Two paying magazines, plus Blue Skirt wants short pieces, novellas and novels, and the CBC has $10,000 in prizes for their short story contest

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Blue Skirt Productions (Portland, OR) is looking for stories that are emotional, philosophical, and transgressive that leave the reader feeling punched in the gut. Looking for short stories (100 – 3,000 words) to publish on our website, and novels and novellas to publish through their press.

Deadline: rolling. Full submission guidelines here.

SQ Mag pays $15 U.S. for a story. Here’s what they say about themselves: We are a quality speculative fiction ezine. We strive to publish five or six unsolicited, original stories (excluding serial entries) every two months. We also aim to publish each of the following genres/styles in each edition:

1.       Science Fiction

2.      Fantasy

3.      Horror (not common motifs like vampires or zombies as a rule, and we are predisposed toward subtle dark stories, those that are powerful and unique)

We are a magazine for mature readers, so we do publish language, sex and violence, but they have to be highly supportive of the story.

We are an international publication, and strive to publish authors from varied nationalities, and we are committed to presenting stories in the spelling/language conventions of the authors’ submissions. We also encourage writers from all backgrounds, including LGBT, women, race and creeds.

Flash fiction to short story in size (less than 7,500 words) are accepted. Because our 2013 and 2014 serial slots are filled, we do not accept large novelette/novella sized works at this time. Work under 500 words or slightly over 7,500 words can be accepted, but they have to be very good.

Full submission guidelines here.

Plenitude Magazine (Canadian) pays $60 for prose contributions (including book reviews and articles) and $25 for poems. Plenitude seeks writing by LGBTTQ of all ages, gender, colour, and ability. Plenitude aims to complicate expressions of queerness through the publication of diverse, sophisticated literary writing. Interested in literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry from both emerging and established writers.

Deadline: ongoing. Full submission guidelines here.

CBC Short Story Competition: Submit your original, unpublished stories. The word count must be between 1,200 and 1,800 words. To enter, you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

A fee of $25.00 (taxes included) for administration purposes is required for each entry.

Prizes: $6,000 grand prize, plus four $1,000 prizes, publication in enRoute, and a ten-day writing residency at the Banff Centre.

Competition runs from September 1 to October 31. Full guidelines here.

See Brian’s current schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Navigating tip: For postings about Writing Contests, click on the button at the top of the page under the banner;  for Markets for Short Pieces, click on the button in the right-hand column under More Content;  for more paying markets, go to the Labels listed below and click on Paying Markets or Best Paying Markets. In the list of Labels, you’ll also find a link to all postings for both Markets for Short Pieces and Writing Contests.