Events

Deadline: March 1st, 2022 Payment: $20 Theme: 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? “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...

Submission Window: January 1st, 2022 - March 1st, 2022 Payment: 3 cents per word and a contributors copy Theme: Fast-paced gory stories The Evil Cookie Publishing specializes in horror anthologies and novels/novellas within the realm of Splatterpunk / Extreme Horror / Dark Humor. Title: Counting Bodies Like Sheep Book Type: Extreme Horror Anthology Editor: K. Trap Jones Theme: Open Short story Length: 3,000 word MAX Pay: 3 cents per word + 1 Paperback No Reprints No Multiple Subs No Simultaneous Subs Rights: Exclusive worldwide print/electronic/digital rights for one (1) year Sub Date Begins: Jan 1, 2022 Sub Date Ends: Mar 1, 2022 Any subs sent before or after the dates will be crumbled up and fed to the sheep Submit To: [email protected] Subject Line: SHEEP SUB: (story title) by (author name) EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m looking for fast-paced gory stories with the perfect blend of Extreme Horror + Splatterpunk + Dark Humor elements. Nothing involving children and I’m not a big fan of heavy religious or political plots. Via: The Evil Cookie.

Deadline: March 1st, 2022 Payment: Royalties Theme: Stories about mermaids The thing about mermaids is they have a tail problem. It seems they either want to get rid of their tail so they can walk on land, or they want to get their tail back, having somehow lost it so they could be on land. Or, they fell in love with someone who doesn’t have a tail… It never seems to end. All we know for sure, is that it’s a problem. Submission dates January 15, 2022 to March 1, 2022 We want stories about mermaids. All kinds of stories about mermaids. Be creative! There are no genre restrictions on this anthology, however the main premise of Mermaidens implies water-dwelling, fish-tailed women. Please keep this in mind if your story does not contain those elements. It will be up to the editors to decide if a non water-dwelling, un-fish-tailed woman (or merman) fits the theme well enough. For this anthology, please no extreme horror or sex. Please keep content and language limited to the equivalent of a “PG-13” rated movie. We want to be able to share this with our mothers and children. 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. While we know it is tempting to walk those lines with mermaids being “sirens” who lure men, do not send us stories about  rape, torture, or abusive mind control unless you are showing the consequences and why it shouldn’t be done. Even then, we probably don’t want to see it. This anthology is supposed to fun escapism, not an outlet for high-handed morality stories nor mentally masturbative abusers. Please make sure you read and follow all submission guidelines and...

Deadline: March 1st, 2022 Payment: 1c CAD per word, and $15 CAD per poem Theme: Short stories, flash fiction, and poetry that runs the gamut of everything from absurdist horror to bizarre science-fiction to unsettling dark fantasy. • What are we looking for? We’re looking for short stories, flash fiction, and poetry that runs the gamut of everything from absurdist horror to bizarre science-fiction to unsettling dark fantasy. We love the uncanny; what we look for is the telling drop in your stomach when you absently look up at the skies and there are far more constellations than you’d remembered, brighter and closer and in configurations you don’t quite recall. We want stories about the bleed error of the universe printing outside the margins of reality. We are interested in stories with LGBTQ2S+ and diverse leads, especially with narratives that are not confined to tragedy tropes. • What do we not want? Please don’t send us anything bigoted or hateful, we’d all be wasting our time. At this point we’re not seeking photography or art. We do not take reprints, including translations. Previously published works on personal websites (including sites such as Wattpad, Medium, etc) count as reprints. Please note that you must be eighteen years of age or above to submit your work. • How much do we pay? We pay 1c per word, and $15 per poem, regardless of length. All listed currency is in CAD. • What about word limits? We have a firm limit on stories not exceeding 7000 words. The ideal word count would be in the 2000-4000 range for short stories. We prefer poetry to not exceed 1500 words. • How do you submit? You can submit via e-mail to [email protected]. Please send us works in .doc, .docx, or .rtf formats. We recommend including your name and contact information...

