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Submission Window: February 1st to May 1st 2023. Payment: £25 Theme: Cursed Objects Cursed Objects It's a dark and misty evening. A sale begins in an old, crooked auction house. The auctioneer has ten items available, once owned by a mysterious collector of obscure, supernatural items. We are looking for ten stories. Each tale should be based on an object, an auction buyer takes home or has delivered. A haunted painting? A cursed ring? A demon infested box? Let your imagination run wild. The call is open to all. February 1st until May 1st 2023. 3000, to 4000 word count. DOC, DOCx or FTF format. £25 paid for each accepted story. Please send submissions to [email protected] for consideration. Include your name or pen name, email address and word count in your cover letter. No child abuse, gore for the sake of gore, incest, rape, racism etc. No reprints please. Any questions, feel free to reach out. Via: Bloody Hatchet Press's Twitter.

Deadline: May 1st, 2023 Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry Theme: Story must begin with: "All the lawns on Mentone Avenue are mowed on Wednesdays." We love that writers around the world are inspired by our first lines, and we know that not every story will be sent to us. However, we ask that you do not submit stories starting with our first lines to other journals (or post them online on public sites) until we've notified you as to our decision (usually four weeks after the deadline). When the entire premise of the publication revolves around one sentence, we don't want it to look as if we stole that sentence from another writer. If you have questions, feel free to drop us a line. Also, we understand that writers may add our first line to a story they are currently working on or have already completed, and that's cool. But please do not add our first line to a previously published story and submit it to us. We do not accept previously published stories, even if they have been repurposed for our first lines. And, just to be clear, we do not accept simultaneous submissions. One more thing while I've got you here: Writers compete against one another for magazine space, so, technically, every literary magazine is running a contest. There are, however, literary magazines that run traditional contests, where they charge entry fees and rank the winners. We do not - nor will we ever - charge a submission fee, nor do we rank our stories in order of importance. Occasionally, we run contests to help come up with new first lines, or we run fun, gimmicky competitions for free stuff, but the actual journal is not a contest in the traditional sense. Fiction: All...

Submission Window: April 1st - May 1st 2023 Payment: Short Story-2,500 words or less. $0.01 USD per word/$25 USD max, Poems-less than 200 words $10, Flash Fiction-less than a 1,000 words $0.01 USD per word/$10 USD max Theme: Reparations Last Girls Club Summer Issue Theme is Reparations. The country I live in is founded with a deep blood debt that will continue to haunt us if we do not acknowledge it. Revisionist history cannot kill ghosts. Colonialism exists everywhere. What do reparations even look like? Please go to our website www.lastgirlsclub.com to get a feel for what we publish. Acceptances will be notified on May 15. 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 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...

Deadline: May 1st, 2023 Payment: $25 Theme: Writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in. Schedule We publish two issues a year, September 1 and March 1. We accept general submissions for poetry, nonfiction, and fiction between two reading periods, and the first 300 submissions to each are free. We also run a collaborative writing contest in August. We also accept visual art all year. General Submissions: March 1 – May 1 General Submissions: October 1 – December 1 Collaboration Contest: July 15 –  August 31 Payment We are thrilled to finally be able to say that, starting with issue 17, we will be able to offer our contributors a small payment of $25 upon publication. Hopefully, with time it will be more. A Note on Our Aesthetic We believe there is beauty in scars on smooth skin, in the small fissures where things begin to break apart. Sundogs are not the sun itself but phantom stars appearing on the horizon, illusions produced by the play of the sun’s heat with crystals of ice. They shed their light all the same. Many are tinged with color. We look for this same quality in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. We want writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in. We seek a diversity of voices speaking from visceral, lived experience. We like truth we can stare at until our eyes water, words so carefully chosen we want to reread them as soon as we have finished. Practical Matters We are grateful to be a part of a literary community that is taking action against systemic racism. We will also...

Deadline: May 1st, 2023 Prizes: $100, $75, and $50 for the top 3 spots Theme: A speculative fiction LGBTIQA story with the theme of "Rise" (See below) Note: Those who submit a quality story, even those who don't win, will likely see their work in print which would put selling this in the future as a reprint Every year, QSF holds a flash fiction contest to create an amazing new anthology of queer speculative fiction stories. We ask authors to do the nearly-impossible – to submit a sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror LGBTIQA story that has no more than 300 words. Our 2023 contest launches on March 1st, and closes on May 1st, but we will soon be open for early entries. We’ve increased our prizes for the 10th anniversary edition of our contest. The theme for 2023 is “Rise”: Rise (Noun) 1) An upward slope or movement 2) A beginning or origin 3) An increase in amount or numberttaining certainty about something 4) An angry reaction Rise (Verb) 1) To take up arms 2) To return from death 3) To become heartened or elated 4) The exert oneself to meet a challenge With the world in turmoil, we all need a little hope, so this year we chose a word rife in meanings and ripe for inspiration. Tell us about rise in all its forms and the difference it can make on your characters, the culture, and the world, for better or worse. Submit Your Story What We’re Looking For We’ll be accepting works from across the queer spectrum, and would love to see more entries including lesbian, trans, bi, intersex and ace protagonists, as well as gay men. We also welcome diversity in ability (physical and mental) and in race. We had our most diverse set of entries yet...

Deadline: May 1st, 2023 Payment: ¢ per word for prose, $10 for poetry, $25 for artwork Theme: Epic Fail NonBinary Review is open for submissions on the theme of "epic fail." We're not talking about everyday failures, like you didn't pay the electric bill, so your lights are turned off. We're talking about the cascades of calamity that end in death, destruction, disaster. Series of unfortunate choices that lead to plague, famine, and war. A train wreck that, once it's been set in motion, you can neither stop nor look away from. There but for the grace of some spectacularly poor planning, bad decisions, and gross incompetence, go all of us. Let's hear it all. Zoetic Press publishes the best in new lit - experimental, interstitial, luminous. We welcome submissions from EVERYONE. The only requirement is that they be in English, or translated into English (we love a translation). If your writing is outstanding, no matter who you are, we have a place for it. NonBinary Review, our award-winning themed lit journal is published quarterly. Each issue revolves around a specific theme, but we're asking contributors to go beyond the old familiar media tropes. We're looking for work we can read with our whole body - work that gives us goosebumps, makes us see the world differently, has the tang of authenticity, makes us sit up and listen, and smells like....something. This analogy got out of hand. What we're saying is that we're not looking for re-hashes of images or stories we've read before. We want contributors to explore every facet of our themes, really getting in between the cracks, in the corners, all the forgotten places that no one ever thinks to explore. We want to read work that makes us think "I never would have thought of this, and...

Deadline: May 1st, 2023 Payment: $35 or $25 with a contributor copy. Theme: Taking a look at the super Wealthy and Depraved Issuing layoffs from their yachts. Making idiotic business decisions while others pay the price. Keeping their riches via tax loopholes for the super wealthy. Profiting from the hard work and suffering of others. Sending dick-shaped rockets into space. Evading punishment. It goes on and on. The details range from the banal to the scandalous. The uber wealthy play an outsized role in our society — determining or demanding too much and contributing too little. With The One Percent: Tales of the Super Wealthy and Depraved (our previous working title was Rich People Being Shitty, so that should give you a target to aim for), Rock and a Hard Place Press changes it up a little bit from their established pattern. Instead of stories about desperate protagonists in tough positions, we’ll explore the privileged and elite, and how they traffic in, revel in, and benefit from the desperation that they cause. Hopefully, some of these characters get the comeuppance they so richly deserve . . . but we wouldn’t count on it. WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR? We are looking for fictional short stories ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 words examining the ways in which the most affluent among us commit wrongs. These transgressions can range from broken laws to the perfectly legal, though otherwise reprehensible. These acts can be small in scale — being an awful parent or spouse — or they can have wide-ranging impact — concealing carbon emissions or human rights abuses. At RHP, we subscribe to the notion that the act of becoming a billionaire, even if no other laws are broken in the process, is, by its nature, a crime against humanity. People should...

