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Deadline: March 1st, 2019 Payment: $20 “Turning words into art is unnatural. It begins with a contrary attitude. It says, I am unhappy with the way things are and desire to make things different. Rather than represent the world, I will make something wildly and savagely new. I will defy logic. I will invest in new perceptions. I will combine and recombine and fabricate and juggle until something that I have never experienced is experienced. The process is alchemical. The process is violent. It goes to the heart of creativity. It disrupts and shatters. It is splendid with provocation. It is an aggression against banality. It is sharp and loud like a janitor scraping frost from a window. The hectic bounce of steam on a street after a truck roars by. The anarchy of waters, the comedy of the face, dangerous feelings vented from a cage of skin.” ~ John Olson Poetry — We believe poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. We look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Contrary’s poetry in particular often mimics the effects of fiction or commentary. We find ourselves enamored of prose poems because they are naturally contrary toward form – they tug on the forces of exposition or narrative – but prose poems remain the minority of all the poetic forms we publish. Please consider that Contrary receives vast amounts of poetry and that we can publish only a small percentage of that work. Please submit no more than three poems per issue. Our poetry editor is Shaindel Beers. Fiction — We ask our fiction writers to imagine their readers navigating a story with one finger poised over a mouse button. Can your story stay that finger to the end? We have published long stories on the belief...

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: $25 flat rate per story Theme: Short story submissions that explore the implications of non-cisgender life within the context of furry. As furries, we base large swaths of our identity around species. We search for what fits, we let our species choose us, and find ways to be happy as such. Species isn’t the only portion of identity that we explore within this subculture, though; given the relative safety of our community, gender is also something that we frequently explore. More than 8% of furries describe themselves as non-cisgender, and a further 6% describe their gender as ‘complicated’ (via the 2016 Furry Survey). Furry is often a means of wish-fulfillment for us, the players of our characters and the bearers of our avatars, so we often present ourselves as we desire to be seen. Within a fictional furry world, though, there’s little reason to expect that similar statistics around gender identity and expression would not also be the case. Genderful: Green and Gold — How would those in a such a world explore their gender in a day-to-day context? What are the mechanics of hormone replacement therapy - transdermal patches obviously being out of the question - or of gender affirming surgery? What are the social implications of gender transition in a society already differentiated by species? Genderful: Blue and Silver — How would those in a such a world explore their gender in a sexual context? What are the effects of hormone replacement therapy or of gender affirming surgery on one’s sexuality? How does sex and sexuality work in a setting with complex scents and sensitive noses? Dating, already scary, gains a new layer of tension; romance, already complex, gains a new layer of difficulty; and sex, already fraught with gender, becomes even more complicated. About...

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: Short story: $10/printed page (up to a maximum of $100), Flash: $25 per piece Theme: fiction and poetry that shocks, surprises, moves, and tickles - not genre work Funicular Magazine publishes quality fiction and poetry that shocks, surprises, moves, and tickles us. Maybe all of those things in a single piece. We are a Canadian magazine and we want to publish Canadian voices, but don't be shy if you aren't Canadian. We love sharing international writers with our readers too. General Guidelines ✅ Font: We don't care, just make sure we can read it or, y'know, we won't ✅ File Type: PDF, Word, Text file ✅ Simultaneous Submissions (please withdraw your piece if it is being published elsewhere) ✅ Multiple Submissions (see specific submission limits below) ❌ No previously published stories (in print or online). Self-published is fine. ❌ No genre fiction. There are places for genre fiction. One of those places is not here. ❌ Do not put your name anywhere in the document or filename. We read submissions blind. What We Want If we like your work, we will ask for online and/or serial publication rights. Short Fiction Julio Cortazar said that the novel wins by points, the short story by knockout. Think about that when sending us your work. A short story can normally be read in one sitting, and if your sciatica is acting up you usually won't be sitting for very long. 3000 words max. You can go a little over the limit. Don't stress. Everything is going to be fine. Submissions Allowed Per Entry: 1 Poetry William Carlos Williams, Ford Maddox Ford, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Henry David Thoreau, William Butler Yeats, Edward Estlin Cummings. These are the names of some poets we know with three names. If you are...

Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Payment: Contributors Copy Thurston Howl Publications is now accepting submissions for its fourth volume of its HOWLERS series, Nefarious Nature. Deadline: March 1, 2020 Word count: 2,500-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable People versus nature has a long tradition in horror genre. This anthology seeks to celebrate and transform that narrative trope. Categorized into six different parts, the stories in this anthology will tackle the many ways Mother Nature can be a horrific...well...force of nature. Below are the six parts of the anthology and examples of how the element manifests in horror literature. Please note we are a progressive press and do not publish any conservative works. Examples in film and literature: Fire: Stephen King’s Firestarter, Freddy Kreuger’s entire backstory, Clive Barker’s “The Forbidden” Water: Black Water, Peter Benchley’s Jaws, Open Water Earth: any of the premature burial stories, any of the Medusa stories, Blood Beach Wind: The Fog, Snakes on a Plane, The Wind, Sharknado Plants: The Ruins, Little Shop of Horrors, R. L. Stine’s Stay Out of the Basement Animals: Stephen King’s Cujo, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Rats in the Walls,” Arachnophobia We will NOT accept: Racism, sexism, or discrimination presented in a positive light. Pedophilia or sex with characters under the age of 18 presented in a positive light. Rape, torture, dubious consent, forced seduction presented in a positive light. Snuff or Necrophilia presented in a positive light If you are in doubt, ASK. Better to ask then to get a straight up rejection! If you are unsure, just shoot me an email at [email protected].(restrictions borrowed from Voice: https://t.co/MWykJ6RY36) You can submit up to three stories, but we will only accept one per author (if any). Reprints are fine, but you have to own full permission of the work in...

Deadline: March 2nd, 2020 Payment: $5 Theme: Work meant to honor and value the life perspective and worldview of underprivileged individuals by serving to validate, recognize, and share the value of those who are oppressed. UPDATED GUIDELINES FOR THE 6TH COLLECTION & AFTERWARDS BEGINNING JANUARY 2019 SUBMISSIONS TO THE WIRE’S DREAM MAGAZINE TWD Magazine accepts original, unseen creative work in the following categories: Fiction Creative Nonfiction Poetry Art Photography Combined Work Work must be original and unseen. Please do not send work that has already been published or is pending publication. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. There is no creative limitation on the style of work submitted. There are no fees for submission. NEW: Accepted Contributors will receive a $5 payment for their work. A max of 2 Contributors per category will be featured. GENERAL GUIDELINES Submissions are accepted through Submittable. Submission Period: January 1st to March 1st (Summer Issue) Reading Period: March 2nd to April 30th Tentative Digital Magazine Release: June 30th** July 1st to September 1st (Winter Issue) Reading Period: September 2nd to October 30th Tentative Digital Magazine Release: December 31st** **Dates are subject to change due to volume of submissions received; may be delayed by a week or two. Cover Letter Subject: Name of Category, Your Full Name (Or Pen Name) Body: Brief introduction, short bio (300 words max) with publication links (if applicable). No bio picture. Please indicate if your submission is simultaneous and at what date it was first submitted elsewhere. Address to Accept $5 Payment: If work is accepted, please be prepared to provide a full valid address where you would like to receive your payment. PO Box addresses are acceptable. Complimentary Close: Your full name declares that your submission adheres to TWD Magazine submission guidelines. Attachments: Please read specific category guidelines. SPECIFIC CATEGORY GUIDELINES Fiction 1 – 2 pieces per submission...

Deadline: March 9th, 2020 Payment: £25 Theme: Other Worlds Note: Women only ISSUE 86: OTHER WORLDS The theme for Issue 86 is ‘other worlds’ – the mysterious space/time realms of the scientifically plausible: the ‘dust’ of Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials, the time-travelling TARDIS, the alternate realities of Schrödinger’s cat… Deadline: 9 Mar 2020 Twice annually we ask for themed poetry and prose submissions for the Showcase (previously New Writing) section of the magazine. Winners are selected by our Guest Editors (in the past they have included Julia Blackburn, Nicci Gerrard, Pascale Petit, Rachel Cusk and Sarah Dunant) and are published in the magazine. We also make a small payment for most submissions we publish. We look for stories of up to 2,200 words, poems of up to 40 lines, and short scripts (for theatre, radio or film) of up to 1,000 words (including character names and stage instructions). Please note: we only accept up to four poems, two short stories and two short scripts per entrant. Submitting your work Entries are judged anonymously, so please put your name on a separate cover sheet and omit your name from your poem or story. To send us your submissions online, fill in the form below and upload your submission document . To send your entries by post, write to Mslexia Publications PO Box 656 Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1PZ. If you would like an acknowledgement of your submission’s arrival, please include a SAE. If you have any questions regarding your submissions, please read the Themed Writing FAQs. In the unlikely event your query is not answered there, please email us or call 0191 204 8860. Good luck with your writing! Via: Mslexia.

Deadline: March 10th, 2020 Payment: 50% of the sales will be split between each author of each particular book after printing costs Theme: Horror To submit your short story to the Bi-Monthly Breaking Rules Publishing Horror Anthology, starting in January 2020 - released by the end of the month - please send an email to [email protected] by the 10th of the book release month. ​ In your email - please include your contact information, including location in the body of your email, as well as a "Word Doc" attachment of your work. We will confirm your submission within 24 hours, as well as get back to you within one week on the possibility for publishing options. All submissions must - Be sent in a "Word Doc" - 8.5 x 11 format - a clean, edited story with the authors name and title at the top of the page - please, no special margins - your story should be indented properly - single spaced - in a 12 font - no double spaces between paragraphs - and no headers or footers. Page limit is 30 max  - 15 min - all submissions but be sent in by the 10th of the book release month. Publishing starts January 2020. Work that is sent incorrectly will be sent back. We sincerely appreciate your interest in Breaking Rules Publishing but also don't want to add additional work for our formatting team. ​Editing: By submitting you agree to allow Breaking Rules Publishing to provide a light edit, spell check, formatting, appropriate grammar, to all stories published. Copyrights: The author retains all copyrights to the submitted work. With your consent, BRP may publish of your work in future journals and publicity pieces, and other formats or contexts determined by, and at the discretion of, Breaking Rules Publishing. Please note that other publications may not accept...

