Events

Deadline: November 1st, 2023 Payment: $50 Theme: Horror Tales of World War I Open August 1, 2023 to November 1, 2023 In the Air, the Earth, and the Sea, the World Burned. Erupting in a land pregnant with conflict, The War to End All Wars blazed from 1914 to 1918, spreading until no continent escaped the touch of its flame. By the day of armistice, no civilization in history had witnessed more death, destruction, and carnage in such a short time. Travel the Ghost Road. Part the Veil. Curated by historian Coy Hall, Death's Other Kingdom collects eight frightening tales from this baptismal storm of steel. Within these pages, horrors of the supernatural bleed into the terrors of war. In this ritual of violence, humans have never been more vulnerable. General Payment: $50 usd per story via PayPal Word Count: 4,000 (firm) to 9,000 words Submission Window: August 1 to November 1, 2023 Submit To: [email protected] Subject Line: WWI Submission: Story Title Submit as: .docx Attachment (no links) Format: Standard Manuscript Format Include: Name or Pen Name in Email Include: Brief Synopsis (3-4 sentences will suffice) in Email Publication Date: May 2024 Editor: Coy Hall (He/Him) Additional Story must be set during WWI, 1914-1918 Story must directly involve the war With setting and details, historical accuracy is vital All subgenres of horror welcome No Poetry Submissions No Reprints Stories that utilize AI in any capacity will be rejected Multiple Submissions Not Permitted Simultaneous Submissions Permitted Receipt of Submissions Will be Confirmed Acceptances sent November 2 - January 31 First Round Rejections sent August - November 2 Second Round Rejections sent November 2 - January 31 Rights exclusive publication for one year after publication date non-exclusive publication after one year All Copyright belongs to the Author Via: The Scythian Wolf.

Submission Window: October 3, 2023 through November 1, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word Theme: Original gothic fiction and poetry directly inspired by "The Tell-Tale Heart" Love Letters to Poe will be open to submissions for original gothic short stories and poems inspired by "The Tell-Tale Heart" on October 3, 2023 through November 1, 2023. Submissions received outside this window will be deleted unread. What we’re looking for:  - Original gothic fiction and poetry directly inspired by "The Tell-Tale Heart" - Avoid explicit sexual content and excessive gore - This is a well-trodden story. Please push beyond your initial ideas and find new creative depths within "The Tell-Tale Heart.” We recommend reading Love Letters to Poe, Volume II: Houses of Usher for an idea of the kinds of work we publish. Submissions period: October 3, 2023 through November 1, 2023 Deadline: November 1, 2023 Word Count: Up to 4,000 words. Payment: USD $0.01/word via PayPal. You'll also receive one digital contributor's copy. This is contingent on the successful funding of the Kickstarter. Rights: We claim first worldwide and electronic rights, with an exclusivity period of six months after publication. Language: English Reprints: No AI usage: Please refrain from using AI (like ChatGPT) to create your story or poem. It will not be accepted and you will be asked to confirm that you did not use AI to create your work. Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, but let us know as soon as accepted elsewhere. Multiple Submissions: Each submitter may make only one submission. If you wish to make additional submissions, consider becoming a Love Letters to Poe patron. Response Time: We aim to send responses two months after the deadline. Preferred format: Standard manuscript format How to Submit: Email your submissions as a Word document to [email protected] with "Heart - - " in the subject line. Via: Love Letters to Poe.

Deadline: November 1st, 2023 Payment: $40 Theme: Stories about rebels, insurgents and insurrectionists set in a secondary world. We are looking for stories about rebels, insurgents and insurrectionists set in a secondary world. A secondary world is a world other than our own – think Lord of The Rings or Game of Thrones. Smugglers in space? Organised rebel orcs seeking to overthrow the Dark Lord? All of this, please. Parameters: The setting must be a secondary world. Far future and distant past Earth-based settings are acceptable as long as the world is practically unrecognisable – no historical revolutions or future wars between America and Europe. The story must revolve around rebellion, insurgency, revolution, or resistance to established power in some form or another. No rape, gore, incest, or child abuse. To us, gore is when mutilation, injury, and body horror are used and the main goal is to attempt to disturb or upset the reader, or when these are gratuitously described or featured beyond what is necessary for the plot. Word count should be between 2,000 and 9,000 words. Submissions open 1st August – 1st November. Simultaneous submissions are fine, just please notify us as soon as possible if your story is accepted elsewhere so we can remove it from our reading pile. Please submit your manuscript in a standard manuscript format – 12pt Times New Roman, double spaced lines, and your name and your story’s name on the first page, along with your email address. Do not include postal addresses. By submitting, you acknowledge that your story has not been created through the use of AI at any point. If we subsequently discover the story was created through the use of AI, we reserve the right to refuse to publish, or to unpublish, the story. We encourage submissions from...