Submission Window: March 1st-2nd, 2022 Payment: 8 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 8¢ 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...

Submission Window: March 1st-3rd 2022 Payment: $50 Theme: Weather. A new theme, weather, starts in January 2022. Hi there! We’ll no doubt write more about this later in the next year, but for now, what follows below will tell you all you need to know. Added March 3, 3021: Although it states below that only one work per author per submission, I am suddenly getting multiple poems at a time. Only one story or poem per submission, per author. (Kate Wolford, Editor-In-Chief.) And the theme for 2022? It’s “WEATHER.” (No more submissions are being accepted for publication in December of 2021). The following is relevant to all submissions for 2022, and the first submission window opens Jan. 1. More below.   Writing opportunities for 2022 include:   New Fairy Tales: Fairy tales that are almost or entirely new or are just new takes on old tales are all welcome. Mashups of existing fairy tales are welcome as well. Submissions must follow the theme below to be considered.   Poetry: Poetry inspired by fairy tales and that follows the theme is also welcome.   Please read the following in its entirety before submitting.   Want to know what is likely to get published here? There are well over 10 years of stories, essays and art on this current site. It’s the best place to start if you want to be published here.   HERE IS HOW YOU SUBMIT AND FORMAT   Only the kind of submissions outlined below will be accepted at EC in 2022.   * Writers will have a chance to submit fairy-tale inspired stories/poems five times in 2022. Since we will be choosing eight to 10 works per publishing month, there are up to 50 slots to be filled in 2022. That’s a lot! And it does not...

Deadline: March 3rd 2022 Payment: Undeclared token payment, initially a pure donation anthology Theme: New Weird Horror Note: Sorry for the short notice, just hit my inbox. Note: Trans and Gender Non-Conforming creators only Extreme conditions demand extreme responses. This is perhaps not the most well-organized submissions call, but when has pragmatism ever stopped us? This one comes from the guts; we’ll figure out the rest as we go along. We are now accepting submissions for Your Body is Not Your Body: A New Weird Horror Anthology to combat Texas’ attempts to criminalize Trans youth. All proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go directly to Equality Texas (https://www.equalitytexas.org/). ***EDIT 02.24.22***: a multitude of generous Horror fans have begun contributing to a creator compensation fund, so this project WILL NOW be paying all accepted creators; we don’t want to speculate as to the amount, but it will be something. If you are interested in contributing to this creator compensation fund, donate here. Alright, so what do we want? *4,000 words maximum (no minimum) *Reprints are acceptable, but we need to know the original place of publication. No more than two submissions per creator, please. *Genre: New Weird Horror. What that means to us: the immediacy of classic Pulp Horror with a deeper dive into the human condition and an (un)healthy injection of Surrealism. We love Magical Realism, Body Horror, Optimistic Nihilism, Folk Horror, genre splicing of all stripes. Needless to say: feel free to let your political rage and righteous anger runneth over. Today is a day for Big Weird Sledgehammers, not subtlety (though we love quiet Weird Horror too!) *Trans and Gender Non-Conforming creators only, please. Alex and I are grateful beyond words that so many folks are standing up as allies alongside us, but for this project it...

Deadline: March 7th, 2022 Payment: €150 Theme: stories that look upon the world with a mind of winter and behold nothing that is not there and the nothing that is (paraphrasing The Snowman). Note: Apologies for the short window, this just hit my inbox! From Jan 25th to March 7th, we are open for short story submissions for our new collection, The Last Five Minutes of a Storm! We are looking for stories of all genres that respond to our title and/or cover art, and writers will receive a flat rate of €150 for accepted submissions. For our first anthology of 2022, we are taking inspiration from Wallace Stevens’ poetry, and asking for stories that look upon the world with a mind of winter and behold nothing that is not there and the nothing that is (paraphrasing The Snowman). For our prompt, we are looking for short stories that reflect our title: The Last Five Minutes of a Storm. As always, you can also take inspiration from the artwork we've chosen for the cover, created by artist Pedro Vó! We are looking for emotional responses to the title and/or the cover – stories that come from the specific place of mind they take you to. (if in doubt, make a cup of tea and read Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird). The Last Five Minutes of a Storm How does it feel to be in the eye of the hurricane? What does it mean to know that the storm will vanish very soon, if only you can hold on a second longer? Now that the monster is defeated, can the hero make it out of the maze? Do they still want to? We are not requesting any specific genres for this edition, so they are all welcome – sci-fi,...