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Positive futures, SF, urban fantasy. Gotta Wear Eclipse Glasses - Positive futures, SF, urban fantasy. The future we all want. Examples might include effects of technology on the young (online learning, socialization), climate mitigation and adaptation, new opportunities to boldly go where none have gone before The untented Kosmos my abode, I pass, a willful stranger My mistress the open road And the bright eyes of danger (Robert Louis Stevenson, Youth and Love) Reading period: February 15 - March 15, 2020 Writer deadline: March 15, 2020 Publication date: June 1, 2020 Third Flatiron Publishing is based in Boulder, Colorado, and Ayr, Scotland. We are looking for submissions to our (approximately) quarterly themed anthologies. Our focus is on science fiction and fantasy and anthropological fiction. We want tightly plotted tales in out-of-the-ordinary scenarios. Light horror is acceptable, provided it fits the theme. Please send us short stories that revolve around age-old questions and have something illuminating to tell us as human beings. Fantastical situations and creatures, exciting dialog, irony, mild horror, and wry humor are all welcome. Stories should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Inquire if longer. Role models for the type of fiction we want include Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, Connie Willis, Vernor Vinge, Iain Banks, Alastair Gray, and Ken Kesey. We want to showcase some of the best new shorts available today. For each anthology, we will also accept  a few very short humor pieces on the order of the "Shouts and Murmurs" feature in The New Yorker Magazine (600 words or so). These can be written from a first-person perspective or can be mini-essays that tell people what they ought to do, how to do something better, or explain why something is like it is, humorously. An SF/Fantasy...

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: 8 cents/6 pence for each word (SFWA qualifying market rate) and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. Theme: The Lovecraft Mythos, more details below! Note: Reprints accepted Lovecraft Mythos Anthology Featuring a foreword by Ramsey Campbell, this offering of H.P. Lovecraft's shared universe will be a thrilling immersion into the world of Old Ones and the Elder Gods, an ancient race of terrifying beings. In Lovecraft's vision we live in a deep, but fragile, illusion unable to comprehend the ancient beings, such as the Cthulhu who lies dead but dreaming in the submerged city of R'lyeh, waiting to rise then wreak havoc on our realm of existence. Lovecraft used the mythos to create a background to his fiction, and challenged many writer companions to add their own stories. Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner were amongst the first but over the years many others such as Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter and August Derleth added their voices to the many mythic cycles, developing themes and new fictional pathways for the town of Arkham, and the creatures Azathoth and Nyarlathotep. The Lovecraft Mythos is fertile ground for any writer of supernatural, horror, fantasy and science fiction, so for this edition we are opening our submissions for brand new stories, many published here for the first time, to continue expanding the shared universe. Word count is 3000 - 7000 and submissions will be accepted between 24th February and 15th March - please send to [email protected]. Payment will be 8 cents/6 pence for each word (SFWA qualifying market rate) and 6 cents/4 pence for reprints. If your story is a reprint please let us know in your submission email. Multiple submissions are accepted. We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the...

Deadline: March 15th, 2020 Payment: $10 Theme: 90s erotic horror Deadline: March 15, 2020 Word count: 2,000-8,000; a little above and a little below will be acceptable There’s a club on the outskirts of town. The neon lights outside flicker over silhouetted forms smoking. Inside, a rat bartender watches forms dancing, glares exchanged, and drinks sloshing. The bass is loud, and the dancers strip more and more...and more. Welcome to the Electric Sewer. This anthology is set in a neonpunk world in the 90s. You can take your characters anywhere. This is pretty open world! The only rules are these: 1. It has to be furry erotic horror. 2. You have to at least mention the nightclub Electric Sewer, even if no one goes there! 3. Carlos is the name of the pink rat bartender and owner of the Electric Sewer. He can be in your story, but just know his personality is stoic, more of a sinister watcher than a participant in what goes on at the club. Other than those three things, you have free reign! What is neonpunk? First of all, think of what cyberpunk is and does. It’s often progressive and alternative and based on a digital sci fi technological world. Now, move that world backward in time to the 80s/90s. So examples aesthetically would be Stranger Things, Caravan Palace’s Lone Digger music video, the neon chapter of the video game Infamous Second Son, elements of the music video Into the Night by Nero, etc. In a nutshell, it has this neon aesthetic, and characters can be whatever species and whacky colors you want! It has a setting in the 80s / 90s. And it’s still punk! Possible stories might include things like this: a slasher is killing strippers at the club and a gay gang...