Here are 29 magazines that want your work - essays, short stories, flash fiction, humor, science fiction, poetry, complaints, fantasy, creative nonfiction, mythology - you name it, they want it!
Bitch is now closed
"This issue's goal is to explore childhood as more than just a rite of passage or a target market. We want to hear about parenting, youth culture, and generational crossover today.
What does it actually mean to be an '80’s, '90s or 2000s kid, and what does our collective nostalgia say about us? We also want to look across generations—what can kids these days learn from the past, and vice versa? How have cultural products from Sailor Moon to Netflix influenced the framework of our world? What does the evolution of writing—from the elimination of cursive to the universe of emoji—mean for the future of language and understanding?
This issue will look last everything from kitschy advertising and formative cartoons to single motherhood and the school-to-prison pipeline in an attempt to fill out the often overlooked pockets of youth as a culture force."
Payment: $200 for features
Deadline: February 1, 2016
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The First Line
Genre: Short story, any genre, with a first line “Unfortunately, there is no mistake,” she said, closing the file.
Length: 300 - 5,000 words
Payment: $25-$50
Deadline: February 1, 2016
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"Skirt! publishes two personal essays every month on topics relating to women and women’s interests. All essays for consideration should be submitted in their entirety and be between 800 and 1,100 words. Essays must fit one of our monthly themes."
Genre: Personal essays, theme is "Happiness"
Payment: $200 per piece
The future. Things could get worse.* Or better. Or maybe just different and more deeply weird. Cicada YA lit/comics mag wants sci-fi adventures, utopian schemes, and dystopian thought experiments. Also: tell us how you would change your school, your community, social structures. Especially welcome: works by people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ folks, genderqueer folks, and other marginalized peoples. Submit poetry, fiction, nonfic, comics pitches, and blueprints for your Mars base.
Length: Flash fiction to novellas; up to 9,000 words
Genre: Speculative fiction for teens
Payment: Up to 10¢ per word
Deadline: February 7, 2016
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Canadian Comedy Anthology
"Submissions can be on any topic you want, so long as the end result falls within the definition of “Hey, that’s funny.” No topic is taboo; no target is safe. Comedy being a necessarily subjective genre, we’re looking to cast the widest possible net. We will take all stories at face value. The final set should run the gamut of genres and styles, encapsulating the many forms humour may take. Texts of subtle wit will contrast with bawdy humour, giggles will compete with guffaws, gutbusters will share space with others that make you stroke your chin and offer up a mild “Hmm… that’s a good one.” The book as a whole will be a meeting of multiple styles united under the genre of comedy, a meeting place for the wittiest dreamers across the whole spectrum of CanLit. We want this book to showcase as broad a diversity of Canadian writers as possible in terms of location, background, race, gender, genre, experience, and more."
Restrictions: Open to Canadians only
Genre: Funny stories, plays, poetry
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Payment: 5 cents a word (CAN)
Deadline: February 7, 2016
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New Legends: The Hero • The Antihero • The Vigilante, Book 2
"We are looking for exceptional, well-written, engaging stories with subject matter reasonably free from sexually explicit content, gore, and obscenities."
Genre: Short story. Your story can be of any genre, but must be relevant to the theme of the Hero, the Antihero, and the Vigilante.
Length: 2,500 - 8,000 words
Payment: $25 per story
Deadline: February 8, 2016
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Subterrain
"Poetry, fiction, nonfiction exploring the idea of secrecy. Personal, corporate, governmental, military -- secrecy is used to cement personal relationships, to guarantee state security, to harbour knowledge. Some consider secrecy one of the main sources of human conflict. We intend to open the doors on the subTerrain confessional."
Genres: Poetry, fiction, nonfiction submissions wanted for Issue 73: Secrets
Payment: $50 per page
Deadline: February 15, 2016 (11:59PM PST)
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Visions IV: Space between Stars Anthology
"As long as your story takes place outside the boundaries of any star system, we are interested. Physical contact and proximity to any stars or planets is off-limits, although aliens, alien ships, and communications of all kinds are allowed."
Genre: Speculative fiction
Length: 3,000 – 8,000 words
Payment: $25
Deadline: February 15, 2016
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On Spec
Genre: Speculative fiction and poetry
Length: Up to 6,000 words (stories)
Payment: $50 to $200 depending on word count
Deadline: February 15, 2016 for stories, poetry is accepted all year
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"We’re looking for science fiction short stories of up to 10,000 words, reflective of the issue’s theme, written by writers of colour."
Genre: Speculative fiction
Payment: 8 cents per word
"We are looking for a variety of submissions that transform well-known fairytales into modern, realistic, or fantastical stories. What we want is to see them given new life. We want real characters, real tensions, and real consequences."
Genre: Short fiction
Length: 100 to 7,500 words
Payment: $5 for stories under 2,000 words and between $10 and $20 for 2,000 and up
Deadline: February 20, 2016
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Genre: Personal essay. These essays deal exclusively with raising teens (ages 13 and up), or having been a teenager. We look for illustrative anecdotes, vivid scenes, authentic dialogue, a strong personal voice, and a down-to-earth tone.
Length: 800- 4,000 words
Payment: Competitive rates
Deadline: February 21, 2016
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Timeless Tales - Theme: Psyche and Cupid
"Timeless Tales exclusively publishes retellings of fairy tales and myths. We only accept submissions that are retellings of the fairytale or myth listed as our theme. We don't accept original fairy tales or stories outside of our current theme."
Genres: Prose and poetry
Length: Up to 2,000 words. Under 1,500 preferred.
Payment: $20 per piece
Deadline: February 25, 2016
Reprints accepted
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NewMyths.com publishes speculative fiction of every stripe except graphic horror. We like each issue to have an eclectic variety of stories: funny, frightening, hard and soft sci-fi, adventure, thoughtful, etc.
