These magazines pay $50-1,000 for fiction. A few of them also accept other genres, like non-fiction and poetry. Some deadlines are approaching quickly. – S. Kalekar
Translunar Travelers Lounge
The editors of this speculative fiction magazine want fun stories. Their guidelines say, “A fun story, at its core, is one that works on the premise that things aren’t all bad; that ultimately, good wins out. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your story has to be silly or lighthearted (though it certainly can be). Joy can be made all the more powerful when juxtaposed against tragedy. In the end, though, there should be hope, and we want stories that are truly fun for as many different kinds of people as possible.” Also, “Swashbuckling adventure, deadly intrigue, and gleeful romance are some of the most obvious examples of what we’re looking for, but we won’t say no to more subtle or complicated topics, as long as they fit under the wider “fun” umbrella.”
Deadline: 15 October 2022
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.03/word
Details here.
Uncanny
This is an award-winning magazine of speculative fiction, and they have opened for short fiction and poetry submissions. They have now announced a submission deadline. Please note, the current window is for short stories, and not for novella-length work.
Deadline: 15 October 2022
Length: 750-10,000 words for short fiction, poetry of any length
Pay: $0.10/word for fiction, $40 for poetry
Details here and here.
Consequence Magazine: Consequences of war and geopolitical violence
This magazine addresses work on the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence. They are open for fiction, non-fiction (interviews, reviews, essays, narrative nonfiction), poetry, translations, and art (including graphic narratives, and photo and video essays) on the general issues that pertain to the magazine’s themes. They also have a special translation feature on Korea.
Deadline: 15 October 2022
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose, or up to 5 poems
Pay: $40-80 for fiction, non-fiction, and poetry; $20-40 for reviews
Details here.
(Please see the end of this list for more themed calls).
Nightmare
This is an award-winning magazine of horror and dark fantasy. They also publish nonfiction and poetry. They have opened a brief reading period for short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction; while general submissions are closed now, they are still open for submissions from BIPOC writers.
Deadline: 19 October 2022 for BIPOC submissions (see their Tweet here)
Length: 1,500-7,500 words for fiction, varies for others
Pay: $0.08/word for prose, $40/poem
Details here.
The Drabblecast
This is a speculative fiction magazine and podcast that publishes Weird fiction — science fiction, fantasy, and horror. They also buy Drabbles (100 word stories) and Twabbles (100-character stories), though they do not pay for these. They also accept reprints
Deadline: 22 October 2022
Length: 500-4,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word, capped at $300
Details here.
Fantasy Magazine
Fantasy Magazine publishes fantasy and dark fantasy stories. They also publish speculative poetry. They do not accept direct submissions for essays, but do accept pitches. They’re open for BIPOC author submissions through 2022, and are scheduled to open for a week in October for general submissions.
Reading period: 21-27 October for general submissions; open through 2022 for BIPOC submissions; dates may change
Length: Up to 7,500 words for fiction
Pay: $0.08/word for fiction, $40/poem
Details here.
khoreo
This is a magazine of speculative fiction – science fiction, fantasy, and horror. You can submit if you are an immigrant, or a member of the Diaspora (see guidelines). They also accept artwork.
Deadline: 31 October 2022
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here and here.
Bennington Review
This literary magazine, published from Bennington College, opened its submission window on 1st September, and they will remain open through early next year. They accept fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translations, and film/TV writing (essays, not reviews – see guidelines). They have increased their pay rates.
Deadline: 9 January 2023
Length: Up to 30 pages for fiction and non-fiction, 10-20 pages for film/TV writing, 3-5 poems
Pay: $120 for six pages or fewer, $250 for more than six pages of prose, $25/poem
Details here.
The Georgia Review
They publish literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry; they also accept translations. There is a fee to submit online for non-subscribers, but postal submissions are free. While they have no length guidelines for prose, they rarely publish anything over 9,000 words.
Deadline: 14 May 2023
Length: 6-10 pages for poetry; see above for prose
Pay: $50 per printed page for prose and $4 per line for poetry, up to $800; $150 for book reviews published on GR2
Details here.
Frivolous Comma
They want science fiction, fantasy, horror, the uncanny – fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. “Frivolous Comma exists to spotlight and elevate diverse writers of speculative fiction, particularly writers who are underrepresented (BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+) as well as writers who come from, or currently reside in, markets where English is not the first language. That said, we’re currently not able to accept non-English stories.” Work should “focus on characters in some type of transition: political (as in migration stories); personal (such as across culture or identities), biological, linguistic, geographic, or other forms of being in-between.” They have a submission cap in all categories, and will close by genre when this cap is reached.
Deadline: Until filled
Length: 1,000-4,000 words for fiction; up to 5 poems; 1,000-3,500 words for fiction
Pay: $0.08/word for fiction, $40/poem, $75 for nonfiction
Details here.
Dark Yonder
This is a new magazine, and will publish its first issue in 2023. They are looking for neo-noir stories. “There are no setting requirements, but all stories submitted must be loosely categorized as “neo-noir.” We’re not looking for your grandfather’s noir fiction. We’re looking for new, unique voices and interpretations of dark literary fiction (crime, horror, speculative lit, etc) that fit into our rapidly evolving world. Everyone is well versed in the fiction that America is raised on; we’re looking for fiction that takes us… yonder”
Deadline: Ongoing
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $50
Details here.
Some calls for themed submissions are:
— World Weaver Press: Solarpunk Creatures, a fiction anthology, “inclusive storytelling that centers nonhuman characters and positive multispecies interactions. Whether the setting is urban or rural or a space station, we’re looking for stories and artwork that put human-nonhuman or even nonhuman-nonhuman relations in the spotlight. We encourage creators to imagine nonhuman main characters, and we welcome narratives that acknowledge the agency of multispecies actors, both in the worldbuilding and in the plot. Because this is a solarpunk anthology, stories that acknowledge the realities of climate change and address those challenges through uplifting possibilities will have the best chance.
We’re defining “creature” broadly, so let us see your depictions of wild animals as well as domesticated ones, of intelligent fungi or plastic-eating bacteria, of lakes and rivers granted personhood.” Pay is $0.03/word up to 7,000 words; deadline 31 October 2022. Details here.
— Ontology Books: A Darkness Visible, postmodern horror fiction; pay is £80 for stories of 3,000-8,000 words, deadline 31 October 2022. Details here.
— Under the Stars: An Anthology of Homebound Horror – horror stories about what happens when one’s sense of home is lost. Pay is $0.03/word for stories up to 3,000 words; deadline 31 October 2022; details here and here.
— Ninth Letter: Constellations, they want fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submissions for their online magazine, and the theme is ‘Constellations’. “With this theme, we hope our writers will explore the invisible ways disparate things connect if we observe, notice, hope, and imagine new relationships between them. … We seek work that makes connections we can’t see—constellations—out of things we wouldn’t expect or anticipate—things we think are separate—and we seek writers who can draw those lines for us so we can learn to see them differently, or realize what was there all along.” Send up to 3 poems, or up to 3,500 words for prose; pay is $25 for poetry, $75 for prose, and the deadline is 1 November 2022. Details here.
— Mighty – An Anthology of Disabled Superheroes, stories about and by people at the intersection of disability and other identities traditionally excluded from publishing. Pay is CAD0.08/word for stories of 500 to 3,500 words. The deadline is 14 November 2022. Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
