By S. Kalekar
These magazines and anthologies pay up to approximately $700 for fiction. A few also accept other genres, like non-fiction and poetry. Some calls are themed. They’re open now, or will soon open for submissions.
Three-Lobed Burning Eye
They publish speculative fiction: including horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction. They want work “across the speculative genres, including all the shadows between and fluid mixtures thereof. We like narrative voices that are full of feeling, from literary to pulpy, with styles unique and flowing, but not too experimental. All labels aside, we want tales that value imagination in character, narrative, and plot.” Submission is via their Moksha portal.
Deadline: 15 September 2026
Length: 500-7,499 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here and here
Exoplanet
This is a new speculative fiction and poetry magazine; you can read about them here. “We publish speculative fiction (prose and poetry) that takes risks. We are interested in science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, weird fiction, and hybrid work that explores not only what is possible in a story, but also what is possible for a story to be.
We have a strong preference for formal innovation, but it is not a requirement. A brilliant conventional narrative will always be considered. However, we are especially excited by stories in which structure, presentation, perspective, or format is an essential part of the reading experience.
We accept speculative stories up to 5,000 words. These may include but are not limited to the following:
- Letters or emails
- Online chat transcripts
- News articles
- Diaries or journals
- Interviews
- Reverse chronology
- Rashomon Effect (same event from different perspectives)
As mentioned above, we will also consider traditional narrative fiction with compelling characters, strong prose, and imaginative speculative ideas. A story does not need to be formally experimental to be accepted.” They’ve given all their reading periods on their website.
Deadline: 15 September 2026
Length: Up to 5,000 words for fiction
Pay: $0.01/word for fiction, $10 for poetry
Details here.
Waxen: Labor
They accept short fiction, poetry, and art. “We are interested in the weird, the occult, the surreal, and the horrific.
We love experimentation.” They are open throughout the year, with cut-off dates for issues; please note, their Fall issue is full and they’re reading submissions for the Winter issue, on the Labor theme.
Deadline: 15 September 2026
Length: Up to 5,000 words for fiction
Pay: $50
Details here.
(Submissions are also open for Cursed Morsels: A Food Systems Horror Anthology; they want both horror and Weird fiction. “Food systems include all infrastructure involved in the growth, production, distribution, marketing, sale, consumption, and disposal of food. For this project, writers are welcome to write about present-day food systems, historical food systems, or food systems for worlds that have never existed.” They pay $0.05/word for stories of 2,000-5,000 words, and the deadline is 14th September 2026.)
The Green Sheaf: The Crone
Their About page says, “As a form of restorative justice for past female and gender fluid creators once overlooked in their lifetimes, The Green Sheaf will now only publish works by female-identifying and gender-fluid individuals. In an effort to craft a fine publication with limited resources, we hope to publish twice a year. One of those issues will be solely dedicated to creators of a historically marginalized background, and the other will be a contest issue, featuring prizewinners only, but open to all female-identifying and gender-fluid creators.” And, “For our Fall 2026 issue, we are seeking flash fiction and poetry that features the The Crone, in all her glory, from female-identifying & gender fluid writers who are 50 and over.” They have detailed guidelines, including, “My editorial tastes mainly align with the original vision of The Green Sheaf: I love folklore, fairy tales, mythology, and the mystical. I also enjoy the speculative, the darkly fantastical, folk horror, the weird/numinous, the surreal/strange, the gothic, and magical realism/slipstream.” Submission is via Google forms, see the links on their submission guidelines page.
Deadline: 18 September 2026
Length: Up to 500 words for fiction, up to 50 lines for poetry
Pay: $50
Details here.
(Submissions are also open for the Women With Weapons Anthology from Blaft Publications. They want short fiction. Your story should prominently feature a woman wielding a weapon. “*Or many weapons. Or many women, wielding many weapons.