Submission Window: May 1st-3rd, 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...

Submission Window: May 1st-7th, 2023 Payment: $25 Theme: Someone going through the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. JUNE SUBMISSIONS (opens May 1 - 7, 2023) — The twenty-first of June is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. But our longest days (or nights) aren’t measured by minutes but by worry, hardship, or struggle. We’ve all had days like that, where it feel as if hours have passed only to see a couple minutes have vanished off the clock. So to honor the solstice, we want stories about somebody’s longest, unending day. Send us tales of what someone is going through that is making every Stone’s Throw is the monthly online companion to Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, delivering shorter, sharper content on a regular basis in an electronic medium, before collecting all 12 stories for an annual print anthology. Each month, writers will be given a submission prompt, and the best of the best, by our estimation, will be posted here the following month. INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING? Stone’s Throw will open for submissions the first week of every month, from 12AM on the first through 11:59PM on the seventh. We’re looking for all the same dark fiction, crime and noir as our usual submissions, but with a target length between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and aligned with the monthly submissions prompt (see below). We’ll read through the best, choose the one story that shines brightest, and publish it online the following month, paying $25 per accepted story. After a year, we’ll collect all twelve stories into a Stone’s Throw Anthology, to be published alongside our other print issues. PLEASE NOTE — If you have been accepted within the calendar year for Stone’s Throw, you are ineligible to submit again during that same calendar...

Submission Window: May 1st - 14th, 2023 Payment: Fiction: 1500-7500 words ($.08 per word, $100 minimum), Poetry: up to 5 poems or 5 pages of poems, whichever is shorter. ($40 per poem), Nonfiction: 1000-2000 words ($75 per essay or article), Cover Art: $100 for reprints, $200 for original unpublished, Interior Art: $50 for reprints, $100 for original unpublished Theme: Solarpunk is a prefigurative, utopian artistic movement that envisions what the future might look like if humanity solved major modern challenges like climate change, and created more sustainable and balanced societies. As a genre and cultural aesthetic, it encompasses literature, visual art, fashion, video games, architecture, and more. Solarpunk carries many aspects of punk ideologies such as rebelliousness, humanitarianism, egalitarianism, animal rights, decolonization, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, and anti-consumerism. Similar to the cyberpunk genre, the big difference between the two is that in solarpunk technology and nature are in harmony with one another rather than in conflict. (At the moment, our nonfiction department is always open for submissions. If the fiction portal is closed and you submit fiction through the open nonfiction portal, your submission will be rejected.) All submissions to Solarpunk Magazine are done via Moksha. Any submissions received via email will be deleted without a response. Please don’t email us to describe your story and ask if it’s something we’d be interested in before submitting. We appreciate the consideration, but its easier if you just submit the story through Moksha. Please read the full submission guidelines on down below or on our Moksha page before submitting your work. All submission periods end at 11:59 pm PST on the 14th of their given month. 2023 Submission Window Schedule: January 1-14 March 1-14 (Colorful Roots: BIPOC authors only) May 1-14 July 1-14 September 1-14 2023 Issue Release Schedule: Issue #7 – January 10 Issue #8 –...

Deadline: May 15th, 2023 Payment: Two cents per word Theme: Horror stories that take place in Texas by Texas authors DEADLINE: MAY 1, 2023 HellBound Books is pleased to announce plans for the 2023 edition of Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, Vol. 8. Horror author and editor Patrick C. Harrison, III will edit Vol. 8 of the series, which has featured the works of Joe R. Lansdale, Stephen Graham Jones, Robert E. Howard, O. Henry, Jeremy Hepler, Madison Estes, David Bowles and others. Harrison is looking for original horror stories 1,500-10,000 words in length. The stories must be written and submitted by Texas authors and must be set (based) here – hence the title. Two cents per word and contributing writers will receive one free copy and a 50% discounted wholesale price on any copies of the book that he or she purchases to carry and sell on their own. Writer stipends will look something like this: 10,000 words – $200, 7,500 words – $150, 5,000 words – $100, 2,500 words – $50, 1,500 words – $30. All payments will be made after official acceptance, and when acceptance is communicated, each author will need to send a short bio. HellBound will be requesting two-year non-exclusive rights. This means we will use your story in this anthology and we can print excerpts of it online and otherwise (for promotional purposes, etc), but two years down the road you can do with it what you like. The Submission Period begins on February 1, 2023. The deadline to turn in stories is May 15, 2023, and our intent is to have the book printed and available by October 1, 2022 - in plenty of time for Halloween. Please send submissions to [email protected] CONTACT INFORMATION Questions / submissions: [email protected] - Make sure that you...

Deadline: May 15th, 2023 Payment: $10 plus a contributor copy Theme: The best LGBTQ etc voices out there in the world of horror. No limits, no theme, just your very best stories. Come out, Come out, whoever you are. I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but I wanted to open up the submission call as soon as possible for our June issue. We here at PTP are all about good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. In June we will be celebrating Pride month and we're on the hunt for the best LGBTQ etc voices out there in the world of horror. No limits, no theme, just your very best stories. This issue will be double sized so we look forward to seeing your work. Oh and like all of our work, our writers and artist get paid. ​Pay is $10 plus a contributor copy. ​ Send submissions to [email protected] with Pride in the subject line, or upload a .doc, .docx, or pdf file below. Via: Pyschotoxin Press.

Deadline: May 15th, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word and a contributors copy Theme: Crime Fiction In the near future, Unnerving will be dipping its claws into CRIME fiction, and to launch into this avenue, I’m compiling an anthology. Meaning, I need stories. Short ones: 1,500-8,000 words, preference being 2,500-4,000 words in length. Renumeration is $0.01/word USD + a paperback copy. I’m asking for six months exclusivity. Reprints are okay, as long as they were last printed more than five years ago (personal collections excluded in this period) and are not available to read online (Audio excluded from this request). I want gritty stories. Think Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, Sara Gran, Jo Nesbo. I also like humorous stuff with a dark edge. Think Donald Westlake, Adam Howe, Brian Evenson. I like twists. I like oddity. I like violence. Now, for what I don’t want: no police procedurals, no copaganda, nothing supernatural, no rape revenge stories, nothing pro-religion, and nothing cozy or soft. ​ Stories written using AI tech will not be considered. ​ Send stories to [email protected] in a .docx or .doc file. No PDFs. Double-space your manuscripts. Please use the word ANTHOLOGY in the subject line. Submissions close May 15, 2023. Via: Unnerving Books.

