82 Calls for Submissions in December 2025 - Paying markets

This December there are more than six dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always, every genre, style, and form is wanted, from short stories to poetry to essays.

I post upcoming calls for submissions shortly before the first day of every month. But as I am collecting them, I post them on my page, Calls for Submissions. You can get a jump on next month's calls for submissions by checking that page periodically throughout the month. (I only post paying markets.)

Also see Paying Markets for hundreds of paying markets arranged by form and genre.

Happy submitting!

[Image: Easy-Peasy.AI]

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Eternal Haunted Summer. Genre: Poetry, short fiction. See theme. Payment: $5. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

Fractured Mirror Publishing. Genre: Full-length speculative fiction. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

McGovern Center Writing Awards in Fiction. Restrictions: Open to anyone in the U.S., 18 years or older. Genre: Fiction, 5000 words max. Work must be medical or healthcare related in theme or focus. Prize: $500. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

The Cincinnati Review. Genre: Literary nonfiction (up to 20 pages), fiction (up to 40 pages), poetry, poetry translations, drama, and art. Payment: $25/page for prose in the journal, $30/page for poetry, $25 for miCRo posts or special features. Deadline: December 1, 2025. Note: Opens on the first day of the month and closes once they hit the submissions cap.

Breath and Shadow  Genre: Writing on any topic for poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama; these pieces do not have to be "about" disability. However nonfiction, academic, and similar articles (profiles, interviews, opinion pieces) do have to relate to disability in some way. Payment: $25 for poetry, $40 for fiction, and $40 for nonfiction. In addition to publication and payment, Breath & Shadow will post links to contributors' work on other sites and to their Web site or e-mail address. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

Weird Christmas Flash Anthology. Genre: Weird flash fiction, 350 words max, that’s both about Christmas (or any other winter holiday) and simultaneously weird. Payment: $35. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

Bold Strokes Books: Gender Ever After – Gender-Affirming Sapphic Romance Stories. Genre: Sapphic Romance. Payment: $50. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

Extremities: Choose Your Own Death. Genre: Queer adult horror novellas. Novella length: 30K–40K words. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

Wallstrait. Genre: Flash fiction, longer stories, hybrid, and experimental stuff you can't quite define. Length: Up to 5,000 words. Payment: $25. Deadline: December 1, 2025. 

IHRAM Publishes. Genre: Poetry, fiction, esssays, art. Theme: Echoes from the Street: Homelessness and the Unhoused. Payment: $50 for writing, $25 for art. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

The Other Stories (Audio). Genre: Horror on themes. Payment: 15 GBT. Deadline: December 1, 2025. See themes.

Lycan Valley. Genre: Modern day reimagining of the Medusa story. "We want to see a strong bipoc woman* deeply rooted in culture. And, regardless of how she gets there, Medusa should be victorious and win in the end." Novella length (between 17,000 and 30,000 words) is preferred, but will consider both novellas and full-length novels for this project. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 1, 2025. Read guidelines HERE.

Eldritch Cat Press: The Lantern Keepers. Genre: Speculative short stories “We’re looking for tales that include characters who serve as guides, guardians, or messengers between the threshold of the living and the dead, lost or otherworldly. We want stories with haunting, dreadful, eerie, creeping or even sorrowful vibes." Payment: $10. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

Rooted Literary Magazine: Home. Genre: Poems, fiction (including flash), nonfiction (including reviews), visual art, audio, and video on theme: Home. Payment: $10. Deadline: December 1, 2025.

Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores. Genre: Speculative stories. Payment: 8 cents/word for original work. 2 cents/word for reprints. Deadline: December 2, 2025. Opens December 1. This is a monthly call.

Stone's Throw. Genre: Noir, dark fiction, crime short stories. Length: between 1,000 and 2,000 words. See theme. Payment: $25. Deadline: December 3, 2025. Note: This is a monthly call.

Variant Lit. Genre: Poetry, fiction, flash fiction, art. Payment: $10. Deadline: December 4, 2025.

Adventitious. Genre: Speculative, surreal, and literary fiction. Length: Flash Fiction (including Micro): Up to 1,000 words; Fiction: 1,000 – 6,000 words. Novelette: 6,000 – 17,000 words. Payment: $0.08 USD per word. Deadline: December 5, 2025.

Carte Blanche (Canada). Genre: Poetry, fiction, CNF, translations. comics, photography. Payment: $75 CAD. Deadline: December 7, 2025.

Sine Theta Magazine. Restrictions: Open to people of Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, or Macau heritage, who live anywhere away from the original 'homeland' of that heritage. Genre: All genres of visual and literary work as long as they relate to the current theme. (See theme) Payment: $10. Deadline: December 7, 2025.

Samjoko Magazine. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, play, screenplay. Payment: $20. Deadline: December 10, 2025.

Gather Lit Mag. Genre: Poetry. Payment: $35CAD. Deadline: December 10, 2025.

