Events

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: $15 fee Theme: Haunted holidays Submissions are currently open for one issue of The Periodical, Forlorn: Volume I, Issue II ​ Theme: Haunted holidays. ​ For this issue, we don't want tales of peace on earth and good will to men. We don't want to hear about the warmth of family gatherings or how the Christmas spirit inspires a new outlook on life for those once thought irredeemable We want to know how misfits and outcasts approach the holiday season. We want to know how ghouls and goblins and all manner of pagan creatures mark the season. ​ Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Guidelines for All Submissions: Word Limit: 6,000 words ​ Compensation: flat $15 fee upon publication, plus a digital copy of the magazine (which you're free to share). ​ Format: We will accept short-form fiction any way you want to write it. This can include poetry, flash fiction or short stories. We're particularly interested in the subversion of form. We don't care about hard and fast rules, so don't worry too much about formatting. If you feel its good, chances are that shines through in the writing. And we want to read it. ​ Genre: Anything that's dark, creepy, weird and just a little off-kilter. We're open to genre fiction, particularly anything related to horror, science-fiction, speculative fiction or weird fiction. But we're also interested in anything that twists or subverts these genres in some unexpected way. ​ Simultaneous submissions: We will accept simultaneous submissions, but please inform us if this applies to you. If a story may be pulled away from us at the last minute, we want to know as this may affect our decision on acceptance. ​ Multiple Submissions: Please only send us one submission at a time. If your submission is rejected, we will then accept another...

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: 4 cents per word Theme: The Bonds That Unite Us / Los lazos que nos unen The Themes for Year 1 are: #1: The Bonds That Unite Us / Los lazos que nos unen #2. Myths and Monsters / Mitos y monstruos #3: Beyond the Stars / Más allá de las estrellas #4: Love Needs No Translation / El amor no necesita traducción The Bonds that Unite Us Constellations are the product of human imagination, giving meaning to the patterns we see in the sky. From these scintillating dots lighting up the night, we’ve created stories about heroes, legends, and mythological creatures. We created those bonds, and we give them meaning. Each culture that has looked up at the sky with wonder has its own interpretation of these connections, and now we want to hear yours. What are the bonds that unite our cultures and languages around the world? How are these bonds formed, and what upholds them? How can they be broken and forged again? What unites an alien civilization to humankind? What ties the dragon to the unicorn and prevents it from making a meal out of her? Sometimes these bonds are ones of blood. (Vampire tastes may vary.) Sometimes they’re shaped by shows of courage and strength, and the common struggles we face. These bonds can topple walls and bring down civilizations, and sometimes they’re the foundation for something new. The theme is open to interpretation, as long as the stories fit under the speculative fiction umbrella. Myths and Monsters Since the dawn of time, humans have stared into the abyss and wondered what hid in the darkness. Tell us about the myths and monsters that have shaped your perception of the unknown. Do your monsters hide in broad daylight or lurk in the shadows? Are they under the bed or...

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: A school of magic that accepts, promotes, and celebrates diversity. We want characters of racial, disability, gender, and sexuality diversity in this anthology. It doesn’t matter where your Dogbumps location is, and you can name the teachers and schoolmaster what you will. Note: Reprints welcome Editor: Jonathan W. Thurston Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable “Welcome to Dogbumps Academy of Wayward Wixards. We have locations across the globe and maybe even multiple in your country. We take in all types: Latinx, trans, disabled, lesbian, black, gay, etc. We are pleased to have you enrolled at our school and even more pleased to give you, whom society has deemed 'lesser,' a place where you can be celebrated just as you are.” Wayward (adj):  difficult to control or predict because of unusual or perverse behavior Hell no, we won't be controlled. Or silenced. It’s time for a school of magic that accepts, promotes, and celebrates diversity. We want characters of racial, disability, gender, and sexuality diversity in this anthology. It doesn’t matter where your Dogbumps location is, and you can name the teachers and schoolmaster what you will. The genre or type of narrative is completely up to you. Whether spell students are trying to research a forgotten curse or the alchemy instructor is exploring polyamory with two non-witches outside the school, it’s up to you! The rating of this anthology can go up to R, but nothing X or higher. So basically, no explicitly described sexual scenes although sex can happen. We don’t want this to be an erotic book. Also, watch that you don’t use any copyrighted characters, names, places, spells, or ideas in your story! World notes: The school is called Dogbumps Academy of Wayward...