Pitch Date: May 25th, 2023 Prizes: A book contract from a publisher; contracts vary between publishers. Generally royalties with the possibility of an advance. Themes: Darker literature (horror, or other forms of fiction that are dark or are mixed genres. Welcome to #PitDark, the only Twitter pitching contest for dark literature! #PitDark is the first and only Twitter pitch event to highlight literature of a “darker” nature. Importantly, this is not limited to horror works; however, any pitched manuscript must contain an element of horror or darker writing. Examples of such categories include pure horror novels, dark fantasy, murder mysteries, psychological horror stories, non-fiction works about darker subjects, etc. MG, YA, NA, and adult age categories are welcome. The next #PitDark will take place on May 25, 2023. You can find the agents and publishers that participated in previous #PitDark events here. Please follow the @PitDark_ Twitter account for up-to-date information about the event. The Basics The contest will happen on Twitter under a common hashtag (#PitDark). During a 12-hour window on the chosen day, authors with completed manuscripts who are seeking representation or publication can tweet a pitch for their books (at most, once per hour). Agents and publishers will make requests by marking pitches as a like on Twitter. If your tweet is liked, please follow the agent or publisher’s submission guidelines. General Pitch Party Rules Pitch limit. Please do not pitch more than once an hour, per manuscript. Time-frame: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. Please do not pitch before or after this twelve-hour period. Please follow these guidelines to keep this event fair to everyone involved! When to Pitch This event happens biannually. The next #PitDark is scheduled for May 25, 2023. On pitch day, we will go from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. What to Pitch Participants get one pitch per hour, per manuscript. This contest...

Deadline: May 26th, 2023 Payment: 6 cents per word for original, 3 cents per word for reprints Theme: Weird West Stories Note: Reprints allowed Starting next week, April 26, the Drabblecast will be accepting submissions for a special Weird West event. We want weird west (emphasis on the WEIRD) stories 500-4000 words and pay $.06/word for original fiction and $.03/word for reprints. The Drabblecast is an award-winning online speculative fiction magazine and podcast that publishes “Strange Stories for Strange Listeners,” often also classified as “Weird Fiction.” Loosely, this encompasses any and all genres, but largely centers around those of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. We’re looking for powerful stories that are simultaneously relatable and a good degree off the beaten path. We’re looking for stories that will work particularly well when read aloud and treated with full cast audio production. We’re looking for submissions that are humorous, bizarre, gross, disturbing, badass, interesting, and original — your favorite story that we both know would be a hit if only it found the right home. We’ve been expecting you! Please wipe your feet on the various dismembered feet on your way in. What We Buy Short Fiction — 500 – 4,000 words We Also Run Drabbles — Exactly 100 words. Twabbles — Exactly 100 characters. Episode Art — See the Art page. Payment Considerations: The Drabblecast currently pays $.06/word for original fiction, with a cap of $300.00. The Drabblecast accepts reprint submissions at a pay rate of $.03/word, with a cap of $300.00. Stories under 500 words (including Drabbles and Twabbles) are published on a pro bono basis. The Drabblecast accepts Simultaneous Submissions (please let us know if someone else accepts before us) Drabblecast does NOT accept Multiple Submissions, unless specifically requested or solicited by Drabblecast editorial staff. Your Submission Should: Submit...

Deadline: May 27th, 2023 Payment: 15GBP Theme: Mazes If you think you’ve got what it takes to terrify, scar and haunt our audience of 150k+ monthly listeners, then we want your stories! If accepted, we’ll get our fantastic narration team to lend their voices, our editor will sprinkle some magic pixie dust on the track, and you could have your story heard by thousands of listeners each week. (Vol 93) Mazes: deadline 27th May 2023 SUBMIT YOUR STORIES USING THIS FORM If this form isn’t working, please email your submission to [email protected] as a last resort. Title your email with the following syntax: “SUBMISSION | STORY TITLE | THEME | WORDCOUNT”  (e.g. SUBMISSION | THE MARTIAN | SPACE | 1,982) Submission Guidelines • Stories must be 2,000 (10% tolerance +/-) • Save stories in a Word document - Times New Roman font, size 12 • Include a 1-2 sentence log line for your story at the end of the document • Ensure that your name and an email address are somewhere on the document • Stories must fit an upcoming theme • By submitting your story to us, you are confirming that you are the original creator of the story • We will consider entrants whose work has been entered and published elsewhere, however please ensure you state where and when your story has been used elsewhere on the document • You will be allowed to place one call-to-action for your own work at the end of the episode. Be sure to include this at the end of your document, underneath the log line • Payment per accepted story is 15GBP • 2x entries per theme permitted   When will I hear if my story has been accepted or not? We carefully review every single submission that comes through our door. If you’ve...

Submission Window: April 27th – May 29th, 2023 Payment: $20 and a contributor’s copy for US residents Theme: What is behind mysteries and legends around bridges? The stories can be based on facts or complete fiction. They can be rooted in real world explanations or supernatural causes, but they need to answer the question, what causes this? Fifth Anniversary Edition Submissions Open April 27 – May 29 Pay: $20 and a contributor’s copy Paperback for US Residents Ebook for authors outside the US Please read and Follow All Guidelines Carefully or your story may be discarded without being read. Email your submission to [email protected] Cover letter and bio should be in the body of the email. Stories are 2500 – 8000 words Story should be sent as a separate .doc or .docx attachment, Formatted in Shunn format style Title your file and subject Crybaby-Authorname-title The Collection of Utter Speculation series speculates about what is behind mysteries and legends. The stories can be based on facts or complete fiction. They can be rooted in real world explanations or supernatural causes, but they need to answer the question, what causes this? Cry Baby Bridge Across the United States there are Bridges that belong to another time. Some aren’t even attached to roads anymore, but they are well known. People who cross them, especially at night, have stories to share of phantom cries, sometimes like a baby, sometimes like a woman. There are legends attached to explain these cries, tragedies of women seeking to flee from horrible situations. How strange that these stories are so prevalent. That so many states have one or more bridge that the residents know of not by its name, (Van Sant, Rouges Hollow, De Kalb Rd) but by the sound both skeptics, believers and unprepared pedestrians hear when...

Deadline: May 30th, 2023 Payment: 2 contributors' copies Theme: Work with a hell-ish twist The Prompt: Work sucks. We’ve all had a boss or coworker we swore was a demon or held a job where we think we are surrounded with little hellions trying to ruin our day. At times, all we have to do is walk into a strange and unusual business to send unnerving tingles down our spine. An ethereal voice whispers that we might not last if we stay too long. Sometimes, those feelings are correct. Luckily, you can read about those encounters from the safety of your favorite chair instead of experiencing them for yourself. So, use that sick day you’ve been holding onto and save your soul from eternal damnation with Demonic Workplace (Safer to Call in Sick). Deadline May 30th 2023 at Midnight EST Publication By End of 2023 Award 2 complimentary paper copies. US Only. Access to buy author copies at a discounted rate. We retain first publication rights for the first 90 days of publication. After that feel free to sell and republish your entry as you wish. All entries will solely belong to you. Wide distribution. By sending in a submission, you are agreeing to the rights above and will receive confirmation to further information regarding contest. Contest Guidelines Here’s what we need from you to include: 12 pt font Calibri or Times New Roman Double-spaced throughout (without extra spaces between paragraphs) Indented for new paragraphs 1-inch margin all around Include a title page with pen name & author name Title of work Header with pen name, title, and page number in top right-hand corner. 2,500 – 5,000 words You must be 18+ to participate or we must receive permission from your parents or guardian. Important Notes: If you do not follow...