Submission Window: October 1st - November 1st, 2023 Payment: Short Story-2,500 words or less. $0.015 USD per word upon acceptance ($37.50 USD max)., Poems-less than 200 words $10, Flash Fiction-less than a 1,000 words $0.015 USD per word upon acceptance ($15 USD max). Theme: Clones, Drones, and Ready Made Meals Opens on Sunday, October 1, 2023 12:00 AM PDT Last Girls Club Winter Issue Theme is Clones, Drones, and Ready Made Meals. The future is here, be afraid, be very afraid. No more than two fiction or flash fiction stories per author per submission period. Fiction is limited to 2,500 words or less. Authors are paid $0.015 USD per word upon acceptance ($37.50 USD max). Flash fiction is limited to under 1,000 words. Authors are paid $0.015 USD per word upon acceptance ($15 USD max). No more than three poems per poet. Poems are limited to 200 words or less for each poem. Poets are paid $10 USD upon acceptance. I prefer to use PayPal to pay authors, but will work with authors where PayPal is not available. Nonfiction columns will must be pitched to editor in chief before submission. Email your idea to [email protected] The Last Girls Club Magazine is a quarterly feminist horror magazine that publishes international short stories and poems from the female gaze. It is an homage to the scary comics and zines of the late 20th century. Please check on the website for the theme in detail. Submissions will be accepted from Jan 1-Feb 1, April 1-May 1, July 1-Aug 1, Oct 1-Nov 1. Final notifications will be Feb 15, May 15, Aug 15, Nov 15. Authors must be 18+. Submissions from underage authors will not be considered. No more than two fiction stories per author per submission period. Fiction is limited to 2,500 words or less. Authors are...

Deadline: November 1st, 2023 Payment: $100 for printed pieces, $25 for online pieces Theme: A place to reimagine ‘the west’ and ‘westerns’ from new angles, overlooked perspectives, in both analogue + digital. we’re into subversion and surprise. we're into road trips and weird americana, ufos and cosmic country—from the mountains to the deserts to the beaches to the plains. go west-ish. hi, we're looking for writing and art and whatever else you've got that engages with and reimagines the 'west.’ ideally you or your work will have some connection to the western usa, but this theme is wide open to your interpretation. we like  intersections and echoes, mythos and symbolism, and perspectives not as often seen. we like road stories and weird americana. most of all, tell us a great story. show us something cool. our goal is to remain open to the unexpected—to what surprises us, to what moves us, to what makes us see ‘the west’ in ways we haven't before. yeehaw 🤠 no submission fees. 1 submission per submission window. submissions will be open twice / year: september 1 - november 1 & april 1 - june 1. pitches for online content (reviews, interviews, etc.) will always be accepted. sim-subs totally fine. just please let us know if a piece is accepted elsewhere. 5k words or less for prose. up to 5 poems for poetry. pieces are read for both online and print. we aim to respond in 9-12 wks for print. online subs will likely be responded to sooner. $100 for each accepted print piece. $25 for each accepted online piece. thank you for trusting us with your work. ​ submit here Via: West West Revue.

Art by Matt Blairstone Deadline: November 1st, 2023 Payment: $25 and 2 contributor's copies Theme: Works published between the 31st of October 2022 and the 31st of October 2023 will be considered for the Best New Weird Horror of 2022. Tenebrous Press presents the SECOND YEAR of the Brave New Weird Awards—to reward and further this unique blend of genres—and its accompanying Brave New Weird: the Best New Weird Horror of the Year VOLUME 2, showcasing the winners of the year, care of editor Alex Woodroe. We define New Weird Horror as a Horror subgenre focused on progress, creatively capturing themes and questions that bleed into fiction straight from the modern reader's life and future. It acts as a challenge to break new ground in terms of form and content and to engage with the unknown. Beyond that, New Weird Horror will be defined by the winning pieces themselves. Buzzwords: speculative; eclectic; horror-centric but genre-blended; progressive and innovative in terms of content, social themes, form, or voice; concept-driven. Does this sound like your writing? Submit your previously published work to the New Weird Horror Awards today! Disclaimer:  TENEBROUS IS A YOUNG PRESS LOOKING TO HAVE FUN IN THE WORLD OF HORROR AND BUILD A COMMUNITY OF LIKE-MINDED PEERS. WE’RE NOT CLAIMING THIS AWARD WILL WOW YOUR DREAM AGENT OR SINGLE-HANDEDLY SELL YOUR BOOK. IT’S A WAY TO SHOWCASE REPRINTS THAT WE LOVE IN A GENRE THAT WE CARE ABOUT, AND GET THEM INTO THE HANDS OF MORE READERS—NO FUSS, NO LOBBYING, NO HIDDEN COSTS. Eligibility:  Any previously published piece of short fiction under 7.499 words originally published in the English language within the eligibility period. You may submit NARRATIVE poems only; poems will be judged on their storytelling. Stories published in other languages are welcome if there is an English...

