By S. Kalekar
These magazines and anthologies pay for fiction. Some of them also accept other genres, like non-fiction and poetry. Some of the calls are themed.
Space & Time
They accept speculative fiction and poetry. For fiction, they want “Broken boundaries, blown minds and new horizons. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, steampunk, magical realism—we look for work with a speculative element. Creative hybrids welcome. If you can combine horror, science fiction and fantasy into one compelling plot, you’ve caught our attention.” They accept submissions in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French or Italian.
Reading period: 15-30 July 2025
Length: Up to 5,000 words preferred for fiction (see guidelines), up to 3 poems
Pay: $0.01/word for fiction, $5 for poetry
Details here and here.
Tractor Beam
Tractor Beam is a new fiction magazine and they’re reading submissions for their third issue. They publish soilpunk stories, pieces that present an optimistic view of the earth. “For our upcoming issues, we’re specifically seeking stories celebrating decay and rot, ice and snow (the frozen earth), the ocean and soil under water, fashion and style, soil as tech, soil as the origin of life and anti-apocalyptic futures. Literal or abstract, near term or on distant horizons: worlds can take inspiration from innovations or alternative practices in earth and material science, regenerative agriculture, food, microbiology, and more.” They want stories, graphic novellas, and multimedia. Submission is via a form on the website.
Deadline: 21 July 2025
Length: Stories up to 6,000 words
Pay: $1,000
Details here.
Flame Tree: Best Served Cold Anthology
This fiction anthology is part of their Beyond and Within series; they want crime & revenge stories. “From the very beginning, the theme of revenge has been a major part of crime fiction. Whether it’s perceived slights, rifts within families or sibling rivalry, jealous lovers, business competitors or just good old-fashioned retribution, this anthology will gather together the very best – and most unique – tales of revenge. Featuring some of the top names in crime writing, this is one book that will definitely make you think twice about wronging anyone ever again.” They will select a few stories from this open call. They do not want reprints for this anthology.
Deadline: 27 July 2025
Length: 2,000-4,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
(Flame Tree is also open for other anthology calls currently; see all their open call announcements here.)
Graywolf Press: Graywolf Lab – Games
“Graywolf Lab is an online platform for interdisciplinary conversations and new writing hosted by Graywolf Press. Each Lab starts by gathering a small group of writers and artists for a virtual roundtable discussing a theme. Over several months, we invite responses to that conversation from more artists and writers. In July, we will be accepting contributions to our latest theme, Games. We’re looking for short fiction, essays, and poems originally in English or in translation as well as short selections of visual, graphic, multimedia, multidisciplinary, and interactive pieces that engage directly with the work already posted under the theme.
We encourage you to respond to or play with anything on Lab: Games. To start, check out our Spotlights, which showcase unique artistic practices that can be considered a game or games that could be considered art, like using an Etch A Sketch or Solo RPG games. In Table Poems, Jan-Henry Gray invents a process that could be used as inspiration for your own work. Our roundtable and our mood board present some of our own initial inspirations for the theme. We’ll keep posting pieces over the next several months. If a submission shows no familiarity or engagement with Lab, it will most likely not be accepted.” Their submission period for the Games theme opened on 7th July. Their Submittable portal will close on the deadline, or when they reach their submission cap, whichever is earlier.
Deadline: 28 July 2025, or until filled
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose, up to 3 poems, up to 5 minutes for audio / video
Pay: $200
Details here and here
Baubles From Bones
“We accept fiction that broadly falls in the realm of science fiction and fantasy. We’re open to most subgenres and themes but have a particular fondness for compelling adventures, folk-retellings, stories of hope in the dark, emotional healing, love of all sorts, environmentalism, and the humanity (or lack of it) among the fantastical and speculative.” They also accept speculative poetry (up to 40 lines) & prose (up to 600 words). Submission is via a form.
Deadline: 30 July 2025
Length: 1,000-8,000 words for fiction
Pay: $0.01/word for fiction, $10 for poetry & prose pieces
Details here and here.