Deadline: May 30th, 2023 Payment: 2 contributors copies Theme: Fantasy stories The Prompt: Set in a time and place of magic, these fantastic tales contain wizards, dragons, fairies, and warriors. Want to explore a world of dragons and wizards yearning to break free? Dreaming about a guardian saving the town of creatures and talking animals from lurking evil in the forest? Dreams can come true, but they can also be crushed. Sometimes, winged fiends win the day. Let your imagination run wild amid these stories of magic and mayhem. Deadline May 30th 2023 at Midnight EST Publication By End of 2023 Award 2 complimentary paper copies. US Only. Access to buy author copies at a discounted rate. We retain first publication rights for the first 90 days of publication. After that feel free to sell and republish your entry as you wish. All entries will solely belong to you. Wide distribution. By sending in a submission, you are agreeing to the rights above and will receive confirmation to further information regarding contest. Contest Guidelines Here’s what we need from you to include: 12 pt font Calibri or Times New Roman Double-spaced throughout (without extra spaces between paragraphs) Indented for new paragraphs 1-inch margin all around Include a title page with pen name & author name Title of work Header with pen name, title, and page number in top right-hand corner. 2,500 – 5,000 words Must be 18+ or have written permission from parent or guardian. Important Notes: If you do not follow the submission and formatting guidelines you will be rejected without feedback and should resubmit. We will not review submissions that fail to follow instructions nor answer the questions we need. You must have your first manuscript completed before submitting. You are only sending us the first 10K words, but it is...

Deadline: May 30th, 2023 Payment: 2 contributors copies Theme: Behold, the four horsemen of the apocalypse and … the other guy. The Prompt: Behold, the four horsemen of the apocalypse and … the other guy. The cataclysm is said to be heralded by a barrage of hoofbeats, each fearsome rider wielding a mighty weapon. The horsemen are so ubiquitous that they have been depicted in art, film, television, video games, comic books, literature, and music. The conqueror, astride a white horse, carries a bow with the string pulled taut. The warlord, riding a roan as red as blood, wears a sword upon his hip. On the black horse sits a rider with hollowed cheeks caused by famine, a pair of scales balanced upon his palm. Finally, on a pale horse, rides death himself, hefting his archetypal scythe. But who didn’t make the cut? Surely, there were other horsemen that auditioned but missed the mark. Perhaps their horse was just a pony or they carried the common cold instead of pestilence. Maybe their audition ended in tears because the other horsemen were too mean. The Other Horsemen is a collection of stories by big names and talented newcomers answering just that. Deadline May 30th 2023 at Midnight EST Publication By End of 2023 Award 2 complimentary paper copies. (US only) Access to buy author copies at a discounted rate. We retain first publication rights for the first 90 days of publication. After that feel free to sell and republish your entry as you wish. All entries will solely belong to you. Wide distribution. By sending in a submission, you are agreeing to the rights above and will receive confirmation to further information regarding contest. Contest Guidelines Here’s what we need from you to include: 12 pt font Calibri or Times New Roman...

Deadline: May 30th, 2023 Payment: 2 contributors' copies Theme: Offices that have Supernatural Beings in them The Prompt: Sometimes we think our co-workers could be from another planet or our boss from another dimension, but what if that was true? What if the guy in the cubicle next door gets his work done quickly because he has two heads or four arms? Or maybe your boss can be anywhere in the office because he can walk through walls as a ghostly spirit? A fun and “horrific” collection of tales from the office where coffee breaks include drinking joe with the vampire accountant or working a weekend with your shape-shifting boss. Paranormal Incorporated: Office Memo 2 brings horror and humor together as the classic witch, ghost, demon, shifter and other horror stories readers love find themselves in the corporate environment of fax machines, office memos, and that never-ending smell from the fridge. Well, that might be a zombie co-worker in there! Your story could be part of this variety of paranormal fables, so enter your entry into our anthology contest today, and your story could be the latest offering of spine-tingling and belly-laughing literature from 4 Horsemen Publications! Deadline May 30th 2023 at Midnight EST Publication By End of 2023 Award 2 complimentary paper copies. US only. Access to buy author copies at a discounted rate. We retain first publication rights for the first 90 days of publication. After that feel free to sell and republish your entry as you wish. All entries will solely belong to you. Wide distribution. By sending in a submission, you are agreeing to the rights above and will receive confirmation to further information regarding contest. Contest Guidelines Here’s what we need from you to include: 12 pt font Calibri or Times New Roman Double-spaced throughout (without...

Deadline: May 30th, 2023 Payment: 2 contributors' copies Theme: Sentient life in the multiverse The Prompt: When last did you look to the night sky and wonder what might loom in the far reaches of the universe? Did you imagine meeting someone among the stars? These are the tales of sentient life in the multiverse… Of the strange and diverse sophonts, hive minds, anarcho-syndicalist collectives, and anyone—or anything—you can encounter among the star systems, galaxies, and universes that surround us. Some linger lovingly on the jagged edge of horror. Some offer immortality, others knowledge or hope or comfort beyond imagining. These tales dare to explore the endless diversity of intelligent life in the multiverse. Are you brave enough to come along for the ride? Discover and experience first-hand as these tales answer the question: Is there life out there? Is it intelligent? Can we talk to them? What do these sophonts look like, feel like? How do they smell and taste? Very importantly, Do They Party? These twelve short stories offer fully immersive science fiction that bring us into space and push us beyond a pale definition of sentient life. From the organic to the artificial to something in between—from the fully embodied to the fully simulated—so many aliens, so little time! Deadline May 30th 2023 at Midnight EST Publication By End of 2023 Award 2 complimentary paper copies. US only. Access to buy author copies at a discounted rate. We retain first publication rights for the first 90 days of publication. After that feel free to sell and republish your entry as you wish. All entries will solely belong to you. Wide distribution. By sending in a submission, you are agreeing to the rights above and will receive confirmation to further information regarding contest. Contest Guidelines Here’s what we need...