**Trans women are women.
***Non-binary weapon wielders are also welcome.
… Your story may be in any genre. It may be set in the past, present, or future. … This call is open to writers of all genders residing anywhere in the world. However, we are an Indian company, and will give preference to stories that will work for our primarily Indian audience. Nevertheless, don’t be shy to send in your Congolese swordswomen, medieval Vietnamese vampire slayers, or Belizean Mennonite harpoonists.” Also, your story must FAIL the REVERSE BECHDEL TEST – please see the guidelines for details. They pay INR3,000 + INR3/word for stories of 1,000 – 8,000 words. The deadline is 15th September 2026.)
Cast of Wonders
This is a young adult speculative fiction online magazine and podcast from the Escape Artists suite of magazines, and they will open for submissions mid-September. They have detailed guidelines about the kind of work they want, including, “Stories that evoke a sense of wonder, have deep emotional resonance, and have something unreal about them. We aim for a 12-17 age range: that means sophisticated, non-condescending stories with wide appeal, and without gratuitous or explicit sex, violence or pervasive obscene language.” And, “We don’t exclusively define YA as stories featuring children or young adult characters, though they are very common. We would particularly like to receive more stories about older people having first experiences!” They also accept submissions from writers under the age of 18, as well as translations and reprints. Their Moksha portal will open for submissions during the reading period.
Reading period: 15-30 September 2026
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here (guidelines), here (schedule)
Flash Fiction Online: Human-Shaped
Flash Fiction Online is accepting speculative fiction submissions only for the current submission period, on the Human-Shaped theme: “With the recent dramatic leaps in artificial intelligence, the question of what makes us human has never felt more pressing, complex, and relevant. For this call, we’re asking for the inverse, stories about what is only “human shaped.”
This is not a call for stories about AI. We want you to think more broadly—from recognizable human-shaped creatures like vampires and zombies, to shapeshifting aliens and doppelgangers to, yes, robots, and beyond. Think the imposter, the thing that has slipped on a human skin, or the person who started out human but has become something else—for better or worse. We’re looking for unique and creative takes that incorporate a strong speculative element, whether it be fantasy or scifi.” They’ll accept submissions until the deadline or till they hit their submission cap, whichever is earlier.
Deadline: 30th September 2026, or until filled
Length: 500-1,000 words
Pay: $100
Details here.
(And Flash Fiction Online will open for unthemed flash fiction – both speculative and literary – on 1st October 2026, and close when they hit their submission cap.)
The Cincinnati Review
They opened for fiction, fiction translations, literary non-fiction, poetry, poetry translations, and art submissions for the print magazine as well as for their flash feature (miCRo submissions) on 1st September, and will close on the deadline, or when they reach their submission cap, whichever is earlier (they usually reach the cap well before the deadline). See what the editors are looking for here.
Deadline: 30 September 2026, or until filled
Length: Fiction up to 10,000 words, non-fiction up to 5,000 words, up to 5 poems; up to 500 words for miCRo
Pay: $25/page for prose and $30/page for poetry for print, $25 for miCRo contributions
Details here
(And, Shenandoah will open for fiction submissions on 10th September, and close when they reach their submission cap; they accept short fiction and novel excerpts up to 8,000 words; their submission portal will open during the reading period. They pay.)
Heartlines Spec
This Canadian magazine of speculative fiction and poetry wants work on long-term relationships; their goal us to publish at least 50% work from Canadian writers for each issue. “We’re looking for short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. We don’t want the blaze of new love or the obsession of a new friend. We want pieces that show that comfort that develops when people know each other for years.
Give us deep space, dusty frontiers, or dreamy fantasy. We want stories and poetry with strong, confident relationships amid all the sci-fi/fantasy. … We are especially interested in stories featuring queer platonic relationships, ace/aro love stories, and polycules.”
Deadline: 30 September 2026
Length: 500-3,500 words for fiction; up to 5 poems
Pay: CAD0.08/word for fiction; CAD60/poem
Details here and here
(Heartlines will next open an early submission window for equity-deserving groups from December 24th to 31st, and will open for general submissions from 1st to 31st January 2027.)
