These magazines/anthologies pay $50 to $600 for fiction. A few also consider other genres, like non-fiction and poetry. – S. Kalekar
Weird Horror Magazine
They publish horror and weird fiction. Their reading periods are March and September.
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Length: 500-6,000 words
Pay: 1.5c/word
Details here.
The Cincinnati Review
This prestigious literary magazine accepts prose (fiction and creative non-fiction), poetry, translation submissions, and drama queries, for the print magazine till end-September, or until filled – see the editor preferences here. Online features are accepted almost through the year.
Deadline: 30 September 2022, or until filled, for print magazine
Length: Up to 40 pages for fiction, up to 20 pages for non-fiction, up to 5 poems
Pay: $25/page for prose and $30/page for poetry for print, $25 for online features
Details here.
(– And The Paris Review is accepting fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and translation submissions postmarked through end-September, via mail; details here.
— Also, The Iowa Review is open for fiction and poetry through 1st October, and non-fiction through 1st November 2022; they also accept translations. There is a charge to submit online for non-subscribers, but postal submissions are free; they pay $0.08/word for prose and $1.50/line of poetry, $100 minimum in each genre. Details here.)
Kaleidotrope
They publish fiction and poetry. “Kaleidotrope publishes predominantly speculative fiction and poetry—science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but also compelling work that blurs the lines between these and falls outside of neat genre categories. Man does not live on space ships, elves, and ghostly ax murderers alone, after all.” They also accept artwork.
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Length: 250-10,000 words for fiction
Pay: $0.01/word for fiction, $5/poem
Details here.
Nashville Review
They publish fiction, including flash, non-fiction, poetry, translations, comics, and art. “From expansive to minimalist, narrative to lyric, epiphanic to subtle: if it’s a moving work of art, we want it.” Their submission periods are January, May, and September.
Deadline: 30 September 2022
Length: Up to 8,000 words for prose, up to three poems
Pay: $100 for prose, $25 per poem
Details here.
riddlebird
They publish literary fiction, literary genre fiction (especially mysteries, speculative fiction, and westerns), and creative non-fiction. The magazine “celebrates the joy of reading and writing across different reading preferences. The marketplace can divide us based on our reading tastes, but riddlebird can strive to make a space for more diversity (of interest, of authorship, of meaning).”
Deadline: 1 October 2022, or until filled
Length: 650-5,000 words
Pay: $100
Details here.
Cossmass Infinities
This speculative fiction magazine will open a brief submission period in October. They will open during the first week of October for BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other underrepresented authors, and then will open to general submission for the second week. They will close earlier than scheduled if the number of submissions is too high.
Reading period: 1-14 October for underrepresented writers, 8-14 October 2022 for all writers
Length: 1,000-7,500 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
Merciless Mermaids: Tails from the Deep
This is an anthology of fiction and poetry. “Think deep—the deep of the sea, the deep of space, the deep of our souls, our fears, ourselves. Here, it’s not the monsters under your bed; it’s the mermaids under your boat.
Can you see the shapes in the waters that watch you? Can you hear the mermaid’s call? … We’re sounding the ship’s bell for stories about malevolent and merciless merfolk of all kinds. Give us your mermaids who fought for the wrong reasons, made tough by their circumstances or by their own choices. Show us their schemes and villainous wiles, the fairytales that end in blood. Or laughter. Tempt us with their twisted workings across time and space, colors and creeds.” Also, “Original “dark mermaid” short stories and poetry in the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, humor, and romance, appropriate for a “PG-13” audience. Mermaids must be integral to the story. Diverse cultures and non-traditional legends and persons welcomed.”
Deadline: 7 October 2022
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.07/word
Deadline: 7 October 2022 Details here.
(Please see the end of this list for some more themed calls – some of the deadlines are approaching soon).
Room Magazine
They publish fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and art by people of all marginalized genders, including cis and trans women, trans men, nonbinary and Two-Spirit people. They also accept review pitches from Canadian writers (see guidelines).