Submission Window: March 1st-8th 2022 Payment: $0.01 (one cent) per word Theme: Cozy fantasy Wyngraf is currently closed to submissions. Our next submission window opens March 1st, 2022 and ends March 8th, 2022. Wyngraf buys First North American Serial Rights to short stories of cozy fantasy from 4,000 to 10,000 words long. We currently pay $0.01 (one cent) per word. We know that’s not much, and we hope to increase our rate as soon as possible. Wyngraf Is Fantasy Often fantasy means the presence of magic, but not always—for example, Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint. Low-magic and no-magic stories are welcome at Wyngraf. Stories should have a pre-modern technology level. Wyngraf isn’t interested in science fiction or urban fantasy. (Well, we are, but not for this magazine.) Our cutoff is roundabout the early 19th century. Think Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. This is probably flexible. We want secondary worlds. Wyngraf doesn’t publish stories set on our Earth, either now or in the past (historical fantasy). We want our readers to be transported to the worlds of your imagination! We prefer high fantasy to fairy tales. This isn’t a hard rule, but we’d rather see creatures from high fantasy (elves, dwarves, halflings, etc.) than folk tales (werewolves, vampires, leprechauns, etc.). Things we’ve never seen before are even better. Human-only settings are welcome. Wyngraf Is Cozy We define cozy as a sense of comfort, hominess, welcoming, and friendship. Community. Relationships. You know: cozy. Setting is an essential part of coziness. We love all sorts of fantastical settings: bustling city, decrepit castle, sailing ship, welcoming inn, busy caravanserai, witch’s cottage, wizard’s tower, farming village, school for bards, adventurer’s guild hall… The setting should be somewhere the reader would like to be transported. Think of your first time discovering the Shire, or dreaming of your own Hogwarts acceptance letter. We invite you to spend a few extra...

Deadline: March 13th, 2022 Payment: US: $40 + author copy/non-US: $45 + ebook author copy Theme: Short horror stories that explore the "dark carnival" concept. Quill & Crow Publishing House is opening submissions for our second anthology for 2022, Carnival Macabre: An Anthology of Gothic Horror, due to be released in May. For this collection, we are looking for short horror stories (5,000 - 8,000 words) that explore the "dark carnival" concept. Think H.H. Holmes during Chicago's World Fair (Columbian Exposition), horror at a 1920s Boardwalk, or even an eerie Victorian tale.  This anthology will be more open to horror themes, but we're looking for substance over gore. As always, keep those Gothic undertones. Things we are looking for: carnival horror gothic horror historical horror literary horror gothic/macabre elements modern settings considered ONLY if they maintain a Gothic feel Things we are not looking for: young adult extreme horror/extreme erotica rape/child abuse heavy sci-fi overtly modern adaptations ​ Submission Requirements Please note: Submissions that do not follow requirements will not be considered. 1. We are accepting original works only. You must own the copyright to your submission. 2. Submissions period is from Dec 20th - March 13th, 2022. Please submit all stories to [email protected] with the subject line: Carnival Macabre / Your Title / Genre. Emails sent to other email addresses will not be considered. 2. All submissions must be in English and follow standard MLA formatting (double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font). Work must be polished and edited (to the best of your ability). Please submit as a .docx file and include your name, title, and word count on the front page. 3. Story length is 5,000 to 8,000 words. Submissions below 5,000 words and above 8,000 words will not be considered. 4. Accepted authors will receive compensation per contract agreement (US: $40 +...