Taking Submissions: Stories of the Eye (Early)

Submission Window: November 1st, 2021, to November 30th, 2021.
Payment: $0.02 per word plus a physical copy upon publication
Theme: Horror stories that explore the complex relationships between artists and models.

We didn’t know if we’d do it again, but Weirdpunk is finally publishing a new anthology with an open call.

Stories of the Eye will be edited by Sam Richard (Sabbath of the Fox-Devils, Wonderland Award-Winning To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows) and Joanna Koch (The Wingspan of Severed Hands, Shirley Jackson Award-Nominated The Couvade). It will be published in 2022. Read on for info.

Weirdpunk Books is seeking horror stories that explore the complex relationships between artists and models. Go beyond the male gaze. Show us the queer gaze, the disabled gaze, the un-colonialized gaze, the intergalactic gaze. Turn the model’s gaze on the artist or audience. Explore the power of images, why we bring them to life or destroy them through duplication and representation, and how the act of creating changes them and changes us. Invent a future art form or resurrect a forgotten handicraft. Define “model” as widely and surprisingly as you like: people, objects, trees, oceans, ideas. Examine obsession, violence, commitment, love, or indifference. Give us a botanical illustrator on an unknown planet, a modern-day Gericault shipwrecked in a studio with body parts becoming medical waste, a necromancing choreographer, or a performance artist looking for that one special element to transcend reality in a final postmodernist feat of madness.

**Given the title of the anthology, we’re seeing a lot of folks talk about eyeball stories. This anthology is not about eyeball horror. Please fully read the submission guidelines to see what we are looking for, which is not—I repeat, not—horror stories about eyeballs.
Additionally, the Bataille reference is intentional as we’re both fans, but this isn’t a tribute to him or his work.

• Seeking stories from 2,500 to 5,000 words (this is firm).

• Payment of $0.02 per word plus a physical copy upon publication (with the option to buy more at cost at any time)

• Submission window November 1, 2021, to November 30th, 2021.

  • Any submission sent outside of this window will be deleted without being read.

    • We’re not super sticklers about what constitutes end of day Nov 30th with timezones and all. Just get it in before the morning of Dec 1st.

• No multiple submissions – one story per author. Send us your best.

  • If you send multiple submissions, all will be deleted unread.

• We are not accepting previously published stories.

• Simultaneous submissions are okay – notify us *promptly* if you need to withdraw

• We’re asking for 6-months of exclusive rights to the story starting on the day the book comes out.

• Submissions are open to everyone. However, we’re especially interested in stories from women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, neuro-divergent, disabled, and other marginalized authors. The history of art has been controlled, manipulated, and erased by a small demographic. We’ve heard their stories before. Show us something new.

• We are completely uninterested in working with racists, homophobes, transphobes, misogynists, xenophobes, nationalists, fascists, or predatory/abusive people.

• Please submit .doc or .docx files only.

• Send stories to [email protected]

  • Please format the subject line: Submission – {Story Name} – {Your Name}

    • As in: Submission – Story of the Eye – Georges Bataille

• Something approaching ‘Standard’ formatting is fine. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but also please don’t sub something with a bizarre font or colored text or anything like that.

• We’re open to all sorts of interpretations of this theme, but the artist and model relationship is necessary.

Via: Weird Punk Books.