Taking Submissions: It Takes a Village

by · Published · Updated

Deadline: June 1st, 2025
Payment: $5 for poetry sets (up to 5 pages), $10 for flash fiction (up to 1000 words), $25 for fiction stories up to 5000 words, +$2/1000 words for over 5000 for fictions stories up to 10,000 words
Theme: Canadian authors telling stories about community: finding it, building it, maintaining it, being expelled from it. SF and F are called out as acceptable, no word on H so probably a hard sell

This anthology’s theme is “It Takes a Village” – I’m looking for stories about community: finding it, building it, maintaining it, being expelled from it. How do we build our villages as adults? How do we grow connections with those around us? What do we do when we’ve lost them? We’ve heard the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child” but also “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” How do we tackle these emotions as adults?

As this is a bit trickier of an anthology theme than the last one, the reading period is going to be much longer, and the final evolution of the anthology’s theme will come from what the overarching theme and tone from the submitted and accepted pieces create.

What I am looking for:

  • Poems, flash fiction, short stories, science fiction, fantasy, romance, literary, contemporary, and more. We want a wide variety of fictional stories!
  • Works from Canadian writers/authors only, with some preference for writers from British Columbia.
  • Special consideration/interest for writers who are Former Foster Youth or Adopted
  • Flash Fiction up to 1000 words
  • Short Stories up to 10000 words – very limited spots for over 5000-word stories
  • Poetry sets of up to 5 pages
  • Polished works – please don’t send your first draft. Make sure to put your story through revisions before sending it. Using a beta reader is also a good idea. Your work should be free of spelling and grammar errors.
  • If you would like to pick up a copy of our previous anthology to read what we’ve published in the past, check out “Red Eyes and Tired Lungs: An Anthology of Wildfire” (please note, if before April 30, 2024, it’s still on pre-order!)

What I am NOT looking for:

  • Works written by AI.
    • There is always some pushback on this as many people ask “where is the line?” and the line is that has to be written by a human. What does that mean? If you, a human, write the words and then as you edit your work use something like Grammarly or ProWritingAid to help clean up your writing similar to line edits/grammar edits, that is okay. If you type into an AI like ChatGPT and say, “Write me a story about X”, that is not what we are looking for and will be rejected.
  • Unpolished works
  • Anything consisting of hate speech, bigotry, or otherwise similar offensive content.

Other notes:

  • Multiple submissions are allowed, but will be limited to only two per category.  EX if you have submitted two short stories, you can also submit poetry, but not another short story.
  • Simultaneous submissions are allowed (as in you can submit to other publications at the same time) but if you are accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately.
  • Please no reprints.

Deadline:

  •  The deadline has been extended! Currently it’s June 1st, 2025, but may close sooner if enough submission spots have been filled.

Pay:

  • As this is a passion project and I do not have the funds to pay standard rates for writing, I am currently offering the following payment option:

Receive a flat rate fee:

$5 for poetry sets (up to 5 pages)
$10 for flash fiction (up to 1000 words)
$25 for fiction stories up to 5000 words
+$2/1000 words for over 5000 for fictions stories up to 10,000 words
– Very limited spots available for this tier
– For example, a 10,000 word story would receive $35

The flat rate may increase if additional funding is acquired prior to payout dates.

How to submit:

  • Please email your submission to [email protected]
  • Send your story in the standard manuscript format. If you don’t know what that is, click here: https://www.shunn.net/format/story/
  • Your email should be titled as follows: “ITAV 2024: STORY NAME : AUTHOR NAME”. If you include multiple submissions, please pick one as the main name for the email.
  • Your email should include:
    • What type of work(s) you are submitting
    • Word count(s)
    • Inspiration/information you would like to provide about your story
    • A short (~50 words) Author Bio
    • The submission document(s) attached as a Word file.
    • Pen name/Legal name information if different

Please allow two months for a response, or up to four weeks after the final deadline. If you have not received a response by that time, feel free to send a follow up email from your original email chain.

Via: Winter Jewel Publishing.

You may also like...