Questionable Publishing Contracts; $3,000 Writing Grants; 8 Submissions Calls.
This monthly column is published on the fourth Thursday of every month, and is an opportunity for me to share information that doesn’t fit anywhere else in our publication. This includes a wide range of opportunities for writers, news and information, and subscriber’s recent success stories.
Opportunities:
GATHER zine is open to submissions from UK based writers only. The theme for their current issue is abundance and they close to submissions on October 10th.
Fable and Fog publishes flash fiction and short stories that are works of speculative fiction. They are only open to submissions by writers from New England. The theme is this issue is “persist”.
Blanket Gravity Magazine is a journal for fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual art. They look for writing and art that explores explore mental health or emotional life. For their second issue they welcome fiction and nonfiction the explore the optional theme of “Technology and Love.” There will be a special collection focused on that theme within the issue. They pay $40 per chosen piece. To see their complete submission guidelines, go here. They close to submissions on January 10th.
Flash Phantoms is a flash horror journal. They are seeking stories that are “edgy right from the get-go and end with a bang. We don’t like to be bored with a lot of exposition.” They are also open to Micro Fiction Horror of 100 words. The best story will be featured on their Story of the Month page. They pay the story of the month author $25, but are otherwise a non paying market. Their deadline is September 30th, 2025. To learn more, go here.
The Speculative Literature Foundation is offering a $1,000 Working Class Writers Grant. The grant does not have geographic limitations. It is only open to working class writers of speculative literature. They close to submissions on September 30th, 2025. They define both working class and speculative literature in greater detail, on their application page here.
Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway is a New Jersey based writing conferences that has two types of scholarships. The first, the Faculty Memorial Scholarship – is open to all writers age 18+, and the second, the Robert Hayden Scholarship – is open to only to writers of color who are 18+. Writers of color may apply to both scholarships and both include full tuition and double room package. They are open to applications till October 1st. They do ask that the people who win the scholarship pay a $25 fee as commitment, but writers with extreme financial need can request the fee be waived.
Wordrunner eChapbooks‘ micro-prose feature opens to submissions on October 1st and they will remain open to October 31st. You can read their full guidelines here. They only pay one author $25 for being the editor’s choice. You can read the previous collection here.
The 2026 Jason Reynolds / Simon & Schuster Travel Grant offered through The American Library Association is now open to applications from Black/African American youth or teen services librarians or school librarians/media specialists who work in either public or school libraries. Recipients will receive up to $3,000 (and not less than $1,500) to pay for expenses related to attending the ALA Annual Conference including but not limited to travel, housing, registration, and a ticket to the Coretta Scott King Award Breakfast. Five winners will be selected. The deadline for applications is December 15, 2025. Learn more here.
News:
Back in February we noted in this column that five of the most respected genre magazines were all under new ownership, by the same individual. At the time I was worried about this sort of consolidation, but in a passive way. Since then four of the five magazines owned by Must Read Magazines, have been de-listed by The Submission Grinder. We are also de-listing these magazines.
Below is a screenshot of the information The Grinder shares on the listing for Asimov’s Science Fiction.
The author P.A. Cornell shared a detailed post about their experience with Analog recently, which involved a seven-month failed contract negotiation. You can read the full post here.
The author Alex Shvartsman linked to P.A. Cornell’s post on Facebook as well as sharing that he is still negotiating with Analog over a contract currently. The screenshot is below:
Subscriber Success Stories:
Todd Friedman had two poems published in Vox Populi.
Stephen Kamugasa‘s story Young and Restless: Fuelling the Fight for a Greener Future was published in The New Climate.
T.A. Young’s The Natural Man was published in Literally Stories.
Emily Hoisington‘s story Behind the Booth was published by Gypsum Sound Tales in their anthology, On the Farm.
Cithara Patra‘s micro-fiction Inked was published in 101 Words, and their poem, Let Me Hold Her was published in TrashLightPress.
Jennifer Peaslee‘s story, Nacho Average Sun, was published in State of Matter.
Duane L Herrmann’s poem How To Do This?, was published by Spillwords, and their work of memoir When It’s Dark was published by Feed The Holy, and their short story FACEBOOK TARGET was published by Chewers.
Denise Diehl published Gloryland in Bright Flash literary Review and Cosmic Matters in 101 Words.
R.A. Johnson’s story Allie’s Awakening was published in the anthology Chaotic Cupids: When Love Goes Awry by WordFire Press.
Rebecca Klassen’s short story As Good As Rodents was published in Twin Flame Literary.
Janine Elias Joukema’s short story Sugaring was published by Agnes and True.
Lia Tjokro’s story The East, The West, The Love was published in ricepaper.
Barry Potyondi’s novel The Bittersweet Year was published by Holand Press.
John David‘s novel The Bystander is available for pre-sale from Tule Publishing.
Sue Morris’s story The Beech Tree was published by Thin Skin.
Nancy Franklin‘s screenplay Nutcracker Sweet was a Top 10 Finalist for the Emerging Screenwriters and Holiday Screenplay Contest.
Frank William Finney’s XPRESS Chapbook Birds in a Boneyard was published by Bainbridge Island Press.
Kent J. Moore’s short story Feat of Clay was published in Black Cat Weekly
Peter Gregg Slater’s micro-fiction When Story Time Is Up was published by 101 Words.
Bob Rich‘s short story was published in Pivot: Stories of Change, an anthology by Palm Branch Publishing and his essay Purple Party for Farewell with a Grin was published in Recovering the Self.
M.D. Smith IV‘s short story Love’s Spooky Ways was published by Discretionary Love, and their short story Blood and Dust in Tombstone was published in Frontier Tales. Their flash fiction The Skull Ring was published in Flash Phantoms.
Leigh Armitage’s Peril at Beach House was published in Cottage Crimes, by Unnerving Books.
Jillian Godsil’s short memoir The Sweet Shop in the Shirt Box was published in Hearth Magazine.
Cheryl J. Fish‘s book of poetry Crater and Tower was published by Shanti Arts.
Norie Suzuki’s short story Octopus Lessons was published in The Temz Review.
Donna Faulkner’s poem Shared Spaces was published by Twin Flame Literary.
Debbie Walker-Lass’s poem Whispers In The Grass was published by Collaborature. Also her collaboration with poet Jahzara Zamora Woods titled 1965 was published by The Ekphrastic Review
Yvonne Fein‘s short story Weintraub’s Disorder was published in Doric Literary.
Sarah Winslow‘s short story Sketch was published in The Summerset Review.
Please send us an email at success.stories@authorspublish.com if you have a publication success you want to share in our next update. You must include a link to the publication. You can also include a link to your website (if you have one), and the publisher/journals main landing page. To be featured in the October update your work must be published no earlier than August. Work available for pre-order can be shared. Please note that we are only listing work that has been traditionally published by literary journals, magazines, or traditional presses. We are not covering vanity presses or self-published books.
Bio: Caitlin Jans has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the co-founder of Authors Publish and The Poetry Marathon. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals including: The Literary Review of Canada, The Fiddlehead, Jelly Bucket, The Penn Review, The Adroit Journal, and Killer Verse. Her prose and poetry has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, BILiNE, The Best Small Fictions Anthology, and The Best of the Net. You can learn more at www.caitlinthomson.com