Deadline: November 1st, 2020 Payment: $0.01/word Theme: The darker side of baked goods ​Sliced Up Press is looking for short stories involving cake for its debut horror fiction anthology, Slashertorte: An Anthology of Cake Horror, edited by Ben Walker. Delicious as cake might be, we want you to bring out the darker side of baked goods and give us something scary, disturbing or just plain wrong. What we’re looking for: All submissions must be in the horror genre. While bizarro, splatterpunk and extreme horror are welcomed, we will not consider stories involving rape. We are especially interested in stories from under-represented groups in horror i.e. women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors. All submissions must be original. We will not accept reprints, or stories published elsewhere including on blogs, social media etc. No reworked pizza stories please. Submit your best work in standard manuscript format, as an MS Word .doc or .docx attachment. Authors may submit one story maximum for consideration. Do not re-send rejected stories. No simultaneous submissions. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & TERMS: Please email submissions to [email protected] using the following format in the email subject line: Submission: – – . (so your email should look like this: Submission: Joe Bloggs – Cake or Death – 1,500 words) In the body of the email, please include an author bio of 3-4 sentences maximum. Payment: $0.01/word Length: 2,000 words maximum – longer pieces will not be considered. Deadline for submissions: 1st November 2020, or until filled Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by 30th November 2020 at the latest. If you have not heard back by the closing date of 30th November 2020, your story has been rejected. If you do receive a rejection, it will be a form letter – we will not critique your story. Please do not email to enquire after your submission, unless you...

Deadline: November 2nd, 2020 Payment: 6 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints Theme: Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world. Note: Reprints welcome     Submissions Schedule We have a new submissions schedule as of June 1, 2020: The first and second day of every month, 12 am of the 1st to 12 am of the 3rd, E.S.T. Only one submission per person. For reading impaired individuals, our submissions manager and ‘forget password’ have a captcha compatible with screen readers. We pay 6¢ per word for new fiction, 2¢ per word for fiction reprints, 2 – 6¢ per word for new fact-based work, 1- 4¢ per word for reprinted fact articles. For new poetry, we pay $1 a line, reprints would be 50¢ a line, up to 40 lines. We’ll look at longer poems but that would be a hard sell, and words over 40 lines would be paid at 6¢ per word. We began The Kepler Award to recognize and encourage writers of excellent science fiction and fantasy stories that creatively extrapolate on known science in constructive and exciting ways. You can learn about The Kepler Award here. You can read a copy of our standard contract here.   It can be varied as needed to include the rights of translators, voice actors, etc. Writers Guidelines We accept new work as well as reprints, prose and poetry, anywhere from 1000 word flash fiction on up, but all else being equal, shorter pieces will be favored.   We have tough standards but only care about the quality of the writing, storytelling ability, characters, plot, and ideas, not whether you’re new or established.  Submit only work you are proud of —...

Deadline: November 2nd, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word for original work, $100 flat rate for short story reprints, and $20 flat rate for flash fiction reprints Theme: Horror: dark, weird fiction. We run the spectrum from grim realism or crime drama, to magic-realism, to blatantly supernatural dark fantasy. Note: Reprints welcome PseudoPod is always looking for quality fiction to feed our listeners. If you’re a writer with a short horror story that you’d like to hear narrated by one of our talented performers, we’d like to see it. Probably. When we’re open, you can send it to us through our Moksha portal. Check to see if we’re open by reviewing our schedule. Multiple and Simultaneous Submissions For the submission period in 2020, we will consider one original and one reprint per author. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable WITH DISCLOSURE. Let us know that you are submitting this to multiple markets simultaneously. We’ll be transparent with you, and expect the same level of professionalism in return. The only exception to this is simultaneous submission of a particular story to multiple Escape Artists podcasts (Escape Pod, PodCastle, Cast of Wonders, and PseudoPod), which we ask that you avoid. When submitting to one Escape Artists podcast, please wait to hear back about it before submitting the same story to another. What We Want PseudoPod is a genre magazine in audio form. We’re looking for horror: dark, weird fiction. We run the spectrum from grim realism or crime drama, to magic-realism, to blatantly supernatural dark fantasy. We publish highly literary stories reminiscent of Poe or Lovecraft as well as vulgar shock-value pulp fiction. We don’t split hairs about genre definitions, and we do not observe any taboos about what kind of content can appear in our stories. Originality demands that you’re better off avoiding vampires, zombies, and other recognizable horror...

Deadline: November 5th, 2020 Payment: $15 canadian Theme: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, humour, western, mystery, literary…and any variation or combination thereof. YES, PLEASE: Flash fiction stories only.  Word count: 1,000 or less. English language only. Original work only. Genre: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, humour, western, mystery, literary…and any variation or combination thereof.  If in doubt, send it along – you never know. Multiple submissions:  feel free to send as many submissions as you wish to during the reading period.  Please send each submission in separate emails. Simultaneous submissions: all good. If your story is selected for publication elsewhere, please contact me right away to withdraw it from my consideration. NO, THANK YOU: Word count over the limit. Poetry, non-fiction, essays, children’s stories, anything other than flash fiction. Erotica, excessive gore, abuse, or ‘isms such as racism, sexism, etc.. Overly saucy language.  I don’t mind swear words, I just would prefer to keep the content on the site closer to the PG side of things. Reprints. Stories sent outside of the reading period. Artwork. Queries. They’re not necessary.  Send me your work if you think there’s a chance I might like it.  Please don’t ask me about your submission after you’ve sent it. I will get back to you by December 15, 2020. FORMATTING: I’m not picky about fonts or font sizes or margins or paragraph indentations or anything of the sort.  I will format your work to fit the site if it is accepted for publication.  If your story has an experimental form and I accept it, we’ll work together to ensure it is posted properly. Cover letters are not required. Your contact information (name, email address) MUST be included somewhere in your submission. Please watch your spelling and grammar – if your story is littered with errors,...

