Thursday, March 14, 2024

Six great place to send your short fiction and nonfiction and your gothy novellas ~ and some of them pay

You can now get new postings on Quick Brown Fox delivered straight to your Inbox as I publish them. Subscribe to the new Quick Brown Fox page on Substack here:  https://brian999.substack.com/

You can also get an email about twice a month about what’s coming up in terms of writing classes, workshops, and retreats, plus providing links to the other material on the Quick Brown Fox blog. For that, add your name and email in the Sign-Up box in the righthand column. ~Brian


Latitude 46 Publishing ~ Call for Submissions

“We have our next anthology lining up and we are looking for SUPER CANUCK stories! Submit your best stories about rural superheroes, backwater supervillains, and tales of characters or communities at a crossroads.”

For this anthology, they’re looking for stories from across Canada, not just from northern Ontario. Word count 500–3,500 words.

Deadline April 21, 2024. Full guidelines here.

Latitude 46 also publishes books and is looking for manuscripts. Mind you, their mission is to publish distinctive literary works by established and emerging authors with a connection to northern Ontario and narratives about the unique landscape and culture of the region – both fiction and nonfiction.

Submission guidelines here. 

 

Amazing Stories Magazine was started in 1926, making it the first science fiction magazine in the world. It’s currently putting a call out for science fiction stories. 

“These tales of the extraordinary and "the impossible will be first released exclusively to our Patreon subscribers, before being shared free with the wider world on our website two weeks later.

“Our goal is to feature works from writers who are passionate about inspiring readers with both real science and real people. 

We are looking for stories that not only entertain but also encourage readers to reflect on and critique contemporary society. These stories should, at times, address significant topics such as social norms, religion, nationalism, racism, politics, and various forms of sexism, all within a science fiction context. 

A sense of humor is often welcome. We want to publish writing that is both thought-provoking and enjoyable to read.

“Science Fiction can be a powerful tool for both exploring the future and for imagining the kinds of futures we might like to live in.  Join us and help us create the future!”

Pays $20 US for a short story or longer and $10 US for flash fiction, reprints, and poetry.

Submissions page here

 

In 2019 The Globe and Mail
produced several short films based
on First Person pieces, including one
from Barbara Wackerle Baker

The Globe and Mail wants your first person essays

We want you to write for us! The daily First Person essay (formerly called Facts & Arguments) is a great forum for you to share your own experiences, viewpoints and writing flair with other Globe readers. Whether you are young or old, female or male, newly arrived in Canada or deeply rooted here, we want to be inspired by your unique perspective.

A few things we look for are an original voice; an unexpected view; an unfamiliar perspective; humour; vivid details that show us rather than tell us; anecdotes that illuminate a wider theme.

A successful First Person essay may be funny, surprising, touching or enlightening – or all of these. It may present a slice of life or a powerful experience that changed you in some way. It may be a meditation on something that matters to you. It goes beyond a rant, and it is deft in moving from the particular to the universal.

Above all, an essay should be personal rather than political. It must be true, not fictional.

Here are some recent essays we thought were very successful:

·  My Bionic dog: We had made a pact: 'You take care of me, I'll take care of you' (here)

·  Before my ADHD diagnosis I was alive, but not living (here)

·   My bad neighbor made being a jerk into an art form (here)

Essays should be no longer than 1,000 words.

Don't send a piece that's appeared in any other print or online publication, but feel free to submit an essay on a topic you have blogged about.

Seasonal essays should be submitted a month or more before the event.

There is no payment if your essay is published. The Globe assumes first-print rights and electronic rights for unsolicited submissions; writers retain copyright.

Guidelines here.

 

Gramarye is the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction’s journal for folklore, fairy tales and fantasy. It comes out both in print and in e-format.  Gramarye is designed to appeal to both academics and the interested public and has been published since 2012.

Gramarye is seeking articles, book reviews and creative writing relating to literary and historical approaches to fairy tales, fantasy, Gothic, magic realism, science fiction and speculative fiction.

Word count guidelines:

  • Short fiction – max. 3000 words (one story or several).
  • Poetry – max. four poems to a total of no more than 4 pages/240 lines.
  • Long (c.8,000 words) or short (c.3,000 words) articles. Word counts include referencing and citation.
  • Book reviews: c.1,000 words
  • Long (c.8,000 words) or short (c.3,000 words) articles. Word counts include referencing and citation.
  • Book reviews: c.1,000 words

Long poems, traditional forms, flash fictions and experimental creative writing are all equally encouraged.

Full submission guidelines here.

  

Three-Lobed Burning Eye is an online magazine of speculative fiction, publishing stories of horror, wonder, and the weird. 3LBE launched in 1999 and beginning with issue 20, began to offer audio readings, ebook formats, and online (responsive) format for mobile devices. Each issue features three stories. 

“We like narrative voices that are full of feeling, from literary to pulpy, with styles unique and flowing, but not too experimental. All labels aside, we want tales that value imagination in character, narrative, and plot. We want to see something new and different.”

Full submission guidelines here.

 

Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski
published by Psychopomp

Psychopomp seeks goth novellas and short nonfiction pieces.

Novellas must be 20,000–40,000 words.

Pays $750 US advance and 25% of net receipts.

They’re looking for:

stories where grief or loss play a leading role

stories that feature the afterlife or the underworld

stories that involve the journey through death/the journey of the dead

stories that involve death personified (Death!)

stories that take place in, or utilize a multiverse

stories that involve time travel (esp. those that involve time travel plus a previously mentioned theme)

origin stories (especially as they relate to previously mentioned themes)

stories where the characters slowly lose their sense of reality

goth

space, but make it goth

a story within a story within a (within a story that’s [within a story] within a story) story….

stories where things that are not usually personified ARE personified (planets? galaxies? time? …bones?)

creepy meta-horror

amazingly original ghost stories

sci-fi that hits on any of the above themes – they’re very VERY open to it

Full novella guidelines here.

Nonfiction pieces should be 1,000–2,000 words, but that’s flexible.

They’re looking for “rad, gothy, death-focused essays and blog posts ESPECIALLY about media, entertainment, culture etc. and personal stories.”

No need to write the whole thing first. Pitch them.

Pays $50 US

See guidelines for nonfiction articles here.

*** 

See Brian Henry’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Markets and contests for your novellas, short fiction and poetry

Note: You can hang out and chat with quick brown foxes and vixens on my Facebook page (here). Just send a friend request to Brian Henry.

Also, if you’re not yet on my newsletter list, add your name and email in the Sign-Up box in the righthand column. ~ Brian

 

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.

***

See Brian Henry’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.