Apex Magazine
Apex Magazine is a digital dark science fiction and fantasy magazine publishing short fiction, essays, and interviews. They want horror, science fiction, fantasy, and slipstream. “We want dark, beautiful, boundary-pushing speculative fiction — stories filled with marrow and heart, twisted and strange. We especially seek work from marginalized and under-represented writers.” They are open for fiction submissions during certain months, including September 2026. Submission is via their Moksha portal.
Deadline: 30 September 2026
Length: Up to 9,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here and here
Air and Nothingness Press: Two themes
They publish speculative fiction anthologies. They want fiction for two themes:
— Are You Everything Alright: “Theme: Modern society is progressing toward nothing worth arriving at.
Human rights, gender rights, immigrant rights, disability rights, climate rights, work rights. We are looking for stories about apocalypse issues, but those where people on the side of decency come out on top and those opposed have a very bad day. We’d like to see hopeful endings. This theme is subject to interpretation.
We are open to stories of any genre for this particular open call.”
— Endings: “There are no beginnings to these stories. There are no middles. There are only endings.
For this open call we want submissions comprising the last 15 minutes of the action/SF/fantasy story/film/book:
the hero fights the dragon, the last ship departs the dying planet, the last desperate gambit of the remaining members of the team to defeat the final foe. Start your story mid-action if you like.
We are open to F/SF genre stories for this particular open call.”
Deadline: 30 September 2026 for both anthologies
Length: Up to 2,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here and here.
Farlands Fiction: Space Ace
This is a fiction anthology. “The theme of the anthology is Space Ace, focussing on asexual and aromantic representation in science fiction. We are inviting authors to submit your science fiction short stories featuring asexual and aromantic characters.
The rules for submissions are as follows:
- Stories must by science fiction in genre and in some way connected to the theme of space, but you are welcome to interpret that theme as broadly as you wish.
- Stories must feature at least one asexual and/or aromantic character in a prominent role. This is inclusive of related identities within the wider asexual spectrum such as demi-sexual, demi-romantic, grey-ace. While we are primarily looking for human representation, we will consider stories with non-human (e.g. alien, robot, sentient computer, etc.) aromantic or asexual characters if the quality of the story is able to catch our attention.”
Submission is via a form.
Deadline: 30 September 2026
Length: 1,000-10,000 words
Pay: £0.02/word
Details here.
The Iowa Review
They’re open for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, as well as visual literature (i.e. if your fiction, nonfiction, or poetry has a visual component – graphic novel/memoir, drawings, collage, etc.). They also accept translations. They charge for online submissions for non-subscribers, but it is free to submit by mail.
Deadline: 1 October 2026 for fiction and poetry, 1 November 2026 for non-fiction and visual literature.
Length: Up to 25 pages for prose, up to 8 pages for poetry, up to 10 pages for visual literature
Pay: $0.08/word for prose, $1.50 per line for poetry, $40/page for visual literature
Details here.
The Bombay Literary Magazine
This India-based literary magazine is currently accepting fiction, poetry, translated fiction, essays, and graphic fiction for the December 2026 issue. They have a submission cap for each category, so submissions will close as they fill. Submission is via a form on their website.
Deadline: Until filled
Length: 2,000-5,000 words for prose, up to 5 poems
Pay: INR10,000 (approximately $100, €90)
Details here.
Synthesized Sunsets: Excess
Synthesized Sunsets is “a magazine and podcast about speculative fiction, romantic art, and the evolution of popular culture. Every few months, the magazine will rebrand to reflect a new “season”, complete with an aesthetic theme.” You can read about them here. They have detailed guidelines, including, “We are only accepting speculative fiction at this time; that is, stories where some novel idea of “what could be” or “what could have been” is central. We will also be prioritizing stories that are on-theme, although this is not strictly a requirement. This season’s theme is excess.”
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 12,500 words (up to 5,000 preferred)
Pay: $100
Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.