Deadline: November 30th, 2019
Payment: $0.02/word, potentially more!

Neon Hemlock Press is open to submissions of short stories to be considered in the anthology Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die from September 15th to November 30th.

The compensation level for this anthology will be set by the success of our Kickstarter! At a minimum it will be $0.02/word. You can find the Kickstarter here.

A link to a submission portal will be displayed during our open period.

We are looking for:

• Wordcount: Under 6,000 words. 1-4,000 words is probably the sweet spot.

• Concept: They joked that the only things left would be cockroaches and Twinkies, but they were wrong. They underestimated us. Tell us stories of queer resilience and queer survival, stories set after the end of a world that could be ours but might not be. Tell us about new queer beginnings born amidst the broken promises of the future.

  Be inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road, yes, but the visions of the apocalypse we love also include The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, Apocalypse World by Vincent & Meguey Baker, Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller, and Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler.

• What we want to see: We are looking for speculative stories that explore ramifications of the apocalypse through queer narratives. We want queer stories and we want trans stories and we want indefinable stories. We welcome a broad interpretation of the post-apocalyptic genre; give us your scraps of hope in every ruined future (we love genre elements from fantasy, horror and science fiction). Throughout, we’re looking for rich, varied and nuanced understandings of gender, family and ethnicity.

• What we don’t want to see: Don’t tell us directly how it ended. You can draw implications from the sunless sky or the poison water, but don’t give us a road map. We revel in the vagueness of possibility, so rather than Lady Liberty buried the sand, give us ambiguous landmarks and amalgamations of real places.

  We’re not interested in unexamined bigotry or sexual violence; pieces that include such should be nuanced or looking at the post-event experience of the survivors.

  Also, no zombies please, unless you have some very unconventional ones!

Guidelines:

• Please submit your story in .doc or .docx file, formatted in something approaching Standard Manuscript Format. The editor has a slight aversion to Courier and a fondness for Georgia.

• Please include a cover/query letter with the title, length, and a brief bio. You may include links to your website/social media, and previous publications if any. Please don’t stress about this cover letter, if we have additional questions about your submission, we’ll ask them.

• Simultaneous submissions are fine, please withdraw immediately if you take another offer. Stories should be previously unpublished.

• Please no multiple submissions. If you receive a rejection within the submission window, you may submit another story.

Submissions are open to all.  Neon Hemlock Press is particularly interested in queer stories and authors.  Authors from all underrepresented backgrounds and marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to submit.  Please don’t self-reject.

You should receive a confirmation of your submission via email. Please query after January 31st if you haven’t heard back from us yet about this project.

Via: Neon Hemlock.