This is also a project by Roxanne Gay; it is an anthology call for writers ages 15-21. “In 2014, I published an essay, “Not Here to Make Friends” where I wrote about the importance and delight of unlikeable female protagonists. Likeability, I said, was a very elaborate lie, a performance, a code of conduct dictating the proper way to be, a trap, constraining women to very narrow ideas about how they should be. In fiction, characters who don't follow this code are labeled as unlikable, as problems, as less worthy of taking up space on the page. I wrote the essay because of my own conflicted experiences with likability but also because I have spent a lot of time over the years thinking about unlikeable characters and how unfairly they are maligned. 
As I also noted in my essay, unlikable are characters I’m frequently drawn to. I want interesting characters to do bad things and get away with their misdeeds. I want characters to think ugly thoughts and make messy decisions. I want characters to make mistakes and put themselves first without apologizing for it. I want authenticity and to read stories about real people who aren’t always picture perfect. 
Because I remain fascinated by unlikable characters, I’m putting together Acquired Tastes, an anthology celebrating unlikeable characters: how we create them, how we understand them, how we love them and how they enrage us, and why they are so necessary to our stories.
This call is for young adult writers, whose work I’d like to include in this anthology alongside some more familiar names.
I’m looking for short fiction or essays, from young adults, ages 15-21.” They pay $1,000 for works up to 5,000 words. The submission deadline is 2nd February 2026. See the relevant category here.

Their tagline is, ‘Art & Ideas from Philadelphia’, and their writing is for a regional as well as US-based audience. They publish personal essays or articles for their “Switchbacks” section that relate points of inflection in a person’s life that have taken them to an unexpected and new place (send full pieces, not pitches), as well as essays, book reviews, provocations, cultural criticism and think pieces of 500 to 3,500 words (based on the issue’s theme), and long-form profiles of regional artists, and more; they also accept fiction. The theme for their next issue is Saturation. “Drenched in color. Drenched in sweat. High-resolution and dripping with detail. When something is completely saturated, it can’t absorb anymore. What is the current firehose of information and media and maelstrom doing to our brains? When is it possible to take in new information? To what extent is the ease of making much art—the much lower bars to record, to publish—a good or bad thing?” They pay $50-150, and the submission deadline for their Spring issue is 15th January 2026. Details here.

This literary magazine aims to promote new and established Canadian voices, though they also accept international authors. They want creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and art submissions. “Our second issue explores harmony and sunder as winter sets in.” They accept prose up to 3,000 words, and up to 3 poems. Payment is CAD25, and a contributor copy. The submission deadline is 31st December 2025. Submission is via a form. Details here. 

It is for UK- and Ireland-based unpublished and unrepresented women writers, for a novel-in-progress (adult fiction) – send the first 10,000 words and a synopsis. This prize is run by The Women’s Prize Trust, Audible, Curtis Brown Literary Agency, and Curtis Brown Creative writing school. Apart from a cash prize, the winner also gets literary representation. There are also non-cash prizes for shortlisted and longlisted writers. The prize is £5,000, and the deadline is 12 January 2026. Details here and here.

This is an opportunity for US writers. “Jack Hazard Fellows are fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and memoir writers who teach full time in an accredited high school in the United States. We provide a $5,000 award that enables these creative writers who teach to focus on their writing for a summer.” The deadline is 9 January 2026. Details here and here

They want a story based on a prompt on their website. For this cycle, the prompt is, “The Return Of…”. “For this contest, write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long in which someone or something has returned after a significant absence. Does this return make people happy, unhappy, or somewhere in-between? That’s up to you. Also: Was this return a surprise, or was it expected? That’s also up to you.“ They do not want children’s fiction, exploitative sex, over-the-top grossout horror, or stories that are obvious parodies of existing fictional worlds/characters created by other authors.
Value: $250, $200, $150, $75
Deadline: 2 January 2026
Open for: All writers
Details here (general guidelines) and here (theme details).
 

This contest is fee-free and only open to BIPOC writers. There will be one winner for poetry or prose. Send up to 5 poems or one piece of fiction or creative nonfiction of up to 3,000 words.
Value: $250
Deadline: 1 January 2026
Open for: BIPOC writers
Details here. (They have other contests too, for women and for writers over 50 years, which have submission fees.)

This magazine publishes work of interest to Jewish women. They like work with both feminist and Jewish content. Submit fiction up to 3,000 words.   
Value: $300 
Deadline: 31 December 2025  
Open for: All writers 
Details here. 

 

This awards writers of any age and background a $15,000 fellowship to finish a significant writing project. Fellowships are currently offered in Creative Writing (excluding poetry) and Steinbeck Studies; Fellows may be appointed in many fields, including fiction, drama, creative non-fiction, and biography. The creative writing fellowship does not require that there be any direct connection between your work and Steinbeck's. The emphasis of the program is on helping writers who have had some success but have not published extensively, and whose promising work would be aided by the financial support and sponsorship of the Center and the University's creative writing program. Award recipients will be required to reside within the counties of the San Francisco Bay Area or adjacent counties of the California central coast or central valley during most of the fellowship period.  There are up to 6 fellowships of $15,000 each, and the deadline is 4 January 2026. Details here and here.)

They want a story based on a prompt on their website. For this cycle, the prompt is, “The Return Of…”. “For this contest, write a creative, compelling, well-crafted story between 1,000 and 5,000 words long in which someone or something has returned after a significant absence. Does this return make people happy, unhappy, or somewhere in-between? That’s up to you. Also: Was this return a surprise, or was it expected? That’s also up to you.“ They do not want children’s fiction, exploitative sex, over-the-top grossout horror, or stories that are obvious parodies of existing fictional worlds/characters created by other authors. Prizes are $250, $200, $150, $75, and the deadline is 2 January 2026; details here (general guidelines) and here (theme details).

