Events

Deadline: January 19th, 2025 Payment: $5 usd Theme: Splatter Friendly Horror Taking Submissions: Carnage House Issue 6 Deadline: January 19, 2025 Release Date: April 1st, 2025 Format: Online Pay: $5.00 upon publication We want solid, entertaining writing that evokes feelings. Carnage House is a splatter friendly web ’zine—so nothing against cozy, but cozy, we’re not. We’re looking for gore, extreme horror, splatterpunk, and horror with sexual elements to it. For a better understanding of what we’ll take, think of the Hot Blood book series or Love in Vein. Or, as a more practical proposition, read our back issues at carnagehouse.com. We invite LGBTQIA and BIPOC themes, and we encourage authors from diverse backgrounds to submit to us. Hard NOs: NO sex with children, NO sexualization of children, and NO child rape. If you’re writing a story about a child predator who gets what’s coming to him—great. But we don’t want to read about that predator violating his victims. We won’t publish anything supporting a racist, transphobic, or homophobic agenda, so don’t try it. No stories written by AI; all work must be 100 percent original. We seek only original, unpublished work. No reprints, please. Also please send only one submission per issue. Our description includes the words “splatter” and “friendly” for a reason. We love splatter, and we’re super friendly. Carnage House is about supporting writers and entertaining readers, and we’re dedicated to both in equal measure. “SplatterPUNK” also contains the word “Punk.” Punk has an ethic. Punk is antifascist, anti-conservative, and anti-establishment. We are for free speech, pro-choice, freedom of expression, the freedom to read, the freedom to be weird, and the expression of political ideas in art. We look forward to reading your work in all its splattertastic glory. The Editors [email protected] Submissions: We want solid entertaining writing. That...

Deadline: January 19th, 2025 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence per word. Theme: Folk Horror that deals with what it means to be a witch. Read on for more! We're delighted to let you know this new call for submissions is open! Please read through the submission details carefully as we’ve changed some of our guidelines and it could result in your submission not being acknowledged if you do not follow them. Witch Craft A New Collection of Folk Tales & Horror Stories We are very excited to give you advance notice of a new call for submissions on the theme of Witch Craft, for our Beyond & Within series. We’re looking for around four stories to join the selection curated by the team who brought you Folk Horror: Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. The call is open to all, though we expect to see a greater proportion of stories by authors identifying as women. We expect the stories to deal with what it means to be ‘witch’, and the rediscovery and reclaiming of that power, its links to nature – and the exploration of whether a witch is drawn to 'good' or 'bad', and why. Stories should be in the horror and folk horror veins, and we’d like to see as wide a range as possible – the history, stigma and varying interpretations from around the world that feed into this concept should yield some exciting results... Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane are the award-winning authors and editors of many books. Together they have co-edited anthologies such as The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration, A  Carnivàle  of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground, Hellbound Hearts, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, Exit Wounds, Wonderland (a Shirley Jackson Award finalist), Cursed, Twice Cursed and The Other Side of Never, featuring authors such as Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris, Dean Koontz, Catriona Ward and Stephen King. They have also been involved in organizing conventions for twenty years, co-chairing ChillerCon in Scarborough in May...

Deadline: January 19th, 2025 Payment: Royalties Theme: Retro-future adventures Plasma Pulp! Edited by LawDog Ultronic supersonic tales of retro-future adventure! We’re looking for science fiction pulpy goodness that hearken back to Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Evil intergalactic warlords face off against ray gun-slinging heroes! You can call it raypunk, if you like—we’re calling it Plasma Pulp! Your homework for this anthology. Opens: 11/17/24 Closes: 01/19/25 Contracts: 02/08/25 Publication: 03/07/25 Guidelines for all our anthologies (psst! this is important!): 5,000 to 8,000 words. Length and genre are negotiable, as long as the story fits the concept and is entertaining. Any submission must be in Times New Roman (preferred, but you can use Georgian or other readable font), 12PT, double-spaced, with your name, title of the story, and your email on it. Name the file as -—. Send it in a .docx format as an attachment—no links. Refer to the submission guideline graphic below for how to format your story—It has all the information you need! Feel free to download it for reference. Raconteur Press will hold the rights for one year after publication; after one year, the rights will revert to the author, but we continue to pay you as long as the anthology is selling. Authors receive an equal percentage share of the proceeds from the anthology, along with the Press, our editors, and administration. Yes, you read that right. We don’t take 80% off the top and split the 20% left over between all the authors. We’re all in this together. This is why our anthologies are limited to ten stories. IMPORTANT: PLEASE do NOT submit stories until the date the call opens. We don’t want to hang on to your piece for longer than necessary. You might find another market for it, or it decides to grow into a novel,...

