe, completely at ease and comfortable, when that urge to run from something sneaks up on us. What causes these sensations? Is there something lurking in the darkness? Why is that man giving you the creeps, he’s not even looking at you? And yet, there is something odd. Something instinctual, something you know without fully understanding. We may have moved on, we may have forgotten and left behind those old stories and legends of beasts, voracious monsters, and dark spirits... But they have not forgotten or left us... What We Want The subject matter of parABnormal Magazine is, yes, the paranormal. For us, this includes ghosts, spectres, haunts, various whisperers, and so forth. It also includes shapeshifters and creatures from various folklores. PLEASE NOTE: CREATURES LIKE VAMPIRES, GHOULS, WEREWOLVES, AND ZOMBIES ARE NOT PARANORMAL. Shapeshifters, for the purpose of this magazine, refer to the spiritual shift, not the physical. Think Native American shaman. Paranormal activity centers around the human, not the creature. We do not want stories that involve excessive blood, gore, digestive tracts, and so forth. We also dislike stories with pornographic content. If you...

Deadline: July 31st, 2023 Payment: 8 cents/word and 4 cents/word for reprints Theme: Speculative stories--science fiction, fantasy, horror--with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology Note: Reprints Welcome We are looking for speculative stories--science fiction, fantasy, horror--with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology, and for artwork for this site. Fiction Guidelines Technical details Stories can be up to 9000 words (thanks, Patreon supporters!). This is a hard limit--our submission system will enforce it. We pay 8 cents/word for original stories (or original translations of stories that have not previously appeared in English), and 4 cents/word for reprints (thanks again, Patreon!). Authors are paid once we've agreed on edits and signed a contract, prior to earliest publication (generally on our Patreon page). We are seeking 6 months' exclusive worldwide publication rights for original works (with exceptions for established Best of the Year anthologies), and non-exclusive worldwide print and electronic rights thereafter for both original works and reprints. We want to publish your story online in our webzine and keep it there indefinitely. We're also acquiring the right to offer ebook versions of the stories we publish, as Patreon rewards or for purchase; and to publish a print and ebook anthology of all the stories that appeared in the webzine over a given 1- or 2-year period. For original fiction, we want to be the only place publishing it for the first 6 months; after that, you're welcome to publish it anywhere else in any format you like. No multiple or simultaneous submissions. If multiple writers co-write a story, we consider each distinct group of writers a different submitter. In other words, if two people co-write a story, and they submit the co-written story, and each of them also submits a story written on their own, that would not violate our no multiple submissions policy. Submitting two stories co-written by...

Submission Window: July 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: $25 and a contributors copy Theme: After Tomorrow Title: The Cellar Door - Issue #4: After Tomorrow Theme: Looking for post-apocalyptic suspense and horror stories about how mankind has come to survive after our near annihilation. Humorous stories are welcome. No AI-generated stories. Type: Post-apocalyptic, thriller/suspense, survival horror, creature feature, supernatural/paranormal. Word Count: 2,000 - 10,000 words. Payment: $25.00 + digital & paperback copies. Featured Author: TBA Accepted Authors (so far): Danielle Davis, Nik Patrick. Cover Art: Mikio Murakami Rights: We are seeking first time rights for 1 year after publication. After that time all rights revert back to the author. The publication will appear in both print and digital formats. Reprints: None. Previously unpublished only. Multiple Submissions: None. Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, but state in your email that it is a simultaneous submission, and please email us immediately if the story is sold elsewhere. Also, be sure to follow the Manuscript Format guidelines below when submitting. File Format: Include your story as an attachment in MS Word, LibreOffice, or Rich Text Format. Manuscript Format: Use the Modern or Classic Shunn Format. Include a short bio in the body of your email. Your subject line should read, AT Submission: ("Title") by (Author's Name). For Example, AT Submission: "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury. Attach the story as a separate document. Response Time: 4 weeks after submissions close, if not sooner. Submission Period: July 1 - 31, 2023. Send Submissions to: darkpenpress (at) gmail (dot) com Influential Movies/TV: A Quiet Place, Monsters, 28 Days/Weeks Later, Fury Road, It Comes at Night, Stake Land, Pandorum, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Snowpiercer, Zombieland, The Road, Sweet Home (TV), The Rain (TV), The Last of Us (TV). Influential writings/series: Silo Trilogy by Hugh Howey, Wayward Pines Trilogy by Blake Crouch, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, The Girl With All the Gifts by Mike Carey, Bird Box by...