Deadline: 15 October 2022
Length: Up to 3,500 words for prose, up to five poems
Pay: CAD50-200
Details here.
(– Another limited-demographic opportunity that’s open now is from Open Minds Quarterly; they want submissions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, other works, and art, on ‘It’s Personal’ theme from neurodiverse writers, and pay CAD25; the deadline is 30 September 2022, details here.
— And Fat Coyote Literary Arts wants submissions from neurodiverse writers – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art, photography, and comics. Pay is $30-120, and the deadline is 15 October 2022. Details here.)
The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
They publish flash fiction, creative non-fiction, and prose poetry in both genres – they do not consider poetry with line breaks. They opened submissions on 1st September.
Deadline: 15 December 2022
Length: Up to 600 words
Pay: $50
Details here.
James Gunn’s Ad Astra
This is a science fiction magazine; they are open for fiction, but currently closed for poetry and scholarly article submissions. The guidelines say, “James Gunn defines science fiction as “the literature of change” and states that it “incorporates a belief that the most important aspect of existence is a search for humanity’s origins, its purpose, and its ultimate fate.” A tall order but a worthy goal.
Our editorial vision for James Gunn’s Ad Astra calls for raising our eyes above the horizon and not limiting the scope of speculative fiction. It is in this spirit that we welcome great stories that range from the near-reality to the far reaches of the what-if.” They are reading stories for Issue 11, which will be published in the winter of 2022.
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 7,500 words; flash stories are a hard sell
Pay: $50 for fiction
Details here.
Some themed submission calls are:
— Solarpunk Magazine: They want solarpunk submissions for their 2023 issues – fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art. “Any genre of science fiction, interstitial fiction, magic realism, or fantasy has potential as a solarpunk forum—we welcome robots and elves with equal excitement.” Pay is $0.08/word for fiction of 500-7,500 words, $40/poem, $75/essay or article, deadline 14 September 2022. Details here.
— Aniko Press – Double: They publish poetry, flash fiction, short stories and creative nonfiction by writers from Australia and around the world. They want submissions on the ‘Double’ theme. “Think doppelgängers, body doubles, déjà vu. What does it mean to live a double life? Explore double crosses, double standards or double-edged swords. Or name a more iconic duo – we’ll wait.” Pay is AUD125 for prose up to 1,500 words, and poetry up to 50 lines,
deadline 15 September 2022. Details here.
— Obsolescence – A Dark Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Anthology: Short stories focused on horrifying or fantastical interactions with technology. “We want to stress the definition of “technology” ranges from modern smartphones and smart house IOT devices, back to some of humanity’s earliest inventions, like the wheel or the written word itself.” Pay is $0.06/word for stories of 2,000-5,000 words, deadline 16 September 2022. Details here.
— Reckoning publishes work – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and translations on environment justice, and they are reading submissions on the Oceans theme; pay is $0.08/word for prose up to 20,000 words, and $30/page for poetry, deadline 22 September 2022. Details here and here.
— Women and the Sea: This is a fiction anthology. “Deep, mysterious, beautiful, dangerous… women and the sea have a lot in common and have been tied together in myth and story from the beginning of time. Stories of women being drawn to the sea or being left on the shore, waiting for their men’s return, have been passed down through the ages. This anthology of stories about women and the sea will be filled with beautiful, atmospheric stories. I’m not primarily looking for fantastical creatures but rather setting, mood.
The mythic.
The gothic. … Speculative elements and fantastical creatures are welcome in these stories but I’m also open to non-spec stories which fit the theme.” Pay is CAD50 for stories up to 7,500 words, deadline 30 September 2022. Details here.
