Markets and contests for your novellas, short fiction and poetry

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Apparition Lit is a quarterly journal of speculative fiction and poetry. Fiction runs 1,000–5,000 words. Each quarter they seek submissions that meet a chosen theme, and each month, they hold a flash fiction contest (under 1,000 words) and publish the winner online. Pays 5 cents per word, minimum of $50 dollars U.S. for prose; and a flat fee of $50 for poems.

What they’re looking for:

“Speculative fiction is weird, almost unclassifiable. It’s fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and literary. Send us your strange, misshapen stories with enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth. We love proactive characters and settings that feel lived in and real enough to touch. Stories with style, stories with emotion, stories with character. We want it all.”

Reading periods and themes:

Nov 15–30, 2023; theme Blight

Feb 15 – 28, 2024; theme: Mercurial

May 15 – 3, 20241; theme: Anachronism

Aug 15 – 31, 2024; theme: Harbringer

Flash fiction submissions must be sent in the first 15 days of the month and must meet, refer to, or challenge the test for the month. 

Guidelines here.

 

Open Minds Quarterly is a literary journal that features explorations of life in a mad world. They welcome writing and art from people with lived experience of what is variously called mental health challenges, mental illness, madness, and neurodiversity. They strive to promote these voices and perspectives by publishing work based on first-hand lived experience.

You may submit to ONE of these categories per submission period:

• Nonfiction: 1-piece limit, 3000 word maximum.
• Fiction: 1-piece limit, 3000 word maximum.
• Poetry: 4-piece limit, 96 lines maximum per poem (this includes stanza breaks, but not the title).
• Art: Any 2D medium, suitable for print. 4-piece limit, 1 page maximum per piece.
• Other: Includes experimental pieces, letters, opinion pieces, research, and anything that doesn’t quite fit in the above categories. 1 piece limit, 3000 word maximum.

Do NOT put any identifying information in your submission. Do NOT put your name, address, email, a cover letter, or any other identification within the file you submit. Their assistant editors conduct blind reviews to ensure fairness. Any submissions that contain identifying information will be declined.

OMQ welcomes submissions from people belonging to diverse communities and prioritizes voices it feels are currently underrepresented. 

Deadline for their spring 2024 issue: December 31, 2023. See full guidelines here.

 

The Malahat Review always welcomes submissions of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as translated work in any of these three genres, by new and established writers from Canada and abroad. $70 per published page plus a one-year print subscription and two copies of the issue in which your work appears. 

See full submission guidelines here.

Right now, The Malahat Review is inviting entries for its biennial Novella Prize. The contest is open to Canadian and international writers anywhere in the world. A single work of fiction per entry, with a minimum length of 10,000 words and maximum length of 20,000 words (word count must be given at the top of the first page). There are no restrictions as to form, subject matter, or aesthetic approach.

One winner will receive a prize of CAD $2,000 and be published in the magazine's summer 2024 issue #227.

Entry fee: CAD $35 for each entry from Canada *early bird discount until December 31, 2023: CAD $20 or CAD $45 for each entry from elsewhere *early bird discount until December 31, 2023: CAD $30. CAD $15 for each additional entry (any writer, any country). Entrants receive a one-year subscription to The Malahat Review

Deadline: February 1, 2024. Submission guidelines here.

 

Chicken Soup for the Soul has an ongoing need for story poems and true stories under 1,200 words. Chicken Soup stories are written in the first person and often close with a punch, creating emotion, rather than simply talking about it. 

Chicken Soup for the Soul stories have heart, but also something extra — an element that makes us all feel more hopeful, more connected, more thankful, more passionate and better about life in general. A good story causes tears, laughter, goose bumps or any combination of these. 

Read their general guidelines here. Their online submissions portal is here.

Pays $200.

As usual, Chicken Soup is calling for submissions for numerous anthologies. Here are a few:

Funny stories

The deadline for submissions is DECEMBER 31, 2023.

Laughter is the best medicine. And we love to publish your funny stories in all our books. Our books filled with nothing but funny stories are always bestsellers, so we are doing it again. This edition will be for publication in 2024 but we're already looking for those funny stories you tell again and again. The ones that make everyone laugh.

We are looking for stories about something that happened to you in your life - in your relationship with a partner or spouse, a parent or child, a family member or friend, at work or at home that made you and the people around you laugh out loud. 

Did you mean for it to be funny? Did the other person mean to make you laugh? Did a situation just get out of control? Did a misunderstanding turn into a comedy of errors? 

We can't wait to hear your true stories. We want them to be silly, outrageous and hilarious, and they absolutely must make us laugh!

Miracles, messages from heaven, angels

The deadline for submissions is FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Stories about miracles, angels, messages from heaven, premonitions, amazing coincidences and other unexplainable but good events! We are looking for powerful, astounding, stories that will make people say "wow" or give them chills. This book is for everyone, whether religious or non-religious.

Cat Stories

The deadline for submissions is MARCH 31,2024.

Our readers love our cat titles. They are so very popular, and you have so many great stories to share with us, that we do a new cat title every eighteen months or so. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Me and My Cat has been completed and will be released in April 2024. But here is another chance for you to share a story or two about the member of your family who just happens to walk on four feet! This book will be published in 2025.

Our cats enrich our lives so much and in so many ways. What would we do without them? We are looking for first-person true stories and poems up to 1200 words that highlight the unique personalities that cats have. 

Celebrate your cat, or a cat you know, with a wonderful story about what he or she does. Stories can be serious or humorous, or both. We can't wait to read all the heartwarming, inspirational, and magical stories that celebrate the cat and the magic that cats brings to your life or the lives of your family or friends!

Dog Stories

The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2024.

Our readers love our dog titles. They are so very popular, and you have so many great stories to share with us, that we do a new dog title every eighteen months or so. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Me and My Dog has been completed and will be released early in February 2024. But here is another chance for you to share a story or two about the member of your family who just happens to walk on four feet! This book will be published in 2025.

Our dogs enrich our lives so much and in so many ways. What would we do without them? We are looking for first-person true stories and poems up to 1200 words that highlight the unique personalities that dogs have. Celebrate your dog, or a dog you know, with a wonderful story about what he or she does. Stories can be serious or humorous, or both. We can't wait to read all the heartwarming, inspirational, and magical stories that celebrate the dog and the magic that dogs bring to your life or the lives of your family or friends!

Note: If you submitted a story or poem for a previous cat or dog book and we DID NOT publish it, here is your chance to submit it to us again. If you submitted a story and we DID publish it in a previous cat book, please do not submit it. We will not publish it again.

Braided Way is a publication of the non-profit Spiritual Quest Foundation, showcasing the faces and voices of spiritual practice.

“We publish beautiful, honest, wide-awake work by new and established writers. We seek pieces exploring spiritual development that show respect for the diversity of and interconnection between the world’s faith traditions. 

“We nominate for Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. We hope to begin publishing an annual Braided Way Anthology with selected pieces from our online magazine soon.” 

Braided Way publishes:

Personal essays: up to 3,000 words

Articles: up to 3,000 words

Poetry: one to five poems

Interviews: up to 5,000 words

Fiction: up to 5,000 words

Photography and other forms of original art

Voices: themed reflections up to 250 words (themes listed here)

Faces: original images of spiritual significance to the artist (more info here) 

Full submission guidelines here.

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