Island. Restrictions: Open to Australian and New Zealand citizens and residents only. Genre: Fiction and Nonfiction. Payment: 40 cents per word for print fiction and nonfiction, with a minimum of $600 and a maximum of $1500. Fees for print are less the cost of a 4-issue subscription if you are not a current subscriber. Deadline: December 12, 2025.

Unidentified Funny Objects. Genre: Speculative humor. Payment: $0.12 per word. Deadline: December 12, 2025.

Dream Theory. Genre: Speculative and literary flash fiction. Payment: $30. Deadline: December 12, 2025.

Quarter Press: Quarter(ly). Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art. See themes. Payment: $5. Deadline: December 14, 2025.

Buckman Journal. Restrictions: Open to Portland and Pacific Northwest creatives. Genre: Fiction and creative non-fiction. See theme. Payment: Not specified. Deadline: December 14, 2025.

Electric Literature. Genre: Personal Narrative. Payment: $100. Deadline: December 14, 2025. Closes when cap is reached.

Plott Hound. Genre: Speculative fiction starring animals. Payment: 8 cents/word. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

State of Matter. Genre: Speculative fiction, poetry, and translations “which may broadly inform South Asian experiences.” See theme. Payment: CAD150. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Fourteen Poems: Home on the Range – Poems of the Queer Pastoral. Genre: Poems that, broadly speaking, fit with or interrogate the theme of queer pastoral. Payment: £30/poem. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Brazenhead Review. Genre: Poetry. Payment: $200. Deadline: December 15, 2025. Note: Closes when cap is reached.

Propagule. Genre: Short stories that are intrepid with regard to experimentation and oddity; the strange, the surreal, the atypical, the unexpected. Payment: Up to $30. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Big Score Lit. Genre: Poetry. Payment:  $100 per accepted poem. Deadline: December 15, 2025. Closes when cap is reached.

ellipsis… literature & art. Genre: Poetry, short fiction, drama, and creative non-fiction. Payment: $3 per page for prose. $10 for poetry. Deadline: December 15, 2025. (Only pays American writers.)

The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. Genre: Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, mixed media, visual arts, "and even kitchen sinks, if they are compressed in some way.” Payment: $50. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Whytaker Lyon Press: Virginia Fantastic Anthology. Genre: Speculative fiction that reimagines the Commonwealth of Virginia as a land of mystery, magic, and the unexpected. Payment: $5 for stories of 700-1,000 words. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

In a Flash. Genre: Flash fiction, 500 words max. Payment: $25. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Fantabulosa! Restrictions: Open to trans and BIPOC Queer writers. Genre: Speculative fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art. Payment: $0.08/word for prose, and $50 for poetry. Deadline: December 15, 2025. [Extended deadline for trans and BIPOC writers]

Words Without Borders. Genre: Original translations into English of contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and interviews, and related multimedia. They also publish critical essays, book reviews, and interviews written in English. Payment: $50 - $150. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Timberline Review. Genre: Fiction, poetry, CNF, art. Payment: $25. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Thousand Flowers Press. Genre: Poetry on theme Nighttime. Payment: $50. Deadline: December 15, 2025. 

Baffling. Genre: Speculative flash fiction. Length: Under 1200 words. See themes. Payment: 8 cents/word. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Home on the Range: Poems of the Queer Pastoral. Genre: Poetry. "The anthology will celebrate and complicate a poetics of queer nature, from redefining the boundaries between the urban, the rural, and the wilderness, to rendering the ways in which queer people make their homes in the pastoral traditions which have so often excluded them." Payment: £30. Deadline: December 15, 2025.

Book XI. Genre: Personal essays, memoir, fiction, science fiction, humor, and poetry with philosophical themes. See theme. Payment: $200 for prose; $50 for poetry. Deadline: December 15, 2025. Closes when cap is reached so submit early.

B Cubed Press: More Alternative Liberties. Genre: Stories, poems, and esssays about the potential consequences of the 2024 Presidential election told in current, near future or even similar situations where such a leader is in power. Payment: $0.10/word + royalties. Deadline: December 20, 2025.

The Aesthete. Genre: Short stories, flash fiction, poetry. Payment: $5. Deadline: December 21, 2025.

Speck Magazine. Restrictions: Open to residents of North America. Genre: Speculative fiction. Payment: $5/page, $50 max. Deadline: December 21, 2025.

The Ex-Puritan. Genres: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. Payment: $100 per nonfiction piece, $50 fiction, $15 per poem. Deadline: December 25, 2025.