Deadline: May 30th, 2023 Payment: $0.08 CAD per word Theme: short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships in any genre (though they prefer uplifting so probably better for Scifi/Fantasy.) Note: Looking for at least 50% Canadian authors We're looking for short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. We don't want the blaze of new love or the obsession of a new friend. We want pieces that show that comfort that develops when people know each other for years. Give us deep space, dusty frontiers, or dreamy fantasy. We want stories and poetry with strong, confident relationships amid all the sci-fi/fantasy. While we are primarily looking for stories with happy endings (yeah, yeah), we also want endings that are earned. If things get a little teary or gory, that's ok. We are especially interested in stories featuring queer platonic relationships, ace/aro love stories, and polycules. Payment Payment is $0.08 CAD per word for short fiction (1,000-3,500 words) and $60 CAD flat per poem. We are purchasing first publication rights, to revert back to the author after one year. Canadian Writers Since Heartlines Spec is primarily a Canadian magazine, we're looking to feature writers identifying as being from Canada/Turtle Island. This includes expats, refugees and displaced people living in Canada, new immigrants, and people who refuse/resist Canadian Identity*. Heartlines welcomes submissions from writers of all identities. If you are comfortable, we encourage writers to indicate their intersections in their cover letter. Disclosure is not a requirement to submit, and we recognize that not all people are safe to disclose their identities. We are committed to addressing barriers and systemic discrimination faced by equity-deserving groups, which includes (but is not limited to): Racialized people People with disabilities LGBTQIA+ people Indigenous people Women Neurodivergent people Our goal for each issue...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: USD $0.08 per word for original fiction. USD $100 per story for reprint fiction. Theme: Science Fiction Note: Reprints Welcome Escape Pod is a science fiction market. We are fairly flexible on what counts as science (superheroes! steampunk! space opera! time travel!) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre. We want stories that center science, technology, future projections, and/or alternate history, and how any or all of these things impact individuals and society. Escape Pod leans in the direction of escapism, hopepunk and optimism rather than grimdark and gloom. We love to see funny stories, which can include dark humor that doesn’t punch down, and satire that isn’t painfully bleak. Remember that the failure mode of irony is sincerity, so if you’re mocking something, be sure you’re hitting the right target. We’re not interested in stories that contain sexual assault, rape, child abuse, animal cruelty, gore, or horror. We also do not want to see stories that treat the hardships of marginalized people or groups as thought experiments. While we may have published stories with that type of content in the past, they are not currently a good fit for Escape Pod. Our primary audience is adult listeners and readers. Strong language and sexual situations are fine, but we are not an erotica market. We publish our stories in text and audio, but audio is our primary format. Because our audience cannot easily reread or skim, we prefer stories of high clarity and tight pacing. Complex syntax, elaborate structures and typographic novelties (e.g. footnotes) are difficult for us to publish. When in doubt, query us! Please visit PseudoPod for horror, Cast of Wonders for young adult, and PodCastle for fantasy fiction. Wordcount: Short stories – original fiction: 1,500-6,000 words (sweet spot: 2000-4000) Short stories – reprints ONLY: 1,500-7,500 words (sweet spot: any)...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words Theme: After Midnight Thuggish Itch is our horror and sci-fi anthology collection. Home to your horror, sci-fi and speculative fiction stories. Current theme: AFTER MIDNIGHT Our favourite time of the day are those few hours between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am. After midnight is when all the fun starts, and when things will often go bump in the night. They don't call it the witching hour for nothing... For this collection, we are looking for stories that take place between the hours of midnight and 5:00am. Thuggish Itch is our horror, sci-fi and speculative fiction collection. Please make sure that your story falls within one of these genres. Be original. We also encourage new and unpublished writers to take the leap and get in touch. Please ensure that you read through the general guidelines and format your submission accordingly. If you have any specific questions please contact us using the form on the home page or via the listed social media accounts. To help make sure that your submission gets to the correct place, please include the following in the subject line of your email: Thuggish Itch - Midnight- Story Title. Word count: 1000 - 5000 words Deadline: May 31 2023 Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words   Submission Guidelines: Please no extreme erotica or stories that feature excessive violence or vulgarity (unless otherwise specified). We are all dog lovers here, so violence against animals is the quickest way to get your story rejected. All stories should be formatted appropriately. Please see here for more details. Ensure that your name, address, and email contact and word count are at the top of your manuscript. Double check your spelling and grammar before sending your work. Please...

Deadline: May 31, 2023 Payment: 7 cents per word and a contributors copy Theme: Tales that explore queer tragic horror, and any other interpretation of the title theme Note: This anthology is only open to queer writers We’re looking for tales that explore queer tragic horror, and any other interpretation of the title theme. Show us what tragic queer love means to you. Horror is a genre with serrated edges—so make your characters bleed. We love queer stories of love but intermingle them with tragedy and horror. Give us characters who are angsty and complex, depraved and lecherous, and take us through their ecstasy of heartbreak and suffering. We want hauntings! Possessions! Lovers doomed to be separated for eternity! Mad scientists reviving their beloved wrong! Gays in hell! Sad Bly Manor gays! Don’t like the bury your gays trope? Curse ‘em with immortality and the indefinite madness that comes with it instead! Most of all, we are looking for compelling characters in stories that stick the landing. Their fates should ideally resonate with their emotional arc. We want feverish intensity, dread, and heartache. When asked, “yo, u good?” after reading your story, the answer should be “no”. This anthology is only open to queer writers. Those questioning whether or not they identify as queer are also encouraged to submit. We are particularly interested in work from underrepresented voices. Note that some writers have been invited to contribute. The anthology will consist of a mix of solicited and selected stories from the open call submission period. Length: 1k-6k words (ideal 2k-4k) Payment: $0.07 cents USD per word, plus one physical contributor’s copy Publication: E-book and print Multiple Submissions: No Simultaneous Submissions: Yes (Please notify us if accepted elsewhere) Reprints: No Deadline: May 31, 2023 Expected publication: April 2024, to launch at the Ghoulish Book Festival in San Antonio...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: 5 cents CDN per word Theme: Through the Portal: Stories From a Hopeful Dystopia Note: International submissions are welcome, however, 90% of the authors must live in or have ties to Canada Through the Portal: Stories From a Hopeful Dystopia - open call for submissions of all-new works. Edited by: Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Nina Munteanu “Historically pandemics have forced humans to break with their past and imagine a world anew. This one is no different. It’s a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it dragging the carcasses of our prejudices, our hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies. Or we can walk through it lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”– Arundhati Roy Inspired by Arundhati Roy’s vision, we’re looking for eco-fiction stories that celebrate the complexity of relationships and the emotional and physical journey from catastrophe. The emergence of the term eco-fiction as a brand of literature suggests that we are all awakening—authors and readers—to our changing environment. In eco-fiction, the environment—or a specific aspect of the environment—plays a major role in the story, either as premise or as a character with agency. Hopeful dystopias are much more than an apparent oxymoron; they are in some fundamental way the spearhead of the future––and ironically often a celebration of human spirit by shining a light through the darkness of disaster. Atwood argued that dystopias and cautionary tales ultimately embrace an element of hope, through a character’s experience. Dystopias can serve as a road map for individual or community endurance, resilience, and triumph through disaster. Storytelling about how the Earth takes care of us–and how we can take care of the...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word Theme: The best 1,000-9,000 word dark fiction published in semipro and token paying markets in 2022. Horror Tree is pleased to announce the first Shadowed Realms: The 2022 Indie Dark Fiction Anthology.  Here at Horror Tree, we believe there is excellent fiction being published at semipro and token-paying publications, and we’d like to celebrate and highlight these authors and their stories. This anthology will be a collection of reprints, featuring the best dark fiction published in semipro and token-paying markets in 2022. What we’re looking for: Dark-leaning speculative fiction that was published for semipro or token payment in 2022. In order to submit to us, you must either have, or be able to retain non-exclusive rights to the story. Please do not submit stories that you do not have the rights to; we will not be able to publish them.  Stories between 1,000 – 8,000 words.  Stories need not be horror but should be dark in tone. Only stories published in semipro or token-paying markets (less than 5 cents/word USD). We are specifically looking to highlight semipro authors and publications.  What we’re not looking for: Stories published at professional paying markets. (There are other anthologies who do this, and do it well!) Stories you do not have the rights to. Self-published stories. Drabbles, novelettes, or novellas. Hate speech, including racist, misogynistic, homophobic (or any other “phobic”) content Fan Fiction Heavy use of vulgar language Graphic depictions of torture, sexual violence, and gore for gore’s sake Pedophilia Anything inappropriate with animals Submission Guidelines: We will only consider material published in 2022.  Authors: Please send the story formatted in Shunn Modern using our submission form. We prefer word docs where possible. If not, then we will accept PDFs.  No multiple submissions, so please...

