Deadline: July 1st, 2021
Payment: Poetry
International authors will receive a free copy of the issue.
Australian authors will receive $25-40 + a copy.
Payment: Flash
International authors will receive $20 + a copy of the issue.
Australian authors will receive $50-75 + a copy of the issue.
Payment: Short Fiction
International authors will receive $60-125 + a copy of the issue.
Australian authors will receive $80-140 + a copy of the issue.
Theme: Speculative Fiction stories that excite, that break the boundary between real and unreal

SUBMISSIONS OPEN UNTIL 01 JULY 2021

Send us your stories! We want to read your elegant and ugly. We want to pore over your terrifying, your elegiac. We want to ponder over your profound and your silly. We can’t wait.

We accept poetry and short fiction up to 5,000 words in length. Double-spaced with a serif font such as Garamond, Times New Roman or Georgia is a requirement. Send all submissions in a Word document (.doc or .docx) by email to [email protected]. Previously unpublished work only. Absolutely no PDFs. Those go straight into the recycling bin.

One short story per author OR up to three poems OR up to two pieces of flash fiction (750 words or less). The subject of the email should read “<Name of Author> – <Title of Piece> – <Word Count>”, i.e., “John Citizen – This Story I Wrote – 2,500 words” (If you’re submitting poetry or flash, just your name and either “Flash” or “Poetry” will suffice). Please include a short cover letter in the body of the email, as well as a short (50-75 words) author bio.

We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your piece has been accepted elsewhere. No multiple submissions, however.

As stated, we’re looking for stories that excite, that break the boundary between real and unreal. Experimentation and surreal ways of looking at the world we live in will be looked upon fondly. Horror, magic realism, speculative fiction and streams of consciousness are welcome – but they must be somewhat grounded in real life. If you want to know what we want… what we really, really want, then why not avail yourself to a copy of our first issue? If you can tell us what your favourite piece was in our inaugural issue (out 18 April!), we would look kindly on that.

We have no issue with sex, violence or profanity – this is, after all, a journal made by and for adults – but as with most things, excess isn’t very becoming.

Submissions that don’t follow the instructed formatting, that are full of typos and grammatical mistakes or that will require extensive editing will not be considered. No racism, sexism or misogyny, please.

Curiouser Magazine believes that telling stories is part and parcel of a functioning society, so we strongly encourage submissions from Indigenous peoples, women, LGBT+ and people of colour. Your stories are important.

We believe in paying our writers. Successful submissions will pay poets $25-40 per poem, and from $50-140 for short prose (all dollar amounts are Australian, by the way). Australian submitters also receive a free book. (Thanks to the pandemic and skyrocketing shipping costs, overseas contributors can get a book, but remittance will be slightly reduced).

A quick rundown of remittance we’ll pay:

Poetry
International authors will receive a free copy of the issue.
Australian authors will receive $25-40 + a copy.

Flash
International authors will receive $20 + a copy of the issue.
Australian authors will receive $50-75 + a copy of the issue.

Short Fiction
International authors will receive $60-125 + a copy of the issue.
Australian authors will receive $80-140 + a copy of the issue.

[Don’t blame me, blame the Australian Post Office!]

While we will endeavour to respond to your submission within the space of six weeks, we’re only human (and only one, at that)… so if you haven’t heard from us for a while, you can give us a gentle nudge!

We look forward to seeing your words. Surprise us!

Via: Curiouser Magazine.