Deadline: November 7th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Original fantasy and dark fantasy stories. All types of fantasy and dark fantasy are welcome. Submission Periods: Fantasy is open to submissions the first week of every month (1st-7th). Please do not query about submitting outside our open submission periods. Anonymous Submissions: Fantasy only accepts anonymous submissions. Do not include your name, address, phone number, or other similar identifiers on the manuscript. All original short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry submissions will be read anonymously on first read: moving out of slush depends on the merits of the story alone. Please make sure the title is on the manuscript. Simultaneous and Multiple Submissions: We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions. Please do not submit more than one set of poems at a time, more than one piece of flash fiction at a time, or more than one story at a time. You may, however, submit a single entry in each category at the same time: you can submit one batch of poems, one flash fiction piece, and one short story all at the same (or overlapping) time, and each category will be considered a separate submission. If we are already considering work in any given category, please wait until you have received an acceptance or rejection before submitting again in that same category. Instructions: All fiction must be submitted through our Moksha online submission system. Please do not email your submissions. If one of the Submission Type options is grayed out, that means we are currently closed to that Submission Type. Questions/Problems: Email [email protected] for all submission-related inquiries, or if you have any trouble using our online submission system. Please do not email your submissions to this address. All submissions must be submitted via our Moksha online submission system. Rejections/Response Times: Be aware that we expect to receive several hundred submissions during our submissions...

Deadline: November 8th, 2020 Payment: £60 plus royalties Theme: Poetry anthology with the theme of who we were Tell Me Who We Were Before Life Made Us We’re currently seeking submissions for a poetry anthology entitled Tell Me Who We Were Before Life Made Us edited by Maz Hedgehog. This anthology will be published in June 2021. This is an anthology about imagined histories. We want to read your takes on fairy tales, folklore and urban legends. Send us your creation myths, founding myths, Greek/Haitian/Indian/Mancunian myths. We want to see your counterfactuals, your apocryphals, your ‘What If’s? We want to know, who do you think we are/were/could be? Requirements:  Submit up to 3 poems, of any length The file name must be the title of the first poem in your submission and the number of poems in your submission (e.g. The_Wasteland_3) submit in PDF/doc/plain text format. Use a standard, easy to read font (such as calibri, times new roman or arial) unless your poem requires otherwise In your email include your name and a short bio (no more than 75 words) If your poetry is commissioned, you will be paid a fee of £60 plus royalties. Please email Maz at [email protected] with your submissions by 8 November 2020. Via: 3 of Cups.

Deadline: November 13th, 2020 Payment: Canada: 5.00CAD OR one contributor copy (print or pdf), USA, UK: one contributor copy Theme: Short genre fiction Submissions for Issue #2 are now open. Please read this page thoroughly. There are changes to terms since the first issue. Near the bottom of this page is a link to more helpful information which should be read before submitting your work. PLEASE ONLY SEND SUBMISSIONS DURING OPEN SUBMISSION WINDOWS. Any submissions sent at other times will be deleted, unread. Submission Guidelines: OPEN Oct 03 – Nov 13, 2020 Fiction: Original, unpublished Short Stories: 600 – 3000 words. Please send one or two stories for consideration. Send in the plain text field, not as an attached file. If your work is accepted, the acceptance may be for one or both pieces (one flash fiction, and one longer story for instance). Poetry: We will feature a limited number of poets per issue. Original, unpublished poetry. Submit one to four poems, each separately in the plain text field of our submissions manager – NO files or attachments. Poems do not necessarily need to be horror or speculative in nature, but they should fit in with the material we publish – horror, dark literary, speculative fiction. If sending two stories, or when submitting poetry, please send them in separate submissions, preferably at the same time, one directly after the other. Mention the title of the other piece(s) in each submission. This makes it clear whether one or more pieces are accepted or declined. If your submission is declined DO NOT submit again unless we invite you to do so. Submit your own, original writing only. While a publication history is not a prerequisite, we expect proper grammar, word usage, syntax, genuine style and voice, and properly researched and accurate references. What we don’t...