Events

Deadline: November 1st, 2021 Payment: $50 (US) for each original short story or novelette (up to 17,500 words) or $25 for flash (up to 1000 words) or poem (up to 100 lines). Theme: Noir Fiction combined with the existing goals of TFF (progressive, feminist, queer, postcolonial, inclusive, accessible, ecological and international speculative and genre fiction). Note: Reprints are welcome but the pay is half the above Call for stories and poems for a Noir-themed issue/anthology from The Future Fire to be published in early 2022, guest edited by Valeria Vitale. We are looking for stories that combine themes or aesthetic from Noir fiction and cinema with the existing goals of TFF (progressive, feminist, queer, postcolonial, inclusive, accessible, ecological and international speculative and genre fiction). Stories by authors from under-represented groups are especially welcome, although you are not expected or required to self-identify in any way. Submissions need not include science-fictional or fantastic settings, but we are mostly likely to be interested in those that play with genre and Noir aesthetic in some way, including cyberpunk. Tropes we are not generally interested in include: Women who die just to make the male protagonist sad Characters committing or enabling crimes to hide their sexual orientation/preferences Other plots whose impact revolves entirely around normative/puritanical/prejudiced assumptions (characters may have such opinions, but the story shouldn’t validate them) Detective stories where law and order unproblematically win the day Please submit stories for the attention of the editors of this issue by sending as a .docx or .doc attachment to [email protected] with subject line “TFF NOIR (title) (wordcount),” before the end of November 1, 2021. TFF Noir will pay $50 (US) for each original short story or novelette (up to 17,500 words) or $25 for flash (up to 1000 words) or poem (up to 100 lines). (Please note that for some longer stories this will amount to under 1¢/word, and...

Deadline: November 1st, 2021 Payment: 8 cents a word Theme: a horror anthology showcasing BIPOC and other ethnically marginalized writers and artists from around the world. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES What is horror to those living in the margins? Where terror is systematized and in the very air everyone happily breathes? A misheard word. The thud of boots. An impossible color. A foreign growth. DEATH IN THE MOUTH is a horror anthology showcasing BIPOC and other ethnically marginalized writers and artists from around the world. It will feature twenty prose stories spanning from the distant past to the far future, real and fictive worlds, all while exploring new and unique manifestations of horror. Each story will also be accompanied by an original black and white illustration by a unique artist. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR: Original manifestations of horror, dread, grief, fear, and anxiety. Embodiments of mania and displacements of faith. Harrowing ecstasy and debilitating hope. Consuming, relentless love. Transgressions of the body, the spirit, and the community. Quiet, creeping absurdities. Unique and terrifying alien mythology from the future. Weird and unsettling folklore from secondary worlds. Quiet contemporary techno-panic. If that sounds broad, that’s because it is: our tastes run wide wide. We want to see stories written from places of boldness and tenderness. Stories that nauseate or introduce the smallest of psychic itches. Stories that span interstellar time or small, restrained fragments. Mixes of other genres (speculative, contemporary, “literary”, historical, etc) are great, but horror should be the focus. A few writers with the vibe we enjoy: Tananarive Due, Helen Oyeymi, Kazuo Umezu, Augustina Bazterrica, Brian Evenson, Yoko Ogawa, Nathan Ballingrund, Carmen Maria Machado, Toni Morrison, Richard Van Camp, Octavia Butler, Stephen Graham Jones, Samuel R Delaney, Junji Ito WHAT WE DON'T WANT: Overused tropes and story shapes.Didactic, fable-like stories.Generic or “classic”...