Submission Window: May 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: 8 cents a word Theme: Speculative fiction that 'reclaims' the view of Sapphic Villains instead of the predatorial tropes that they've fallen into Submissions Open: May 1, 2023 – May 31, 2023 Title: Scissor Sisters: Sapphic Villains Anthology Type: Anthology of short stories and flash fiction Editors: Rae Knowles & April Yates Theme: We're reclaiming the predatory lesbian trope, think Mrs Danvers in Rebecca or Roxy in Basic Instinct, so we’re looking for stories of sapphic villains. Because we’re looking to reclaim this trope and not reinforce it, we don’t just want sapphic villains. Sapphic characters can also be heroes and anti-heroes. We’d like to see a diversity of queer identities in a multitude of roles. We’d especially love to see stories of feminine rage, erotic horror, genderbent retellings and reclamations of power by queer femmes. Must Haves:  Diverse LGBTQ+ representation Time period: anytime in the past or present Location: anywhere on Earth Won't Accept: Racism Anti-LGBTQIA+ Rape revenge stories Reprints Manuscripts that don't follow the guidelines Not interested in sci-fi, dystopian, or futuristic settings Guidelines:  We’re interested in representing authors around the globe. Authors outside the US are strongly encouraged to submit as are writers whose first language isn't English Subgenres: Erotic horror Gothic horror Quiet horror Body horror New and experienced authors are welcome Short Stories between 1,500 to 4,000 words Please note that #ownvoices is important to the editors, but this call is open to everyone. In Cover Letter include:                  - Brief bio, word count, and if you are a new or previously published author              -Story title Manuscript:                  - First page should have your penname, content warnings, email address, word count, and title of story - Double...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: $5 Theme: Let’s Go to the Movies A Literary Journal with Some Art, Comics, and Analysis Thrown in for Good Measure As Quarter Press continues to grow, we’re adding another coin to our pocketful of change. We want to offer a space for shorter works to mingle with art and other bits of nonsense, so we bring you The Quarter(ly): It just makes cents. Issues are themed; however, we consider all interpretations. 023’s Themes and Deadlines: Let’s Go to the Movies (May 31) Weirder Still (Aug. 31) What’ve you got to show us? Stories and / or Poems For Stories: We’re open to micro works all the way up to 10,000 words. Just keep two things in mind: We want to be engaged and the submission must be completed (no pitches, please!) For Poems: We’d love to see up to five poems from you, but you can always just send one, too. Art As long as it has some tie to the current issue’s theme, we’re open to see any art created in any medium at any time. Just know that it will need to “work in print” and—might—be presented in black and white. For ART ONLY, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to chrisatquarterpress(at)gmail(dot)com Graphic Stories Show us your comic strips or complete short works; we’d love to see them all! Please try to keep submissions to 20 pages or less. Feel free to also send a collection of comic strips / one shot comics, as well. (Please note that our publication size / dimensions might change between issues. Our “Norm” is 6x9”). These must be COMPLETE works. For Graphic Work / Comics, you may choose to submit via email by sending jpgs, PDFs, or PNGs to...

Submission Window: May 15th - 31st, 2023 Payment: $0.05 per word for fiction, $50 per poem Theme: Creature Apparition Lit is a speculative fiction magazine that publishes themed issues four times a year. We publish poems and stories between 1k-5k words in January, April, July, and October. We also hold monthly flash fiction contests between the 1st and 15th of each month. Flash stories must be under 1000 words and be inspired or based on the chosen theme. Read our submission guidelines and submit your work through our Moksha portal. Payment Apparition is a semi-pro rate magazine, paying $0.05 per word, minimum of $50.00 dollars for short stories and a flat fee of $50 per poem. If we accept your story, we are purchasing the right to publish the story online and in the quarterly edition. Rights will revert back to the artist after one year. Equity Initiative As Apparition Lit works to create a more equitable publishing community, we recognize that our open submission period is concurrent with some other really great literary magazines where marginalized writers also like to submit. Voices should be heard and we want to help increase that opportunity. Our submission window will remain open for an additional week each quarter for writers who identify as BIPOC and self-identify in their cover letter.  We will also accept simultaneous submissions from writers who identify as BIPOC or LGBTQIA+. Please just note how you identify in your cover letter, that it is a simultaneous submission, and see further details in the menu below on how to submit for each category. Past Contributors Once you are published by Apparition Lit, you join our tiny but mighty family. We love our alumni and will always do what we can to support their publishing career. We want to continually discover and champion new voices and different point-of-views....

Submission Window: May 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: 1 cent per word for fiction, $5 for poetry, 1 cent per word for non-fiction, $35 for cover art Theme: Speculative fiction It's our goal to publish diverse voices from around the world, and to do that, we are actively seeking stories, poems, and non-fiction pieces by authors from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy canon. Our submission cycle is therefore split into two categories, where every other month is explicitly reserved for submissions by authors of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups. The interposing six months remain open to everyone. Guidelines for Fiction We are seeking stories in the English language up to 6,000 words by writers from around the world. We favor submisions that have not been published before (including on your own website), though we do accept a limited number of reprints not currently appearing anywhere online. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra. We pay 1¢ per word for fiction, and we try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks. We will also accept a limited number of previously published stories, so please indicate on the form if your submission is a reprint. All submissions must use the Shunn manuscript format (we prefer Courier New) and be either .rtf, .doc, or .docx. We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we've finished. We're more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and...

Submission Window: May 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...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: Short Stories: 1 cent per word, Poetry: 5 cents per line, Comics: $5 a page Theme: Horror comics, poems, and short stories with the theme of pulp horror Submissions for our 3rd issue are open from April 15th to May 31st, 2023! ​ At Reader Beware, we want to see pulp horror of all kinds – think Friday the Thirteenth, Psycho Goreman, and Glorious. Think Junji Ito, Grady Hendrix, and Eric LaRocca. We want your creepy gorefests!  Don't be afraid to get explicit with it, just don't send us anything too mean-spirited. Gore is great, peril and torment are great–continuing the horror tradition of fetishistically brutalizing women is not. Stories We accept short stories of up to 5000 words at a rate of one cent per word. Poetry We accept up to three pages of poetry per author at a rate of five cents per line. Comics We accept up to ten pages of comics at a rate of five dollars per page. Send Us Your Work Send us your story/poem/comic as a file attachment (.docx for stories and poems, png/pdf for comics) to [email protected]. In the body of the email, write the name you wish to be credited as and any content warnings you deem necessary. Via: Reader Beware.

Submission Window: May 1st - 31st, 2023 Payment: Short Fiction: .05 per word (up to .08 if stretch goal is met) Poetry: $1 per line up to 50 lines (up to $2 if stretch goal is met) Theme: Horror telling a tale of music Submissions for Playlist of the Damned, the 2023 Kickstarter anthology from Weird Little Worlds Press will open on May 1st, 2023. This anthology is the third Kickstarter anthology from WLW Press, and features authors such as Gemma Files, Philip Fracassi, Lisa Morton, Eric LaRocca, Hailey Piper, Premee Mohamed, Craig L. Gidney, and more. The press will take 9 additional stories and poems from its open submissions period, with a potential to take more, depending on the Kickstarter’s funding. Weird Little Worlds Press has become one of the strongest publishers of short horror fiction, with Humans are the Problem: A Monster’s Anthology (2021) and Mother: Tales of Love and Terror (2022) both being recognized on the Bram Stoker Award® Preliminary Ballots. Stories from the press’s anthologies have also appeared on the yearly Pseudopod fiction highlight roundup as well as Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year anthologies. The 2022 Mother is also on the final Stoker ballot for Excellence in an Anthology, and the co-editors of this year’s Playlist, Jessica Landry and Willow Dawn Becker, are both Stoker-nominated editors (Landry, There Is No Death, There Are No Dead; Crystal Lake Publishing, 2021)(Becker, Mother: Tales of Love and Terror; WLW Press, 2022). The Authors Playlist of the Damned looks to meet the same level of excellence as the press’s previous anthologies and includes brand new fiction from award-winning authors including: Gemma Files Philip Fracassi Premee Mohamed Castro Richard Chizmar Hailey Piper Lisa Morton Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito Craig L. Gidney Maxwell I. Gold Mercedes M. Yardley Sofia Ajram Tim Waggoner Linda Addison P. Miskowski Eric LaRocca The Pitch In December 2020, hiker Jeremy Schall finds a cassette tape in an abandoned mine reading DO NOT PLAY....