Deadset Press: Rebels and Rainbows. Restrictions: Open to all Australian and New Zealand authors who identify as LGBTIQA+, from any gender identity, and ally authors. Genre: Stories that feature LGBTIQA+ characters of any gender identity across the wide universes of speculative fiction. Swashbuckling pirates, mischievous necromancers, charming elder gods, dashing bounty hunters, anything goes! Payment: $25. Deadline: December 30, 2025.

foofaraw zine. Genre: Speculative and literary fiction. Payment: Fiction: $0.01 per word. Poetry: $5.00. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Meadowlark Reader. Genre: Personal essays, interviews, journalistic pieces. “True stories about Kansas written by Kansans." Payment: $10 plus one contributor copy. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Burial Books. Genre: Westerns of at least 60,000 words. No fantasy or weird westerns. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Burial Books. Genre: Crime fiction of at least 60,000 words. No fantasy. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Best American. Genre: Published short stories, essays, food writing, mystery and suspense, nature writing, science fiction and fantasy. Payment: ? Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Dracula Beyond Stoker. Genre: Fiction based on Stoker’s characters. See theme. Payment: 5 cents/word. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Ninth Letter. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Payment: $25 per poem and $100 for prose. Deadline: December 31, 2025. Closes when cap is reached.

Mayday. Genre: Translations, art, poetry, fiction, nonfiction. Payment: $10 - $50. Deadline: December 31, 2025. No submission fee during the month of December.

Arc Poetry Magazine. Genre: Poetry. Payment: $50 per page. Deadline: December 31, 2025. Free submissions for Canadians only.

DreamForge. Genre: Science fiction and fantasy short fiction and poetry. Payment: $0.08/word. Payment for reprints is $0.04/word. Poems are paid at the rate of $25 to $100. Deadline: December 31, 2025. Accepts reprints.

Workers Write!. Genre: "We're looking for fiction and poetry about the people who work in airports and for airlines, such as passenger service agents, ramp agents, TSA agents, airport engineers, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, pilots, and so on." Payment: $10 - $50. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Wild Hyacinth. Genre: Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and visual art. Payment: $25 CAD. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Lit Fox Poetry Series. Genre: Poetry. Payment: $150. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Thirty West. Genre: Chapbook. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Oddity Prodigy Productions: Tales of Steel and Sorcery. Genre: Epic fantasy. Payment: $10 minimum. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Fun in the Dark Anthology. Genre: Any genre short story. Story length: 2000-5000 words. See theme. Payment: £20. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Iron Faerie Publishing: Hawthorn & Ash Anthology. Genre: Fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror stories. Length: 100 - 500 words. Payment: $0.01/word. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Flash Frog. Genre: Flash fiction stories. 1,000 words max. Payment: $25. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction. Genre: Queer speculative fiction. Submissions are open for all speculative work published in 2025 under 17,500 words that deals either implicitly or explicitly with queerness. Payment: $0.01/word. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Black Hare Press. Genre: Dark stories, in any genre. Length: 5,000 - 50,000 words. Payment: $20 - $50, depending on length. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Allegory. Genre: Speculative Fiction and nonfiction. Payment: $15. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Howdy Dude. Genre: Western and crime novels. Payment: Royalities. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Freeze Frame Fiction. Genre: Flash fiction. "Any genre, no content restrictions. We want your science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, drama, literary works, satire, bizarre fiction, or anything else you can come up with or mix together. The more original, the better. The weirder, the better.” Payment: $10. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Dragon Soul Press: Fallen in Love. Genre: All romantic stories involving angels, nephilim, etc. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Dragon Soul Press: Curse of the Sword. Genre: All fairytale retellings. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Black Beacon Book of Horror 2. Genre: Horror. Preferred word count between 3,000 and 9,000 words. Payment: $30 USD for original stories and $10 for reprints regardless of length, plus one print copy. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Tenebrous Press. Genre: New Weird Horror novels and novellas. Length: 20,000 - 120,000 words. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Midnight and Indigo. Genre: Short Stories, Speculative Fiction, and Personal Essays written by Black women writers. See theme. Payment:  $0.07 per word for Short Stories and $150 for personal essays. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

The New York Times: Modern Love. Genre: Essay on modern love. Payment: Not Specified. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Dark Moments. Genre: Messages from the edge—snapshots of terror, longing, and the uncanny. Postcards sent from places that shouldn’t exist. Payment: 0.04 USD per word via PayPal. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

JMS Books. Genre: LGBTQ stories, 12,000 words minimum. See themes. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

Chestnut Review. Genre: Poetry, flash fiction, short fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, visual media (art/photography). Payment: $120. Deadline: December 31, 2025. Submit early in the month to avoid submission fee.

AND A FEW MORE...

Litmosphere. Genre: Art, flash (fiction and nonfiction), poetry, and short prose (fiction and literary nonfiction). Payment: $50 per accepted poem, flash fiction and nonfiction; $100 per short fiction and literary nonfiction; $250 for non-exclusive online use of 15-30 images. Deadline: Opens January 1, 2026.

Cafe Irreal. Genre: Magical realism. Length: Up to 2,000 words. Payment: 1 cent/word. Deadline: January 1, 2026.