These are submission calls for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translations. Themes include Christmas abroad, urban shapeshifter fantasy, young adult fantasy, resistance and revolution, noir with psychic detectives, 21st century hardboiled crime and noir, dieselpunk and decopunk fairy tales, war, stories with neurodivergent characters, utopian societies, the disruption that technology has wrought, work related to Dante’s Inferno, British folklore, the moon (or a moon), horror, fantasy, science fiction, music and dance, women’s fiction and consequential relationships, children’s fiction, as well as environmental concerns. All of these pay writers, from token to pro rates.
Selene Quarterly Magazine: Spotlight short story, Astraeus Quarterly
They accept fiction, poetry, nonfiction and art “that dwells in the shadows”. Besides their regular submissions, they also have a slot for a spotlight story which features the moon or a moon as a main element of the story. They also have a feature called Astraeus Quarterly: “Must identify with at least one marginalized group such as race, religion, ability status, gender, and age.”
Deadline: 15 September 2018
Length: Up to 7,500 words for stories (see guidelines), up to 100 lines for poetry
Pay: $0.01-0.03/word for fiction, $35 for nonfiction, $15 for reviews $0.25/line for poetry
Details here.
Tripwire: Performance/Writing, Microgrants for translation
This is a journal of poetics, and they accept essays (on contemporary writing, performance, and art), experiments in criticism, poetics statements and investigations, interviews, translations, black and white art work, long-form review essays (that consider several books or authors linked around central themes or questions), performance scores, etc. They are currently looking for work on the theme of ‘Performance/Writing’. They are also open to queries about non-themed work. Tripwire has a small grant ($200) specifically for translated works – poems, prose, essays, and/or interviews – and welcome queries for these. They do not accept unsolicited poetry, fiction, or plays; conventional academic papers or dissertation chapters; translations of canonized authors or texts; work primarily designed to be presented online, etc. Query before submitting work.
Deadline: 15 September 2018 for themed issue, rolling queries for unthemed works and translations
Length: Unspecified
Pay: Unspecified for general submissions; $200 microgrant for translated works
Details here (microgrant guidelines) and here (general guidelines).
Apex Book Company: Do Not Go Quietly
For this theme, they want stories of resistance and revolution set within the science fiction and fantasy genres. These can be small acts of everyday defiance, or massive movements that topple governments.
Deadline: 19 September 2018
Length: Up to 7,500 words
Pay: $0.06/word
Details here.
Splickety Publishing Group: Christmas Abroad
Their guidelines say, “It’s any place but home for the holidays. Give us young adult stories that embrace the holiday spirit in faraway lands. What does Christmas look like in high summer when the family goes to visit their grandfather in Australia? … What happens when an exchange student in Ecuador finds romance under the mistletoe? We want to see compelling characters, evocative settings, and a hearty dose of Christmas magic.” The sub-genres accepted will be travel mishaps, holiday cheer and cultural traditions.
Deadline: 21 September 2018
Length: 300-1,000 words; one story of up to 100 words
Pay: $0.02/word
Details here and here.
Ginger Goat Press: John Silence
This is an original RPG and shared universe collection of short stories and poems, about people of color who are psychic detectives committed to saving Earth from planar creatures invisible to most humans. This is alternative American noir, set between 1920s to 1990s. This universe is an updated version of the one in Algernon Blackwood’s 1908 novel, John Silence, Physician Extraordinary. See guidelines for further details and their preferred aesthetic.
Deadline: 30 September 2018
Length: Stories up to 6,000 words, any length for poetry
Pay: $0.06/word for fiction, $30 for poetry
Details here.
Escape Artists: Artemis Rising – science fiction, fantasy, horror, YA
During the month of September, Escape Artists is open to works by women and non-binary writers who identify as women. They have four podcasts: Escape Pod (science fiction), PodCastle (fantasy – see guidelines for the subgenres/story elements they specially welcome for this issue), PseudoPod (horror), and Cast of Wonders (young adult; also see their flash fiction contest guidelines).
Deadline: 30 September 2018
Length: Various, up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word
Details here and in the links above.
World Weaver Press: Grim, Grit and Gasoline – An anthology of Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales
Dieselpunk and decopunk are alternative history reimaginings of the WWI and WW2 eras. The editor wants these elements mixed in with fairy tales, for example, a ‘mend and make do’ take on Elves and the Shoemaker, or Hansel and Gretel as Bonnie and Clyde. Original fairy tales are welcome, as are retellings. While dieselpunk tends to be focused on North America and Western Europe, this anthology needn’t be. The editor welcomes Own Voices stories.
Deadline: 30 September 2018
Length: Up to 7,500 words
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Consequence: War
This annual magazine accepts fiction, non-fiction, poetry, interviews and reviews chiefly focused on the culture and consequences of war. They also accept visual art. Each submission will be considered for the print as well as the online magazine.
Deadline: 30 September 2018
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose; up to five poems of any length
Pay: $10/page for prose (up to $250), $25/page for poetry, $15/page for translations (up to $250)
Details here.
Autonomous Press: Spoon Knife 4 – A Neurodivergent Guide To Spacetime
They want speculative fiction that examines and explores two fundamental ideas: time and space. They want stories that engage with themes of neurodivergence, queerness, and/or the intersections of neurodivergence and queerness. Possible themes writers could explore are: travel through time and space via technological means, involuntary acts of time travel through PTSD-related mental/emotional trauma, outcomes/consequences of changing past events, and meeting one’s past/future selves.
