These are themed submission calls for writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of the themes are: suburbia, monsters in space, swashbuckling cats, roots/routes, chains, haunting, survival horror, and pain. All of these pay writers, whether royalties, token, or pro rates. Deadlines are approaching quickly for some markets.
The
Suburban Review: Suburbia
This Australian quarterly digital journal accepts work from
around the world. They are currently reading fiction, creative nonfiction,
poetry, and comics on the Suburbia theme. Their guidelines say, “Fifteen issues
in, it’s time to celebrate our namesake! Welcome to the suburbs, where
everything is perfect, until you look a little too closely. Tell us stories of
the almost-urban, of longing and familiarity. Write about the suburbs of your
life, of horror and home. Of the mundane and the extraordinary. We want your
words!”
Deadline: 9 July 2019
Length: 500-2,500 words for prose, up to three poems
Pay: AUD75-150 for prose and poetry, AUD100-200 for comics
Details here.
Forty-Two
Books: Putrescent Poems
They want
horror poetry for this anthology. They want work that is “the horrific, the terrifying, the grind-house, the body gore,
the scary, the psychological, the black comedic, the rotten, the exhibition,
the mad science, the forbidden, the devilish, the blasphemous,” and the
putrescent, according to their guidelines. Poems can be in any form, format,
style, type, and meter.
Deadline: 15 July 2019
Length: Up to five poems
Pay: $25/poem
Details here.
NonBinary
Review #22: The Odyssey
They publish poetry, fiction, essays, and art around a theme.
They are open to submissions which relate to
Homer’s The Odyssey. Their guidelines say. “While there are
many excellent translations of this epic, we particularly like the 2017
translation by Emily Wilson.” Submissions must have a clear
relationship with a specific aspect of the source text.
Deadline: 24 July 2019
Length: Up to 5,000 words for fiction
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Tyche Books:
Swashbuckling Cats –
Nine Lives on Seven Seas
This is a
call for an anthology “full of
feisty felines on the high seas! We want pirate cats, and Viking cats.
Submariner cats and explorer cats. This book is going to be filled with
adventure-loving cats, puns and fun. We want it to be a wild, rollicking
ride complete with sword fights, sea monsters, treasure hunting, discovering
new worlds and lots and lots of kittehs.” They also want a strong plot and
detailed characters.
Deadline: 31
July 2019
Length: Up to 9,000 words
Pay: CAD50
Details here.
Mysterion: Christian Speculative Fiction
They want science fiction, fantasy and horror stories that
engage meaningfully with Christian themes,
characters or cosmology. The stories need not teach a moral or be close to an approved
theological position. Nor do they need to be pro-Christian – see their detailed
guidelines on the kind of work they see too often, and what they would like to
see. They are especially interested in stories that show
Christians from cultures beyond those of the United States, Canada, and Western
Europe. They accept translations and reprints, and art submissions.
Deadline: 31 July 2019
Length: Up to 9,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
Stonecrop
Review: Roots/Routes
This is a
journal of urban nature writing, art, and photography. For their second issue,
they are reading works on the roots/routes theme. Their guidelines say, “These homophones might have different meanings on the
surface, but just as roots provide a tree with nourishment, so routes through
the city also provide nourishment: food, water, access to green spaces, and the
freedom to wander. Show us the roots and/or routes in your city: whether the
roots are underground or cracking through the concrete, whether your route
takes you through the suburbs or the heart of the city: take us on a journey.”
They accept creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, Reader’s Corner, and art
submissions. They are also reading general submissions on topics related to
urban nature.
Writers can send up to three submissions.
Deadline: 31 July 2019
Length: 500-3,000 words for fiction and creative nonfiction, up to 1,000 words
for Reader’s Corner
Pay: $20
Details here.
Fiyah Magazine: Chains
This is a magazine by and about Black people of the African
Diaspora (see guidelines). They accept speculative poetry and fiction. Their
guidelines say, “The idea of chains carries a heavy context for black folks
across the globe. The most visceral imagery of chains bears the weight of the
Middle Passage, colonialism, antebellum slavery and modern day mass
incarceration. But it runs deeper than that and in so many ways our global
community carries chains unseen.
There
have been studies conducted showing that the stress of racism is shortening the
lifespan of African Americans and that generational trauma is transferred in
our DNA. What is that if not a chain? Too many of us live in oppressive
governments that restrict our movement, criminalize our bodies and trap us in
spiraling cycles of labor that are to everyone’s benefit but our own.” They
want stories “that explore the ways systems entrap us, but also the ways we
circumvent them and rise up against them.”
Deadline: 31 July 2019
Length: Short stories (2,000 – 7,000 words); novelettes (<15,000 words)
Pay: $50 for poetry, $150 for short stories, $300 for novelettes
Details here.
Soteira Press: Two themes
Horror USA: California – Their
guidelines say, “The first entry in an anthology series
showcasing horror in every state, “Horror USA: California” is all about the
terrors, horrors, creeps, and shrieks found in the Golden State.” Also,
“Stories must be horror, they must be original (no urban legends, creepypasta,
or retellings of true crime), and must take place in California.” Submissions
will open soon for Texas, Washington state, and Louisiana horror anthologies.