Submission Window: November 1st-2nd, 2023 Payment: 8 cents per word for original, 2 cents for reprints, For artwork: $10 for the non-exclusive right to use each image, for as long as the site is online.  If we publish a print collection we will pay a pro-rata share for each image used. 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...

Deadline: November 5th, 2023 Payment: 6 cents per word and a contributor's copy Theme: Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi that melts in your mouth-brain not your hand-brain, Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream Submissions will close at midnight on Nov. 5, 2023. Stories submitted after Nov. 5 will be hurled into a black hole. Planet Scumm accepts submissions from writers across the world. (Our HQ is a roving meteor-sized space station—Earth’s borders mean nothing to us. We want to hear from writers of every race, nationality, and gender identity. Please do not busy our big-hearted slush readers with AI-generated tripe. WHAT TO SUBMIT Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, sci-fi that melts in your mouth-brain not your hand-brain Speculative fiction, weird fiction, slipstream Basically anything that pleases Scummy, our megaphone-toting slime buddy, will be considered for entry to the interstellar archive aboard Scummy’s saucer HOW TO SUBMIT Include submissions as a .doc or .docx attachment to [email protected] along with a brief cover letter in the email body. Please attach only your story (no images, do not put your story in the body text of the email). Stories, or collections of flash fiction, should be no more than 5,000 words in length, and submitted in standard manuscript format. Submit only one previously unpublished short story or flash collection. We do not accept multiple submissions from the same author in one reading period. Simultaneous submissions are okay, as long as you promptly withdraw a story accepted elsewhere. SCHEDULE, RIGHTS, AND PAYMENT Accepted authors receive 6 cents a word and one contributor copy. Our publication operates in print, e-book, and audiobook. Some accepted stories will also be published on our website. We purchase exclusive English language print, audio, and electronic publishing rights for six months, with non-exclusive rights thereafter. Authors will receive payment within 3 months...

Deadline: November 6th, 2023 Payment: $75 first prize, $50 for each “prompt” prize. $5 for every “honorable mention” (10-12). Themes: Stocking Stuffer, Weird Christmas Special, Weird Cards (see below on all three of these for more details!) As climate change continues to plunge the world into an unending firestorm of hell, sweat, and humidity, why not ignore reality a bit more by helping me announce the always blissfully ignorant wish-fulfillment that is the SIXTH ANNUAL WEIRD CHRISTMAS FLASH FICTION CONTEST! As you might have guessed by the title, this is the sixth year of running this highly unprofitable but highly disturbing exercise in literary fatuousness. (Last year’s results show here.) The point, as always, is for you to come up with something that is deeply, concerningly, life-alteringly odd while at the same time making me feel cozy and festive, like the nuzzle of a favorite teddy bear that is suddenly leaking an ooze from its eyes that smells suspiciously like bile. This is a contest for flash fiction of no more than 350 words that’s both about Christmas (or any other winter holiday) and simultaneously weird. Exactly what that means is, of course, up to you because you’re the one with literary pretentions and a damaged psyche. All you have to do is make something about the Christmas season seem new and unsettling with a bit of that grinning like you’re not sure if it’s funny or creepy, and you make your fellow co-conspirators in this hell of existence a bit more bearable. There are three “Prompt Categories.” You have three ways to enter this year, and four ways to win a top prize. There will be one overall winner and then three winners in each of three separate categories: “Stocking Stuffer” – In this category, just write whatever the hell you want....

Submission Window: December 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue Theme: Any genre, short story Mission = Revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful. Payout = Base Pay of $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check. Wait, you mean if this substack gets thousands of subscribers, the winner would get thousands of dollars? Yes! The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story and I sincerely hope to go way past that. What does the timeline look like? Submit stories by the end of the month, winner to be announced on the 15th. There is ONE story that wins and receives the full payout. Where do I send submissions? [email protected] What are the rules for submitting? 1. No Fees 2. Send in Microsoft Word or Google Doc form 3. Any genre 4. 6- 10,000 words. Yes, just 6 words, like Hemingway's famous 6-word story "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." 5. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute. 6. Acknowledge Distribution Rights on this Substack - You can still sell your story elsewhere but we need to be able to save and publish it here. The goal is to create a library for subscribers. 7. Only the winner will be published and rights will only transfer for the winning story. What do I get for subscribing? One beautiful story every month. The complete library. The joy of supporting artists and doing something interesting. What if I can’t pay right now? That’s ok! If you publish a blurb about this site on your website, blog, or social media, I will send you one full story of your choosing. Best of all, it is...