Deadline: 30 September 2018
Length: Up to 10,000 words
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Black Ship Books: Utopian Societies Anthology
They want stories that explore utopian societies – past, present, or future, or of another world. Their guidelines say, “preference will be given to stories that imagine alternate worlds that differ from our own in ways particularly relevant, obliquely or directly, to the current crisis in American democracy.” They also have a submission call for essays on comics, superhero films, fan culture, or related fields, with a later deadline.
Deadline: 30 September 2018 (provisional)
Length: Up to 10,000 words
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Less Than Three Press: Life After All
This LGBTQ+ press wants stories for their apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic/pastoral apocalyptic anthology; stories about the life after an apocalypse being far from hopeless. Stories should have a happily ever after or happy for now ending.
Deadline: 30 September 2018
Length: 8,000-15,000
Pay: $150
Details here.
Blood Bound Books: Crash Code
For this anthology, they want stories where “the pinnacle of our technology meets the depths of our depravity” – or how far humans are willing to fall in pursuit of the next innovation. Think Blade Runner meets Saw.
Deadline: 1 October 2018
Length: 1,500-7,000 words
Pay: $0.03/word
Details here (scroll down).
Griffith Review: The New Disruptors
This Australian magazine wants essays, reportage, creative non-fiction or non-fiction on the theme. This issue will take “a wide-ranging look at the upheavals that have come with our increasingly technological world. What drives the development of new technologies? What are the impacts of their application – their unintended consequences as well as those they’re designed for? How can we define or regulate the futures of such continually evolving and novel tools? …. Nearly six hundred years ago, the invention of the printing press changed the world. Will digital metamorphosis now bring us to the cusp of an equally revolutionary moment?
From public policy to governance, media to medicine, science to surveillance, research to education, democracy to digital humanities, we’re seeking stories, essays and analysis that delve into the specific ways complex technologies impact on and interrupt our already complex world.”
Deadline: 2 October 2018
Length: 2,000-6,000 words
Pay: Will be negotiated on word count, except for contributors employed by universities, who are paid a flat fee.
Details here (scroll down) and here.
The Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Vol IV
The editor wants genre fiction that explores and entertains. The guidelines say, “Readers like to get involved with bright characters and strange worlds. They like to be frightened and unnerved and they like to see magic and fantasy worlds that are not a slightly different Tolkein or Martin.” No erotica, fan fiction or cookie-cutter settings that could be anywhere and have no real bearing on what is happening.
Deadline: 15 October 2018
Length: 5,000-10,000 words
Pay: AUD75
Details here.
Shifters United: Urban Fantasy
They want urban fantasy novellas featuring a wide variety of shapeshifters – think beyond wolf, bear, and big cats. The stories should have little to no romance content. They also have other submission calls (paranormal romance, shifter mix-ups – both urban fantasy and paranormal romance) with later deadlines.
Deadline: 15 October 2018
Length: 20,000-35,000 words
Pay: Royalties
Details here.
NonBinary Review: Dante’s Inferno
They accept poetry, fiction, essays, and artwork. They are accepting submissions relating to Dante Alighieri’s 14-century epic poem The Inferno. They want writers to explore the theme: “re-write a familiar story from a new point of view, mash genres together, give us a personal essay about some aspect of our theme that has haunted you all your life. All submissions must have a clear and obvious relationship to some specific aspect of the source text (a character, episode, or setting). Submissions only related by a vague, general, thematic similarity are unlikely to be accepted.”
Deadline: 24 October 2018
Length: Prose up to 5,000 words, poetry up to three pages
Pay: $0.01/word for fiction and nonfiction, $10 for poetry
Details here.
Spectre Press: The Realm of British Folklore
The editor wants stories and poems that involve British folklore. The stories can be horror, humor or psychological, but not twee stories. The editor has listed several festivals, creatures and people of the British folklore in the guidelines.
Deadline: Halloween (31 October 2018)
Length: Very short to novella length
Pay: £0.01/word
Details here.
Down & Out Books: Mickey Finn – 21st Century Noir
They want hardboiled and noir crime fiction. Writers are “encouraged to push their work into places short crime fiction doesn’t often go, into a world where the mean streets seem gentrified by comparison and happy endings are the exception rather than the rule.”
Deadline: 30 November 2018
Length: Ideally, about 5,000 words; can accept 3,000-8,000 words
Pay: Royalties
Details here.
Our Little Friend and Primary Treasure: Christian stories
These are Christian publications for children. Our Little Friend is for ages 1-5 and Primary Treasure, for children aged 7-9. Stories should be written from a Christian perspective and be consistent with Seventh-day Adventist beliefs and practice. Stories should be spiritual and yet not preachy, and should avoid stereotypical roles for men and women. The stories must be true, even if they should be written with the best story-writing techniques used in fiction.
Deadline: Rolling
Length: 1-5 manuscript pages
Pay: $25-50
Details here.
The Wild Musette Journal of Music, Mystery and Myth: four themes
This is a biannual print and e-book literary magazine focused on imaginative stories, inspired poetry, traditional music and dance, and fantasy. They are accepting work on four themes now: Music and dance, Fantasy and mythic fiction, Women’s fiction and consequential relationships, and Environmental and earth-related concerns.
Deadline: Now open
Length: 1,000-7,500 for short fiction; up to 1,000 words for flash
Pay: $50 for fiction and nonfiction; $15 for poetry and flash fiction
Details here.