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: Contributors copy and $30 for short stories and $10 for poetry Theme: Speculative fiction that explores the body and our relationship to it Note: For authors originally from, or living permanently in, Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand What is a body? In the modern world, the body is an object, separate from the self. The body is an inconvenience whose needs are a barrier to overcome in pursuit of productivity. The body is a collection of features. The body is an asset in which we invest to increase value. The body is sanitised, with illness and death hidden from public view. The body is effortless; evidence of exertion is edited out, except perhaps a single drop of sweat for aesthetic emphasis. BODY OF WORK rejects this dislocation of the body from self. The body belongs to us in all its glory. The 2023 CSFG anthology seeks speculative fiction that explores the body and our relationship to it – how we live in it, how we die in it, and how we transform it – from the good to the bad to the just plain weird. We invite authors to consider the following themes: Bodily autonomy Transformation and metamorphosis Adaptation and mutation Curses Shapeshifting Gender and sexuality Illness and wellness Disability and accessibility Beauty standards Body modification Birth, aging, and death Life cycles Survival Cyborgs, hybrids, and monsters Medicine, medical history, and public health Writing We are seeking submissions from authors who are: Over 18 Originally from, or living permanently in, Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand Made out of meat (no AI-generated stories, please) Submissions may take the form of poetry (max 40 lines) prose (max 5,000 words) All entries must be the author’s original work. CSFG is not accepting reprints at this time. Stories will be selected...

Deadline: May 31st, 2023 Payment: 3 cents per word for the winner, 2 cents per word for second place, and 1 cent per word for third place Theme: Red The theme for next month's flash contest is... "RED! The colour of blood, and love, and danger. Flashing lights, glowing eyes, cooking flesh; the blinding hue of rage, the windswept locks of a Celtic warrior princess. Give us something red – serve us something raw and dripping, a fresh cut that only you can deliver." This theme is courtesy of last month's winner, Matthew R. Davis, who will also read all the submissions and pick the finalists. Before we get to the submission guidelines, please know that only the top 15 to 20 stories will be posted on our Patreon page for our patrons to vote on. The winner will receive $0.03 per word, publication, and an Author Spotlight on our newsletter and Patreon page. The second place winner will receive $0.02 a word, and the third place winner $0.01 per word. The winner will also have the option of hosting the following month’s contest for an extra payment and a profit share from any new patrons joining our Patreon during that month. Submission guidelines: -Max 1,500 words -Submit your entry in the body of an email to [email protected] (no attachments) – please notice the new submissions email (no longer our main email account) -The email subject line should be the story’s title and your author name / pseudonym -The deadline is midnight at the end of May, wherever in the world you may reside. -No multiple submissions (only your best story) -Reprints are allowed if they naturally fit the theme. -Put your bio below your story (max 500 words). Please take note… You do not need to be a Crystal...

Deadline: June 1st, 2023 Payment: 50$ payment and contributors copy Theme: Stories based on the work of Gemma Files and her Classic novel, Experimental Film From some of the writers and editors who helped to bring you A Walk in A Darker Wood and the recently published A Walk in a City of Shadows comes a new terrifying collection based on the work of one of Horror’s greatest living authors, Gemma Files! This is the second collection titled Experimental Files is being brought to you by Alien Sun Press and we are super excited about it! With the incredible John Langan set to write the foreword, this anthology is a tribute to not only to the work of Gemma Files but is in particular based off of her classic work, Experimental film. This collection will have illustrations from Sarah Walker and others as well as a cover done by the incomparable Dan Sauer. So here are the particulars…. What we want: - Stories based on the themes set out in Gemma Files’ classic work, Experimental Film. What does that mean? Well, firstly make sure you have read her work first and then send us something that is… -Unique and clever Horror stories involving cursed or dangerous film. These tales can be from the point of view of anyone involved in cinema from the visual artists all the way to the directors, to the actors or even the audience. Play around, try something new! -Stories with a strong Gemma Files feel about them- characters that are complex and encompass sometimes contradictory character traits- ‘evil’ that is done for good, etc. Use of myth, use of evocative scenery and a general spooky haunted vibe. -Weird Fiction style tales! -Poetic language with a dark bent -Creative takes on folklore -Well written leaning into...

Submission Window: April 1st, 2023 to June 1st, 2023 Payment: $0.01 per word Theme: Short horror stories in the 2,500-7,000-word range written in epistolary format—meaning, stories written as letters, journal entries, transcripts of radio broadcasts, newspaper clippings, text messages, etc. Edited by Jacob Steven Mohr   From Jacob Steven Mohr and Crystal Lake Publishing comes Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror, a new anthology set to debut (tentatively) February of 2024.   As the name betrays, we’re looking for short horror stories in the 2,500-7,000-word range written in epistolary format—meaning, stories written as letters, journal entries, transcripts of radio broadcasts, newspaper clippings, text messages, etc.   Furthermore, each story should include some mention of how its manuscript was “discovered.” A letter found in a historian’s archive, for example. Or emails saved as part of a missing persons investigation. Or an audio file recovered from a dead podcaster’s PC. Push boundaries and play with the format—and above all, be scary!   Some comparable titles: Dracula, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Carrie, House of Leaves, and World War Z.   We will be accepting approximately 10-15 stories from this open call. Accepted tales will appear alongside original yarns from invited authors, who include Gemma Files, Ai Jiang, Red Lagoe, J.A.W. McCarthy, Scott J. Moses, and Gordon B. White. Submissions Open: April 1, 2023   Submissions Close: June 1, 2023   Length: 2,500 – 7,000 words   Payment: $0.01 per word   Format: Stories should be formatted in 12 pt. Times New Roman, double spaced.   Rights: Exclusive First Worldwide Publication, Print and Electronic Rights for 1 year (from date of publication), and non-exclusive rights thereafter.   Contributor Copies: 1 paperback and 1 eBook copy.   Simultaneous Submissions: Allowed. But please promptly withdraw your story if it is accepted elsewhere....

Deadline: June 1st, 2023 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...

Deadline: June 1st, 2023 Payment: Royalties Theme: Horror Note: Reprints Welcome M Presents is looking for submissions for their next Enter Madness anthology, Rising Dark, to be released later this year. Stories should be horrific, deal with the mysterious, and avoid the use of anything that could be considered socially unacceptable (violence toward children, unnecessary gore, sex for the sake of sex, erotica). I am only a single person so I will try my best to respond to all submissions. Stories must be fewer than 5,000 words, payment is a percent of royalties based upon the total number of words published. Open: March 1, 2023. Deadline: June 1, 2023. To submit: fill out the form at the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfl_yivMcFrhyXs1sJal_Alu6yV-SIP-Qj__rGJf1X1EjksYw/viewform?usp=pp_url On Royalties: You'll get payments to Paypal via DriveThruFiction/Onebookshelf (printer), accounts to both are FREE, if the email you provided differs, enter than email below. Payments will be made approximately 30 days after purchase unless requested otherwise. Note: Paypal takes a $1 processing fee for all transactions made directly from Onebookshelf, the more transfers then the more fees (example: if Paypal makes the payment to me then I am charged a fee, and an additional fee is paid if I personally transfer the royalty money to you; so you'll make more with an active account from DriveThruFiction). Via: The Enter Madness Contact Form.