Deadline: January 20th, 2025 Payment: 2 cents per word, 1 cent per word for reprints Theme: Stories that center around a craft, recipe, or ritual AND each author will provide a set of instructions to make/enact the craft, recipe, or ritual that was featured in their story Note: This is a vegan magazine. They will not generally publish mentions of leather/animal-products, meat/animal consumption, etc. and will request that they be changed to a vegan alternative during the edit process Note: Reprints welcome Reading periods/When to send Submissions are currently open. They will close on January 20th, 2025 @ 10pm PST. About the Anthology Welcome to the Hearth Stories Springtime Fair! In this anthology we will be featuring stories that center around a craft, recipe, or ritual (see below for specifics). In addition to the story, each author will provide a set of instructions to make/enact the craft, recipe, or ritual that was featured in their story. The idea is that this will let readers enjoy a great story while also learning something and engaging with the story in an interesting way. The story and the instructions should be firmly related (not just a random thing to make, paired with a random story). So, what are we talking about when we talk about crafts, recipes, and rituals? Here are some examples, but you are by no means limited to these: Crafts Crochet, Knitting, Sewing, Weaving, Macrame Basketry Woodworking Smithing Jewelry Making Recipes (Vegan Only) Baking (bread, pastry, etc) Cooking (soups, sides, mains) Remedies, Medicines, Tinctures Rituals Magic or Spellcraft Meditation Yoga, Qi-Gong, Tai-Chi, etc. Ceremonies When using the above suggestions keep in mind that you can be very specific—a specific knitting pattern, for example—or you can be fairly general—an introduction to knitting, for example. Either is fine. For the most part we are...

Deadline: January 20th, 2025 Payment: Contributors Copy Theme: Longing Have you ever eaten cold waffle fries in your underwear at like, 2am? No? Well, you should. Leftovers you’ve convinced yourself you’ll heat up later and eat but then just eat them by the light of the fridge – though it’s unclear why you’re in your underwear. It’s a wonderfully strange experience and that’s kind of what we’re aiming for. A wonderfully strange experience but in words and art. Got a piece that doesn’t quite fit elsewhere? We want to read it. Experimenting with format or style? Love it; send it our way. We want your abandoned words, your collection of phrases tucked away in your Notes app, that strangely-written but oddly elegant poem that doesn’t play well with others. We’re looking for hybrids, lyrics, prose, poetry; whatever you’ve got, we’ll read (within reason).   Issue #1 longing noun a yearning desire   Waffle Fried is currently accepting unpublished creative non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, journalism, and visual art that explores the theme of longing – whether it be for something or someone once had or never found, the tale of the one who got away, or even an overwhelming craving (for waffle fries, perhaps?). However you interpret the theme is what we’d like to see, so long as it obviously fits. Published authors and artists will receive a print copy of Issue #1, which may or may not be available for purchase. Submissions can only be sent via Duosuma. Any submission sent by email will be deleted without being read. Word count limit for fiction and creative non-fiction is 2,000 words.  Poetry line limit is 30. General Guidelines While we’re open to basically anything, we do have some things we won’t tolerate or consider. Artificial Intelligence If you include AI as part of your...

Submission Window: December 21st, 2024 to January 21, 2025 Payment: $50 upon publication Theme: Stories about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection in all genres with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit Please read below for details about our next submission window, guidelines, honorariums, and rights. At Astrolabe, we’re looking for work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection. Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another. And then, once we find one other, the myths we make. We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky. We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit. Read about Astrolabe for details on our mission and what we’re doing with the Universe. The details We pay a $50 honorarium upon publication of one or more pieces from your submission. We open for submissions on the day we publish new work and remain open for a month, or until we reach 150 submissions. Here are our next open submission periods: Here are the next free periods: December 21st to January 21, 2025 Some additional details: We currently accept three types of work: fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography & art. See below for genre-specific instructions. We’re not a market for lineated poetry at the moment. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work was accepted for publication elsewhere—we’ll be thrilled for your good news! No multiple submissions—and if we don’t accept your work, please wait until our next submission period before trying...

