We are primarily interested in speculative fiction, including such genres as science fiction, fantasy, horror, and stories involving the supernatural. A hallmark of such stories is that they create a fictional world that is different in some fundamental way from the world in which we live and breathe. Neil Gaiman has said the author of speculative fiction starts by asking questions that begin with one of three phrases:
- What if…
- If only…
- If this goes on…
The range of fiction that these questions might generate is broad enough to encompass everything from Kafka’s Metamorphosis, to Harry Potter, to Star Wars, to Dracula. We’re interested in speculative fiction, yes, but speculative where the term is broadly defined. If you’re not sure, ask us.
Successful stories will be between 1000 and 2500 words and be grounded in strong characters interacting with a gritty, realistic world. We prefer stories with traditional narrative form. If you’re not sure what that means, consider this quote from Gary Kurtz: “I took a master class with Billy Wilder once and he said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree and the second act you set the tree on fire and then in the third you get him down.” Do that.
We seek original fiction only. No poetry unless the call explicitly asks for it.
We like stories that grab us by the throat and make us continue reading. That means authors should immerse us in their fictional world from the first sentence and avoid things that pull us out of the here-and-now like info-dumps, head-hops, and passive writing. We prefer stories that start in media res. For more information on the kind of openings we like, see our blog.
We’re not looking for stories with violence or sex, but these are acceptable if essential to the story. However, we will not consider stories that feature incest, underage sex, non-consensual sex, or sex with animals–space aliens or other sentient creatures being excepted! We will not accept extreme horror, fan fiction, erotica, graphic sex, manga-type stories, overtly political pieces, or stories that are degrading to any person or persons of any type.
We will also give preference to local and regional authors, although we are open to authors from any location.
We welcome submissions from members of minority groups and members of under-represented communities.
Previous: Author Guidelines
Next: Read Submission Requirements