Deadline: November 1st, 2021 Payment: $.02 per word and a contributors copy Theme: Optimistic views of the future SOLARPUNK SUNSCAPES: OPTIMISTIC VISIONS OF THE FUTURE Story Length: 500 to 7,500 words Story Payment: $.02 per word + contributor copy Poem Length: 5 poems or 5 pages Poetry Payment: $30 per poem + contributor copy Submissions Open: September 1 — November 1, 2021 Expected Publication: Summer 2022 Editor: Justine Norton-Kertson What is Solarpunk? Solarpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that developed as a reaction to cyberpunk, the decades long dominance of apocalyptic fiction, and a growing desire to tell, read, hear, and watch stories that provide solutions to the very real and potentially catastrophic challenges of climate change. Solarpunk tells optimistic and hopeful stories about future societies (near-future or distant) powered by renewable energy, and where nature and technology coexist in harmony rather than in conflict. This is a subgenre that’s about restoring the web of life that connects us all. It’s about a desire to protect all life, not just human life. It’s about the drive to embrace and empower life, and restore the planet. Solarpunk futures aren’t usually “perfect” utopias. Well sometimes they are, or at least really close — but not always, not even usually — and even when they come close they are still never without conflict and challenges. But they also are absolutely not dystopias. A perfect utopia will never be achieved. However, if solarpunk societies haven’t yet reached some sort of utopian ideal, then the communities in solarpunk stories have still either solved, or are at least in the process of optimistically working together to solve or adapt to the climate crisis. They are consciously and collectively working to create a better world that is ecologically sustainable and is also free from racism, patriarchy, greed and inequity, war, hunger, etc. In short,...

Deadline: November 1st, 2021 Payment: $0.01 per word Theme: DEVOUT: Martyrs, Cults, and Madness Last Girls Club Winter Issue Theme is DEVOUT: Martyrs, Cults, and Madness 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 $0.01 per word upon acceptance ($25 USD max). Flash fiction is limited to under 1,000 words. Authors are paid $0.01 per word upon acceptance ($10 USD max). No more than three poems per poet. Poems are limited to 200 words or less for each poem. Poets are paid $10 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 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. No more than two fiction stories per author per submission period. Fiction is limited to 2,500 words or less. Flash fiction must be under 1,000 words, no more than two from an author. No more than three poems per poet. Poems are limited to 200 words or less for each poem. 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] Via:...

Deadline: November 1st, 2021 Payment: 1,000 USD + 2 trade paperback copies Theme: Dark Fiction Note: Author must self-identify as an Indigenous person and must not have more than two published books Are you ready to be un-settled? Never Whistle At Night, edited by Shane Hawk and Ted Van Alst, is an anthology exclusive to Indigenous creatives and will be published by Penguin Random House in 2023. The anthology will comprise of twenty-one dark fiction short stories and a foreword by Stephen Graham Jones. Approximately seven stories are reserved for lesser-known and up-and-coming authors who will be selected through this open call. Our mission is to spread both new and established Indigenous authors and their work to as many readers as possible. The time is ripe to publish an Indigenous dark fiction anthology. Authors of historically excluded communities often float toward dark fiction to tell their stories because of its ability to effectively address social issues. Now it’s our turn. CURRENT CONTRIBUTORS Cherie Dimaline Kelli Jo Ford Owl Goingback Shane Hawk Brandon Hobson Stephen Graham Jones Darcie Little Badger Tommy Orange Mona Susan Power Waubgeshig Rice Rebecca Roanhorse Andrea L. Rogers Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. David Heska Wanbli Weiden Erika T. Wurth ELIGIBILITY FOR OPEN CALL Author must self-identify as an Indigenous person Author must submit an original, unpublished work Author must not have more than two published books SUBMISSION DETAILS AND PROCEDURES We are not restricting authors to a specific theme aside from an adherence to the umbrella term of dark fiction. We expect to see stories with dark elements from all subgenres of horror, dark fantasy, dark science fiction, and gritty crime. Again, we are looking for original, unpublished work. No simultaneous submissions, please. Shane and Ted will be working alongside two open-call readers to judge submissions. To ensure...

Submission Window: November 1st-2nd, 2021 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 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...

Submission Window: November 1st-3rd 2021 Payment: $50 Theme: Healers, Midwives and Cunning Folk. 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. And the theme? It’s “Healers, Midwives and Cunning Folk.” (No more submissions are being accepted for publication in December of 2020–but we will be publishing stories that have already been accepted.) The following is relevant to all submissions for 2021, and the first submission window opens Jan. 1. More below.   Writing opportunities for 2021 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.   Essays: Nonfiction articles about any aspect fairy tales and folklore are being sought. The term “essay” just means you’ll be writing about fairy-tale related matters in a nonfiction article.  Creative nonfiction is welcome. You do not have to stick to the theme, but you can.   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 2021.   * Writers will have a chance to submit fairy-tale inspired stories/essays/poems 11 times this year. Since we will be choosing four works per publishing month, there are 44...