Genre: Speculative fiction
Payment: $50 per story, $20 per poem
Deadline: February 28, 2016
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Vine Leaves
"Vignette" is a word that originally meant "something that may be written on a vine-leaf." It’s a snapshot in words. It differs from flash fiction or a short story in that its aim does not lie within the realms of traditional structure or plot. The vignette focuses on one element, mood, character, setting or object. It's descriptive, excellent for character or theme exploration and wordplay. Through a vignette, you create an atmosphere.
Length: 800 words max
Genre: Vignettes. Prose, poetry
Payment: $5 AUD
Deadline: February 28, 2016
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Blyant Publishing
Genre: Short story
Length: 1000 or 2000 words on the theme of Nationality
Payment: £10 per 1000-word story, £20 per 2000-word story
Deadline: February 28, 2016
Reprints accepted
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LESS THAN DEAD — LGBTQIA Anthology Call
Length: At least 10,000 but not more than approx 20,000 words in length
Genre: Zombies! Stories may be any pairing except cisgender heterosexual M/F (trans* M/F, M/M, F/F, poly, ace/aro, and all permutations thereof are acceptable).
Payment: $200
Deadline: February 28, 2016
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"As the name suggests, we focus on speculative fiction and non-fiction – fantasy, science fiction, myth, fairy tale, dark fantasy, etc… – all on a more or less PG level. We also celebrate the quick review – of books, movies, video games, TV shows, or any media that contains some sort of speculative fiction element. Long reviews tend to give away too much (how many times have you seen a 3 minute trailer and decided you don’t need to see the movie itself?). A drabble review gives you just what you need – whether the item under review suits your tastes or not."
Genres: Speculative fiction, nonfiction, 100 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: February 28, 2016
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The New Quarterly
Restrictions: Canadian citizens only
Genres: Prose and poetry
Payment: $250 for a short story and $40 per poem or "postscript" story
Deadline: February 28, 2016
Note: Postal submissions only
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Ninth Letter
"Ninth Letter is a published semi-annually at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. We are interested in prose and poetry that experiment with form, narrative, and nontraditional subject matter, as well as more traditional literary work."
Genre: Prose, essays, and poetry
Length: For poetry, submit 3-6 poems (max. 10 pages) at a time. For fiction and nonfiction, please send only one story or one essay at a time, up to 8,000 words.
Deadline: February 28, 2016
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Inclusive Cthulu Anthology
"Many people love the Mythos and Cthulu pervades a lot of geek culture, but Lovecraft himself was a rampant misogynist, racist, and anti-Semitic. An audience member jokingly suggested that there should be a collection of stories that would make dear old Lovecraft roll over in his grave – like a black lesbian Jew triumphing over the Unspeakable. Here is the call for that anthology, which we plan to debut at Balticon 50 in May 2016. It only seems fitting. Send us your best Mythos story, but make sure it would make dear old Lovecraft roll."
Genre: Speculative fiction
Length: 3,000 to 10,000 words
Payment: $25 plus one contributor’s copy
Deadline: February 28, 2016
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"Lazarus Risen will seek SF (no fantasy or horror, please) short stories that explore the economic, political, social and psychological consequences of life extension, human cloning, the hard upload and other forms of the biological singularity. Dreams of immortality and eternal youth are almost as old as human culture itself. But what would the world look like if everyone could live and be young forever? What would it look like if only some of us had that privilege? These are only some of the questions your story might try to answer. Surprise us, shock us, illuminate us but most of all tell us a great story."
Genre: Science fiction, short stories
Payment: 4 cents per word (Canadian)
Deadline: February 29, 2016
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Genre: Short stories, humorous fantasy (reprints only)
Payment: 2 cents per word
Deadline: February 29, 2016
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Triangulation: Beneath The Surface
Genre: Speculative fiction
Length: Up to 6,000 words. There is no minimum word count
Payment: 2 cents per word
Deadline: February 29, 2016
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Tree Lion Press
"We are seeking short fiction in the Speculative Fiction genre (by which we mean to be the umbrella term for the wide and varied range of Science Fiction and Fantasy subgenres). The stories are to be inspired by (by which we mean drawn from, informed by, derived from) the author's personal experiences of being Jewish. What does this mean to us? More to the point, what does this mean to YOU? We feel that the Jewish tent is a big tent, and want this collection to reflect that belief. These stories can be explicitly about the Jewish Experience (past, present or future), but they can also be stories that take place on a spaceship, a distant planet, under the ocean, in the afterlife or in another dimension. As long as it is Speculative Fiction, and something about the story was inspired or influenced by your Jewish Experience, it is a story we'd like to consider for our collection."
Genre: Speculative fiction, Jewish theme
Length: Between 500 and 10,000 words
Payment: Initial $5 payment advance and will share equally fifty percent of the royalties received from sale of the anthology.
Deadline: February 29, 2016
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BLOOD, SWEAT & FEARS: Horror Inspired by the 1970s
Genre: Horror
Length: 3,000 to 10,000 words
Payment: $25
Deadline: February 29, 2016
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Ghosts on Drugs
This call is for a book: "This book is designed to be playful and fun, so we're especially seeking stories that are a mix of comedy and other genres—e.g., comedy & fantasy, comedy & SF, comedy & horror, comedy & thriller, comedy & Western, comedy & adventure. That said, we'll consider a great tale of any genre, or combination of genres."
Genre: Any
Length: 2 pages to 30 pages
Payment: 15 cents a word for the first 2,500 words and 6 cents a word after that (to encourage tight writing).
Deadline: February 29, 2016