The Monsters We Forgot – This is an anthology
of forgotten folklore. Their guidelines say, “We’re looking for tales of urban
legends, folktales, and fairy tales that nobody knows. In essence: we want you
to make up an urban legend, folktale, fairy tale, cryptid, or piece of town
lore and either write it, or write a story about people who are affected by
it.”
Writers can submit multiple stories for these anthologies.
Deadline: 31 July 2019
Length: 500-7,500 words
Pay: Royalties
Details here.
Less Than Three Press: Collection call – Creature
Feature
This LGBTQ+ romance publisher wants “your most
scintillating, subversive, and scary monster stories for consideration as part
of our CREATURE FEATURE collection.” Their guidelines also say, “This collection is an homage to movie monsters of
yore and the popularity of paranormal fiction. We’re happy to see stories
queered and subverted about classic monsters or those of your own creation—and
we suggest authors using classic movie or pulp monsters make sure their
creature is in the public domain.” Stories must
have a happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN) end. The primary genre
is by nature speculative, but can contain any sub-genre or genre mashup:
mystery, historical, contemporary, space opera, cyberpunk, etc.
Deadline:
31 July 2019
Length: 20,000-60,000 words
Pay: Royalties
Details here.
Memories
of Love: A Literary Tribute to The Magnetic Fields and Stephin Merritt
This is a
tribute anthology for Stephin Merritt, and his band, The Magnetic Fields (he
has written music for Neil Gaiman audiobooks – details about his work are in
the guidelines). They want prose, poetry, prose-poetry, one-act plays,
experimental pieces, and writing that doesn’t fit well into any category. Their
guidelines say, “We want poems and stories about love, of course, but we also
want stories and poems about vampires, wolfboys, and ghosts. We want quirky
autobiographical fiction. We want stories about crimes of passion. We want
surrealist inspired poems.”
Deadline: 1 August 2019
Length: Up to 3,000 words
Pay: £20/$25
Details here.
Blood Bath Literary Zine
Issue 3: Hauntings
They want fiction, poetry, and art on the Hauntings theme. Their
guidelines say, “Haunted houses, poltergeists,
haunted objects, personal hauntings; all are welcomed, the only criteria for
written submissions being that there must be a ghost (or a character’s belief
in a ghost) that is linked to an object, place or person. We very much
encourage you to get creative on the definitions and implications of these
criteria. … Ghosts and hauntings have traditionally been used to exorcise our
cultural and societal fears, and the ones that have the most lasting impacts
are ones that address and challenge those in a deliberate way. Social issues
like race, class, gender and mental health all have a place in horror and we
want to read stories about them.” They are open to all genres – science
fiction, fantasy, erotica – but stories must also contain an element of horror.
Writers can send up to two prose pieces.
Deadline: 1 August 2019
Length: Up to 2,500 words for fiction; up to four poems
Pay: £20 per 1,000 words for
prose, £20 per 15 lines for poetry, and £20 per image for visual art
Details here.
Dark Peninsula Press: Negative Space –
An Anthology of Survival Horror
They are reading survival horror fiction for their first anthology. The focus is on the survival horror
genre (in which protagonist(s) must face dire situations in locations far off
the beaten path by using the environment, or items found in the environment, to
survive) of video games, and to incorporate elements of the survival horror
tradition into narrative fiction writing. This anthology will favor active
horror stories over quieter, literary pieces. Think dangerous locales,
overwhelming odds, makeshift weapons, cryptic journals, secret underground
facilities, and deadly traps. Their guidelines also say, “Although this is a sub-genre
created by video games, you don’t have to have knowledge of video games to
submit. You could look at this as a “survival against the elements”
type of story, or a “survival against something in the woods” type of
story.”
Deadline: 1 August 2019
Length: 3,000-8,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Silent Motorist Media: The Nightside
Codex
They want weird horror fiction about
haunted or cursed books, manuscripts, or online media for their second
anthology. Think Thomas Ligotti, Nathan Ballingrud, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and the
fiction published in Vastarien.
Deadline: 1 August 2019
Length: 2,000-6,000 words
Pay: At least $25 (more if Kickstarter is successful)
Details here.
Gay Mag: Pain
This is a new online magazine by Roxanne Gay in partnership with Medium. They publish “cultural criticism; thoughtful, clever and beautiful personal essays; short fiction; original artwork and photography.” They are accepting work on the Pain theme for their second issue. The guidelines say: “What hurts you? How do you deal with hurt and suffering? How have you hurt others or yourself? How do you negotiate the suffering of others?” Writers should only send one short story, essay, or pitch at a time.
Deadline: 17 August 2019
Length: Up to 3,500 words (will publish more work in the 1,200-word range)
Pay: $1/word
Details here.
Horroraddicts.net: Dark Divinations
They want horror fiction on divination. Stories must be horror, set in the Victorian era (1837-1901), and can be set anywhere – England, American West, Colonial India, or Africa. They must also concern a method of divination (the practice of foretelling the future through supernatural means, including Ouija boards, cards, scrying, entrail reading, and necromancy).
Deadline: 31 October 2019
Length: 2,000-5,000 words
Pay: $10
Details here.
Workers Write! Literary Journal: Stories from the workplace
They want stories and poems from the workplace – any workplace – for this submission call. They will consider reprints.
Deadline: 31 December 2019 (or until filled)
Length: 500-5,000 words
Pay: $5-50
Details here.