Submission Window: November 1st-7th, 2021 Prizes: 1st place: $100, 2nd place: $50, 3rd place: $25 Theme: cosmic horror, dark science fiction, or weird CHM wants to find the very best cosmic horror flash fiction. SHOW US WHAT YOU GOT. Submissions will be ongoing and open the first week of every month for that month’s contest. THREE stories will be chosen per month to be published the month after they were submitted. (If you submit a story on October 3rd and it is chosen, it will be published in November.) Submissions are open monthly from the 1st to the 7th. Submission close at 12 am (midnight) eastern standard time. One entry per writer per month please! No simultaneous submissions. All stories accepted must be currently unpublished. Once a story has been submitted, please no resubmissions! We are looking for flash fiction (500 words or less) that can be classified as cosmic horror, dark science fiction, or weird. If you are unsure if your work qualifies, submit it and let us be the judge! Payment 1st place: $100 2nd place: $50 3rd place: $25 Make all submissions to [email protected]. Paste a cover letter with your information, publishing history, and word count into the body of the email. Attach the manuscript as a word document (.docx). Thank you and best of luck! Via: Cosmic Horror Monthly.

Submission Window: October 31st to November 7th, 2021 Payment: $0.01 per word for 1,500 – 6,000 words and $10 flat for 500 – 1,500 words Theme: Anything with a Dark Souls, Morrowind, or Oblivion vibe will have us foaming at the mouth. Also, one of the editors has also had a lifelong, questionable obsession with A Clockwork Orange and those old Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comics . . . Updates from original call Changed our response time to 3 months/90 days. Changed the upper limit of short fiction to 6k instead of 8k Starward Shadows Quarterly is an online dark speculative fiction magazine seeking stories between 500 and 6,000 words. We’re interested in exploring the wicked, strange places that walk the line between reality and nightmare—the alien, the absurd, and above all else, the weird. If you submitted during our first reading period and haven’t heard back, we’re still considering your story for our Winter issue. We ended up receiving over 500 submissions, so response times are much longer than we originally anticipated. Thank you for your patience. Genres We Accept: Cosmic Horror, Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, High/Epic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Lovecraftian/Cthulhu Mythos inspired tales, Gothic Horror, Space Opera, Dark Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, New Weird, Grimdark, Slipstream, and Cyberpunk. However, feel free to send us anything that falls under the incredibly broad umbrella of “speculative fiction.” Inspirational authors: H. P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Michael Moorcock, J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Ruocchio, Tamsyn Muir, Robert E. Howard Things we love: Monsters, vampires, aliens, psychological horror, first-person unreliable narrators, eloquence, themes of neurodivergence, angst done right (think “Interview with the Vampire), death cults, weird religious undertones, wraiths, trickster kings, black metal, stories where the bad guys win, character-driven narratives, and stories that take place somewhere strange and far away where...

Deadline: November 12th, 2021 Payment: $25 Theme: Stories with a fantastical inclination Open Call for short fiction, Oct. 8-Nov. 12 The Fabulist Words & Art’s next open call for short fiction will run from October 8 at 12:00 a.m. through 11:59 p.m., November 12. We will read and respond to submissions through January 2022; selected works will be scheduled for publication throughout 2022. NOTE: 2021 was our final year as a non-paying market. For works published in 2022, as a first step toward ultimately offering a per-word rate, we will be paying a $25 honorarium to all contributors. Writer Guidelines & Submission Portal: To review our writer guidelines and, beginning October 8, submit your work for our current open call, please visit our Submittable page, or push this here big button: General Submissions Policies • We never, ever charge reading fees • Submissions are only accepted through Submittable during open calls, or by invitation of the editors • We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know right away if your work is accepted elsewhere • Do not email your submission; you will not receive a response Statement on Non-Discrimination Submissions are welcome and encouraged from contributors regardless of ethnicity, faith, continental ancestry, national origin, gender, and sexuality. Please do not feel constrained; we are honored that you would consider The Fabulist, and thank you for the opportunity to review your work. Evaluation process & response time Submissions are reviewed by committee through several evaluation phases that last from three weeks to three months. On occasion it may take us six months or more to arrive at a decision for certain works. If you have submitted using Submittable or, previously, Green Submissions, and haven’t received a decision after six months (or more), feel free to send a letter to the editors for a status check. Rights, fees &...