Submission Window: January 15th - 21st, 2025 Payment: $25 Theme: Seeking Sleeping Beauty tales and poems for the first issue of 2025. Submission Guidelines    We changed our guidelines and updated our instructions on November 21, 2024 Please read thoroughly! ​​ The Fairy Tale Magazine is an online lit magazine that publishes twice per year. We seek fairy tale stories and poems from and about a wide range of backgrounds. Our issues are released online on April 15th and November 1st. ​ The Fairy Tale Magazine is NOT a children's publication. It is intended for those who are 15-years-of-age and older. We understand young children may see our publication, but it is intended for teens (age 15+) and adults.  ​ Themes for 2025 No submissions will be considered or acknowledged if received outside of the windows stated.​ ​ Spring/Summer Theme: Sleeping Beauty Seeking Sleeping Beauty tales and poems for the first issue of 2025. Submissions will be open January 15 at 12am EST through January 21 at 11:59pm EST. (no fee)  Prose & Poetry Guidelines ​ The Fairy Tale Magazine accepts only previously unpublished work. ​We accept unsolicited submissions. No more than one piece per submission period. Please submit only in one category. If you were published in our latest issue, please sit one submission period out before submitting again. Use the following word counts for submissions:  ​ Short Stories (between 900-2,000 words): Fairy tales inspired by any aspect of the above-listed themes. (1 piece per submission period)  Poetry (500 word limit): Poetry inspired by any aspect of the above-listed themes are welcome. (1 piece per submission period)  We are not seeking art or nonfiction. We are not hiring. No inquiries please. ​​​​​​ How to Format and Submit Your Work Only submissions that follow these guidelines will be accepted Submit by email only to this address: [email protected]. ​​The subject line of your email must...

Deadline: January 23rd, 2025 at the earliest, may run later Payment: 50/50 royalty split Theme: Horror of all kinds, huge fan of sci-fi and cosmic horror. Rabid Otter Horror is currently open to submissions in novella and novel form. If you have a story you would like to submit that is 30,000+ words, we would like to hear from you! To submit, please email [email protected] with the following: The first 20% of your manuscript (for under 50,000 words) or first three chapters (for over 50,000) in doc or docx format, Times New Roman and double spaced. A cover letter with your title, name, pen name, email address, full word count, and quick synopsis of your story. Please title the email “Rabid Horror Submission”. Feel free to include the title in the body of the email, but don’t forget it on the cover letter. Via: River Folk Books.

Deadline: January 26th, 2025 Payment: Royalties Themes: Stories that experiment with narrative, plot and structure. in darker genres Wild Hunt Books are open to unagented submissions from 13-26 January 2025. For this submission period we are looking for novels only (50K-90K words with a grace of 1000 words, over/under). We are only looking for standalone novels and are not acquiring series or duologies. We are not seeking short story collections or novellas this time. We are not a home for poetry, non-fiction, screenplays, translations, and children’s or YA fiction. If you'd like to read more about what the editor is looking for, please read her recent blog post about this. The editor has set up a #mswl which she will periodically update so best to head over there to get a good sense of what she’s looking for. The list is not meant to be exhaustive but to give writers an idea of the sorts of manuscripts we are looking for. The editor is seeking manuscripts that speak to the heart of the company: Our mission is to foster strong and distinct literary voices and those who experiment with narrative, plot and structure. We are also a home for authors dabbling in the darker genres and liminal spaces. She loves language that evokes place, voice and mood, and loves when this works as a visceral entry point for the reader into a story. Some of her favourite writers are: Shirley Jackson, Daisy Johnson, Charlotte Brontë, Margaret Atwood and Franz Kafka. I love books that have clear, engaging prose from the start, and don’t sacrifice on character or story. I’m looking for novels that are close to their characters and worlds. I also like a strong authorial voice. I tend to gravitate towards fiction rooted in reality even if it incorporates genre notes....

Submission Windows: Jan 22-25 BIPOC writers only, Jan 26-29 general submissions Payment: 10¢/word for original fiction and $50 for original poetry. Theme: All forms of speculative fiction that fall into the fantasy genre We plan to open January 22-29, 2025 Jan 22-25 BIPOC writers only, Jan 26-29 general submissions Fantasy only accepts anonymous submissions. Please do not include your name, address, phone number, or other similar identifiers in the manuscript itself. All original fiction and poetry submissions will be read anonymously on first read: moving on to further consideration will depend on the merit of the work alone. Please make sure the title is on the manuscript. For poetry, please ensure that the title of each poem is in the manuscript. Please note: Submissions and purchase decisions at Fantasy have no bearing on any decisions Arley makes as a literary agent, and vice versa. Please do not use Fantasy email addresses, submissions channels, social media, etc., to query or follow up with Arley for literary agent concerns. All opinions expressed by Arley are his own, and do not necessarily reflect ideas, opinions, or values of various organizations, including kt literary. Please see his website for more information on querying. Please read the FULL guidelines before submitting. Note that even if you have read through these guidelines once, we may update them from time to time, as our own perspectives on publishing can change over time and conversations. Definitions… and what we want! Fantasy means many things to different people. Often it means a shifting of perspective, which seems to imply that there is more, that wherever you are, the world or universe is bigger yet. Whoever you are and wherever you are, that location which seems mundane to you is also Fantastic to others. Fantasy is philosophical as well as experiential, it is thought provoking, and often insists on a sense...