9 Speculative Fiction Magazines Accepting Submissions NOW - Paying Markets

Here are nine literary magazines currently open to submissions of speculative fiction and poetry. They are seeking a wide variety of subgenres: Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Dark Fantasy, Horror, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Myth, Folklore, Surrealism, Slipstream, and Weird Fiction.

All of these are paying markets. Some accept reprints. None charge a submission fee.

For an extensive list of paying markets organized by genre see: Paying Markets.

(Image credit: Pixabay)

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Grandpa's Deep-Space Diner. Genre: Speculative food stories. "Whether you're growing your produce in a magical garden, storing your rations in your lunar bunker, or enjoying a delightful picnic in the outer rings of Saturn, we want your speculative fiction food stories!" Payment: $5 per thousand words. Deadline: Open until filled. Reprints accepted.

Phantasmical Contraptions. Genre: Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Decopunk, Biopunk, Steelpunk, Islandpunk, all kinds of punk. Story lengths should be anywhere from flash-length to about 15k words. Payment: $5 per thousand words. Deadline: Open until filled. Reprints accepted.

The Were-Traveler: Curst & Twysted Tarot. Genre: Short fiction based on a Tarot card image. Length: 750 - 2,500 words. Payment: $10 for flash, $15 for short stories. Deadline: Open until filled.

Samovar Genre: Samovar is a quarterly magazine of and about speculative fiction in translation published by Strange Horizons. They are looking for in-depth critical review-essays of 2,000 to 3,000 words. These may cover: Works recently translated into English; Works that have not been translated but that will be of interest to an English-language audience; Critical works focusing on speculative fiction in translation; Some combination of the above. Payment: US$40 regardless of final word count.

Creepy Podcast. Genre: Horror. (Audio format) "We want to be scared. We want to see what kind of darkness you have at your fingertips." Length: Under 3,000 words. Payment: Not specified. 

Penumbric. Genre: Fiction, poetry, illustration, graphic narrative, animation, music, or combinations of these. "Penumbric is an online magazine dedicated to riding that ever-changing edge of new and original fiction and art and sound and everything into tomorrow. To us, this edge is best exemplified by two things: speculative works that look at our world (or other worlds) in new ways, whether that be peering into the future, a look sideways at an alternative or fantastic past or present, or a hard stare into the face of horror or madness (does that sound like old eps of The Twilight Zone? Well, if that's the comparison, I'm fine with that) a diversity of viewpoints, representing not only multiple cultures but subcultures, exploring issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and orientation." Payment: $10.

The Arcanist. Genre: Fantasy, sci-fi, and horror flash fiction. Length: Up to 1,000 words. "We are open to simultaneous submissions. Please do not send more than one story to us at a time. As soon as a story is accepted or rejected, feel free to send us another. Stories should be actual stories. They need to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. We do not publish poetry, non-fiction essays, or anything that isn’t a proper flash fiction story." Payment: 10 cents/word.

StarShipSofa. Genre: Science-fiction. "From the soft, social science fiction to the weird pulpy stuff to the vigorous hard SF and YA adventure. We welcome all sub-genres and all variety of punks in all their colours. From high-octane action to quiet philosophical stories, we’re after it all. Science fiction is a rich and diverse genre, push it’s boundaries as far as you can go." Audio format. Payment: $50. Reprints accepted.

The Vanishing Point. Genre: Speculative Fiction. "Welcome to the Vanishing Point, that place on the horizon where the lines of reality and imagination intersect. In that place is a promise of excitement, dread, intrigue and suspense. The Vanishing Point is a literary magazine for works that bend reality. Horror, Sci-fi, Dark Fantasy, and all things speculative are welcome here." Length: 1500 to 6000 words. Payment: $25.