— Mocha Memoir Press: Crack in the Code – Cybernated Stories of Rebellion: They publish diverse speculative fiction. They want “Science fiction and fantasy stories where the androids, robots, and/or cyborgs have been naughty, going off programming, cracking their internal code, etc. Give us dramatic stories, mischievous stories, stories that stun, but not offend us. This call is seeking unpublished short stories where the artificial lives become alive and share their stories. If you can take the story out of westernized culture, we’d love to see those, too! We want stories that speak of inclusivity. So, if your robot/cyborg/android is disabled or suffers from an ailment, send those stories too. LGBTQ+ stories are also encouraged.” For this anthology, they also accept reprints. Pay is $0.08/word for stories up to 7,500 words, deadline 30 September 2022. Details here.
— The Kenyon Review: This prestigious magazine is open for two themed submission calls in September, as well as for unthemed work – fiction and nonfiction (including flash), poetry, and drama. The themes are Women’s Health, and Food. Pay is unspecified. Send up to 7,500 words for prose, up to 6 poems, or up to 30 pages for plays. The deadline is 30 September 2022. Details here.
— Crystal Lake Publishing: Unspeakable Horror 3 – Dark Rainbow Rising: This is a fiction anthology, and they want submissions from all writers. They have extensive guidelines, including, “When the pendulum of civil rights and social change initiatives swings toward progress, the LGBTQIA community often holds its collective breath in anticipation of the inevitable backlash when the pendulum swings back. Even with these gains, we are constantly looking over our shoulder—waiting for the next shoe to drop, for the next attack on our personhood. The community’s enemies see progress as a perceived danger to their own heteronormative bubbles—and any advancement threatens to burst those fragile bubbles. Even as we hoist the rainbow flag in celebration, a dark rainbow rises on the horizon…For this third volume of the award-winning Unspeakable Horror series, we are seeking original short stories … that explore this idea of great terror growing from the LGBTQIA community’s great strides forward. We want your terrifying interpretations and extensions of this theme—not a literal reading.” Stories can be set in any time period, as long as the narrative includes some historical LGBTQ+ civil rights/social movement/moment as a direct or indirect backdrop. Stories must have a strong, central gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer focus/slant/theme. Pay is $0.10/word for stories up to 6,000 words, deadline 30 September 2022. Details here.
— The Master’s Review’s September Selects: This is a themed fiction and non-fiction challenge that will run on weekends through September; send work up to 7,000 words. It is open to writers who have not published a novel with a major publisher. For the upcoming weekend, the theme is Stories in Second Person (reading period 16-18 September); and for the last weekend in September, the theme is Anti-Love Stories (reading period 23-25 September 2022); the winners get $200. Details here.
— Mythulu Magazine – Symbiosis: They publish speculative fiction, non-fiction, and cartoons/graphic panels. They’re reading work for the Symbiosis issue. “Submit co-authored stories in any genre. Also looking for non-fiction commentary and experiences with co-created projects. Co-authoring is rising in popularity, both as a way to satiate the ravenous demand of readers more quickly, and to leverage team imaginative advantages. We’re curious about the pros and cons of this strategy. Naturally, we also host a Devil’s Advocate column to whoever provides the best cautionary advice regarding cooperative labor.” Length guidelines are 500-2,800 words for fiction; 200-1,200 words for non-fiction; up to 8 pages for graphic-style stories, and pay is $0.04/word for creative works, capped at $75 for short stories; $0.08/word for non-fiction; $30/page up to $150 for graphic stories. The deadline is 1 October 2022. Details here.
— Dead & Bloated – Extreme Horror Anthology from The Evil Cookie Publishing is accepting fiction submissions. The theme is water, they want extreme horror, splatterpunk, and dark humor. Pay is $0.03/word for stories up to 3,000 words, deadline 1 October 2022. Details here.
— DreamForge Magazine will open for fiction and poetry submissions from 22 September through 15 October 2022; they’d prefer to see more solarpunk and hopepunk, though they are also open to all genres of SF/Fantasy, provided they are not focused on horror and/or dark outcomes. Pay $0.07/word is for stories of 200-5,000 words, and $25 for poems. Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
