— By Kallie Falandays
If you’re like us, the chill air has you reaching for the spookiest books on the shelf. And as the pumpkins, skeletons, and ghouls make their way out this October, you may even find them creeping into your own poems. We may not be able to gather round the fire for ghost stories just yet (ahem, Delta), but plenty of literary journals are running Halloween contests and special issues that promise a hair-raising good read. Take a peek below at our round-up of the scariest opportunities this autumn!
This online pub hosts works of poetry and fiction, and they favor the dark, eerie, and speculative. Their Halloween contest is open until October 14, and slated to go live on October 28. And bonus—the contest winner earns $50!
This online zine creeps us out year-round! Grimoire has a cool, edgy vibe, and they run special sections like dead letters, seances, dreams, and spells. We’re in!
This online journal’s mission says it all: Dark times call for dark literature. And they don’t necessarily mean horror. Coffin Bell seeks everything from dystopian flash to waking nightmares to cursed verse . . . and they read year-round!
Aphelion Webzine publishes science-fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction and poetry. New issues come out monthly, so submissions are always open. As an added bonus, the site offers challenges to inspire your muse.
This quarterly online journal began publishing science-fiction, fantasy, horror, and speculative poetry in 2011, under the auspices of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. Submissions for the January issue are open now until December 15, and Eye to the Telescope pays its writers!
Strange Horizons is a weekly magazine of and about speculative fiction. They publish fiction, poetry, reviews, essay, interviews, roundtable discussions, and art, so this venue has many opportunities. The magazine defines speculative fiction as science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, and all flavors of fantastika. Poetry submissions and nonfiction are open through October (fiction will open in November), and Strange Horizons pays!
This magazine doesn’t focus solely on things that go bump in the night, but we just had to include them in this list! Ghost City Review welcomes submissions of poems, short stories, flash fiction, personal essays, adventure narratives, journal entries, short plays, monologues, translations, photographs, oil paintings, watercolors, sculptures, dioramas . . . pretty much anything you can think of. Submissions are open on a rolling basis.
This online zine seeks prose poems, both traditional and innovative. They look for work that is dark and disquieting, fanciful and funny, surreal and surprising. They want stunning and unusual imagery, and language that compels. Submissions open November 1 for the January issue.
We love this journal’s aesthetic! They publish an annual issue in print and a steady stream of new content online throughout the year. Their 2021 issue is closed to submissions but fear not! HWP opens again on November 1.
Bio: Kallie Falandays runs Tell Tell Poetry. A poetry resource site helping secret poets publish their poems. Their Submission Course is currently open for registration.