Submission Window: May 1st - June 1st, 2023 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: Souls-like" fantasy for this issue: things that remind you of Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Blasphemous and so on. Old Moon Quarterly is opening to general submissions on May 1, 2023, and the call will last until June 1, 2023. 1000-6000 word limit, 8c a word. We published dark fantasy and weird sword-and-sorcery. We are looking for what we might call "Souls-like" fantasy for this issue: things that remind you of Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Blasphemous and so on. We want dying earths and strange vistas. We want knights fighting against the rotting corpses of their god. We want witches struggling with the decay of memory and the mutability of identity. We want baroque prose, and spare prose, and everything in between, so long as it is melancholy, and tragic, and bloody. What  We  Want Old Moon publishes character-focused, weird sword-and-sorcery: stories of a dark and transgressive nature, set in a secondary or historical-paranormal (“our” reality, but with a twist, if you will) world, with a focus on rounded characters undergoing some sort of conflict, resolved (though not always successfully!) by the might of their main or mind. ​ We love stories that combine that sense of action and adventure with well-rounded characters who make us question our own realities and perceptions. We love to see the gothic, the baroque, the eldritch, and we love to see it hit with an axe. Weird fiction and sword-and-sorcery can both be slippery terms. That is part of the fun! But, for our purposes we know it may help prospective writers if we list a series of authors and their stories we feel encompass (at least in part) what we love about the borderland of sword/sorcery and weird fiction: Laird Barron ("Oblivion...

Submission Window: May 19th - June 1st, 2023 Payment: 8 cents per word Theme: "An effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling" in the SF, fantasy, space opera, hopepunk genres Theme: Rhapsody of the Spheres – SF, fantasy, space opera, hopepunk The dictionary defines a rhapsody as “an effusively enthusiastic or  ecstatic expression of feeling.” In ancient Greece, a rhapsody was also part of an epic poem of a suitable length for reciting. Edie Brickell waxed rhapsodic about a smile on a dog, and Queen and Liszt gave us their musical Bohemian and Hungarian rhapsodies, respectively. Please give us a speculative fiction story or poem about what would make us happy right now. Reading Period (open): May 19 – June 1, 2023 Writer Deadline: June 1, 2023 Publication Date: August 2023 Submissions Guidelines As of: March 3, 2023 We do themed anthologies. We are not currently accepting unsolicited reprints. We have also discussed the types of stories we prefer in an interview (note that the pay rate has increased) at D.L. Snell’s Market Scoops. We are temporarily closed for submissions. Stories should be submitted in either Microsoft Word (using double spacing), RTF,  or plain text. They should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words. Be sure they are the final version (any Review comments removed). Flash humor pieces (Grins and Gurgles) should be short, around 600-1,000 words. Please don’t send simultaneous or multiple submissions. If a story has been rejected, you can then send another (limit 2 per reading period). Please verify that your story is original, unpublished, and not written using AI. Submit by email to [email protected] either as an attachment (Word, RTF) or in the body of the mail (text). In the Subject: line of the email, please put flatsubmit:Title_of_Your_Work to avoid being deemed a canned meat product based on ham. If the work is for the humor...

Deadline: June 1st, 2023 Prizes: 2 novel winners and 2-3 novella winners: The prize for a novel is $1000 and a novella $250. Theme: Original fiction that "doesn't fit anywhere else" What’s special about the word “ofic” is that it’s short for “original fiction,” but only in contrast to fanfiction. The fanfic/ofic divide dichotomizes fiction into two categories: work that openly acknowledges the canon from which a work was transformed, and everything else. OFIC Magazine is a quarterly publication with a simple goal: to promote the original work of fanauthors whose aesthetics and interests may not align with the genres of traditional publishing, but whose work still aspires to literary aims—work that may be dark or grotesque, unabashedly joyful, or just too filthy for the general population. We publish work that can’t fit anywhere else. The OFIC Press Prize will be awarded to up to 2 novels and up to 3-4 novellas, which will be published in 2024. The prize for a novel is $1000 and a novella $250. Novels will be published as standalone books and novellas will be compiled into an anthology. We're looking for manuscripts that don't really fit in a traditional publishing category, maybe because they're too romance-y for general or literary fiction, and not romance-y enough for romance. Or maybe there's just a truly tasteless amount of smut. What we value most is an earnest portrayal of character, interesting relationship dynamics, and well-crafted prose that prioritizes clarity and voice. We can guarantee the winners their prize money, thorough editorial feedback, professional cover design, and digital publication. We plan to run a Kickstarter to fund a physical print and distribution. Should our Kickstarter succeed, you'll also receive 10 copies of your book/anthology. We'll do a print of 100 copies to sell in our online store in...

Submission Window: May 1st, 2023 to June 2nd, 2023 Payment: $50 Theme: Love We’ll be accepting new submissions for 2023, with the theme of LOVE in December of 2022. ​The following is relevant to all submissions for 2023 for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Writing opportunities for 2023 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. HERE IS HOW YOU SUBMIT AND FORMAT AND WHEN Only the kind of submissions outlined below will be accepted at The Fairy Tale Magazine in 2023. Writers will have a chance to submit fairy-tale inspired stories/poems twice in 2023. Because of limited space, once your work has been chosen for publication, chances of getting published a second time in the same year are very slim. Here are the submission periods for both stories and poems: Dec. 1, 2022 at 12 a.m., EST, through Jan. 2, 2023, at 11:59 p.m., EST. This will be the window for works that will be published in the March and June issues of The Fairy Tale Magazine. The second and last submission period for 2023 will be from May 1, 2023 at 12 a.m., EST to June 2, at 11:59 p.m., EST. This will be the window for works that will be published in the September and December issues of The Fairy Tale Magazine. There will only be four issues. ​ No submissions will be considered or acknowledged if received outside of the windows stated above. You submit through email only. Please use this address only: [email protected]. That is for submissions only. Your last name, the publication month you are...

Deadline: June 2nd, 2023 Payment: $10 Theme: Father's Day We are now open to poetry and fiction submissions for our Fiendish Father’s Day Issue, slated for publication June 2023. We are open to all of our regular horror themes as well as stories that have a Father’s Day element. We are also open to Fiendish Father’s Day Challenge Submissions. Deadline for the upcoming issue and the challenge is June 2, 2023 for both fiction and poetry submissions. To track and see if we received your story, visit: Where’s My Story? Please note: If you do not want your story title added to the tracking page, let us know when you submit your work. (Author name is not listed, only story title).   Tales from the Moonlit Path publishes dark, eerie, speculative stories. Horror is not a necessary element, although fiction should contain some aspect of the weak, frail, changeable human condition. Gore and explicit sex for the sake of visceral shock will not find a home here, though we are not opposed to it in general, if it belongs in the story. We are interested in character-driven stories more so than plot-driven, and we prefer dark fiction that makes us think, makes us feel, wraps us in its well-spun dream. Hard sci-fi and fantasy are a hard sell for us, but not impossible. Revenge and ironic stories are also a hard sell. Although we would love to publish fiction longer than 2,000 words, it is our experience that reading stories longer than that on a monitor can be tiresome and hard on the eyes. So please, fiction must be no longer than 2,000 words. Please include a short cover letter with your story, your name, email address, paypal information for payment, word count (please make sure an accurate word count is included...