Escape Artists: PseudoPod – Anthologies and Collections from 2025
PseodoPod is a horror podcast and online magazine from the Escape Artists suite of magazines. For this submission call, they are only looking for reprints of stories published / to be published during 2025. “There are a number of short stories in anthologies and collections that deserve to get in front of more readers. … Publishers, please send us your collections and anthologies, specifically those that have been or will be published in 2025, and highlight any stories original to that publication. Authors, ask your publisher to send us the book; if they’re not interested, we still want you to submit your story here — just include the collection or anthology title in the cover letter.” See guidelines for their preferred format and other details. And, “Earlier is better and ARC’s are perfectly fine.” According to their general guidelines, they accept stories up to 6,000 words, and pay up to $100 for reprints, though they do not specify if these limits apply to this special call.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: See above
Pay: See above
Details here (general guidelines), here (schedule), and here (Moksha submission portal and details of Anthologies and Collections call)
(PseudoPod will open briefly in August for original story submissions – see their schedule; they pay $0.08/word for original fiction.)
Death’s Head Press: Deep Anthology
They are open for a fiction anthology. “Death’s Head Press continues its exploration of dark horizons. This time we seek the abyss.
We’re putting together an anthology for lovers of the unexplored depths of our planet and the universe. We are looking for stories between 2,500 and 10,000 words that dive into the dark.” Death’s Head is an imprint of Dead Sky Publishing.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: 2,500-10,000 words
Pay: $0.05/word
Details here.
khōréō
This is a quarterly magazine of speculative fiction and migration, and they only publish fiction by immigrant and diaspora authors. They also accept speculative fiction translations with migration themes.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: Up to 5,000 words for fiction, up to 3,500 words for translations
Pay: $0.10/word
Details here (submission guidelines), here (translation guidelines) and here (submission portal)
Inner Worlds Zine
They publish “Speculative stories about our inner lives”. They want “Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus. We are mainly interested in fiction, but we’re open to speculative memoir or creative non fiction, as long as it has speculative elements.” They have detailed guidelines. They also accept reprints. Submission is via a form. They have given all their reading periods on their website (the first two weeks of all their reading periods are for only marginalized writers, and the remaining are for all writers; the next submission window is in October).
Deadline: 31 July 2025 (for all writers)
Length: 500-2,500 words
Pay: £0.02/word
Details here.
Parlor Ghost Press: Spook Hollow – Tales of Ozark Horror
For this anthology, they want “horror stories set in the Ozark mountains–either your own take on a story from Ozark folklore or an original tale featuring Ozark locations/atmosphere/beliefs/etc. We want all the spooks, haints, hags, and boogers. Give us the mist rising out of the hollers and the mysterious sounds from the woods, the strange lights in the sky and the distant cackle of Old Granny in her hidden shack.” Stories must be PG. Parlor Ghost Press is an imprint of Watertower Hill Publishing.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: 3,000-6,000 words
Pay: $50
Details here.
The Ampersand Review
This magazine is affiliated with Sheridan College. They accept fiction, non-fiction essays/memoirs/excerpts, and poetry. They’re reading submissions for their 9th issue. They also accept review pitches (not submissions) for books written by Canadian authors and published by Canadian publishers within the last 12 months, or that are forthcoming; review pitches are accepted on a rolling basis. Submission is via a form.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: Up to 3,000 words for fiction, up to 4,000 words for non-fiction, up to 5 poems
Pay: CAD100 for prose, CAD50-100 for poetry
Details here and here.
The First Line Journal
They want fiction and poetry that begins with pre-set first lines, one for each quarterly issue. Fiction can be in any genre. For nonfiction, they want critical articles about your favorite first line from a literary work.
For fiction and poetry, the first line for the Fall issue is:
‘Her truck took the sharp turns of the mountain road with ease.’ Deadline: 1 August 2025
Length: 300-5,000 words for fiction; 500-800 words for nonfiction
Pay: $25-50 for fiction, $25 for nonfiction, $10 for poetry (less postage fee for international contributors – please see guidelines)
Details here.
The Suburban Review: Climate
This Australian literary magazine wants submissions on the Climate theme. They publish fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics, and art. They accept submissions via a form.
Deadline: 3 August 2025 (5 p.m. AEDT)
Length: 500-2,500 words for fiction, 1,250-2,000 words for nonfiction, up to 3 poems
Pay: AUD300-450 for fiction, AUD400 for nonfiction, AUD300-550 for poetry
Details here and here.
Tales of Horror Magazine
They focus on stories and poems that are horrific and weird. They publish stories “from gothic horror to detective tales and adventures and sword and sorcery”. They have published 4 issues so far.
Deadline: Open now
Length: Unspecified for fiction; up to 1 poem
Pay: $0.06/word for fiction; $40 for poetry
Details here (scroll down).
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.