This awards writers of any age and background a $15,000 fellowship to finish a significant writing project, and will begin accepting submissions in September. Fellowships are offered in Creative Writing (excluding poetry) and Steinbeck Studies; Fellows may be appointed in many fields, including fiction, drama, creative non-fiction, and biography. The creative writing fellowship does not require that there be any direct connection between your work and Steinbeck's. The emphasis of the program is on helping writers who have had some success but have not published extensively, and whose promising work would be aided by the financial support and sponsorship of the Center and the University's creative writing program. Please note, award recipients will be required to reside within the counties of the San Francisco Bay Area or adjacent counties of the California central coast or central valley during most of the fellowship period.
Value: Up to 6 fellowships of $15,000 each
Application period: September 2025 - 2026-01-04
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.

They want “work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection. Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another. And then, once we find one other, the myths we make. We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky. We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit.” And, “We’ll happily consider fiction and CNF in all prose forms—prose poetry, micro, flash, and beyond”. Do not send lineated poetry. They will open for submissions on 20th June and close on 20th July 2025, or when they hit their submission cap, whichever is earlier. Do not send work outside of the reading period.
Opens on: 20th June 2025 (see guidelines)
Length: Up to 3,000 words for prose
Pay: $50
Details here.

This is a new magazine, and they’re currently reading submissions for issue 3 – fiction, essays, and they publish 1-2 poems per issue, as well. For fiction, they say, “we want the uncertain, the tensile, the weird. death kit is unplotted.” Book and film reviews are unpaid.
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 2,000 words for prose
Pay: £50 for stories, £25 for essays and poems
Details here.

This UK-based magazine accepts fiction and poetry. They are open for submissions for Issue VII “on any theme. All work must be completely free of violence in order to be accepted.”
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 3,000 words for short fiction, up to 500 words for flash fiction, up to 42 lines for poetry
Pay: £50 for short stories, £30 for flash fiction, £20 for poetry
Details here (scroll down).
(And, an Ireland-based magazine that is open now is Channel, “a literary magazine born out of the climate crisis, publishing poetry and prose with an environmentalist perspective.” Fiction and poetry are open till 30th June 2025, and non-fiction is open on an ongoing basis. They pay €35-250. Details here.)

Interzone is a Europe-based magazine that accepts fantastika of up to 17,500 words. And, “Translations are accepted, even if the story has been published previously in a language other than English – please include the name of the translator.”
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 17,500 words
Pay: EUR1.5¢/word
Details here.

This magazine publishes hardcore crime fiction. They will open a very short submission window soon. “There will be two submission windows per year in which writers will have 24 hours to send in their work.” Their next submission window is 1st July 2025. Do not send work outside of this date.
Opens and closes on: 1st July 2025 (see guidelines)
Length: 2,000-3,500 words
Pay: $50
Details here.

They accept fee-free submissions of flash prose (Black and Indigenous authors can also submit longer prose fee-free – see guidelines), poetry, and art. “We are drawn to beautiful language, resonant images, and we crave narrative.” They read throughout the year, with cut-off dates for issues.
Deadline: 30 June 2025 (for the Autumn issue)
Length: Up to 1,000 words for flash prose, up to 3 poems
Pay: $120
Details here and here.

They’re open for a special dark fantasy and psychological thriller flash fiction call, for “prose that is troubling, that explores our darkest fears. We're not quite sure we're ready for this to be honest, but that's part of the appeal. We are looking for literary prose. We do not want to weather gratuitous violence or cruelty, but we do--or at least we think we do--want to feel fright, unease, a racing heart. If you are a writer of stories that do this, this call is for you. Think Shirley Jackson. Our usual guidelines apply. … Please indicate that your submission is for the Dark Fantasy and Psychological thriller submissions call.” 
Apart from this call, they’re also open for unthemed flash narratives – fiction, non-fiction, and hybrid (between fiction and non-fiction). They also accept reviews of flash collections, essays on craft, and articles on teaching flash for their blog; these are unpaid. Submissions are fee-free until 30th June; after that, there will be a charge for submissions through the rest of the reading period.
Deadline: 30 June 2025 for fee-free submissions
Length: Up to 1,000 words
Pay: $300 for dark fantasy and psychological thriller fiction; $100 for general submissions ($150 with audio)
Details here and here (they have various categories in Submittable, please be sure to submit in the correct one)

“Chthonic Matter is a quarterly offering of tales from the darkside. Its contents range in tone from the quiet horror of Shirley Jackson to the bleak stylings of Thomas Ligotti — and everything in between.” And, “All stories selected during this reading period will be published in one of the four issues expected to appear in 2026.”
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $10 per 1,000 words
Details here.

This Canadian literary magazine publishes fiction, non-fiction, experimental/hybrid work, interviews, reviews, poetry, and poetry in translation. They accept a limited number of fee-free submissions every month, and read year-round. If a particular genre is closed, it will reopen on the 1st of the following month.
Deadline: 25 June 2025, or until filled
Length: Varies
Pay: CAD150 for fiction; CAD200/essay; CAD100/interview or review; CAD50/poem, capped at CAD100; CAD50+/experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece
Details here and here.

Electric Lit will open on 23rd June for fiction submissions of 2,000-10,000 words for its Recommended Reading section. They will close when they read a submission cap, or on 6th July, whichever is earlier.
Opens on: 23rd June 2025 (see guidelines)
Length: 2,000-10,000 words
Pay: $300
Details here.