15 Last Calls for Open May Calls!
Closing time for these paying, no fee short story opportunities
Heartlines Spec
Spec - deadline May 31 - 8c a word - 500-3500 words - We’re looking for short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. We don’t want the blaze of new love or the obsession of a new friend. We want pieces that show that comfort that develops when people know each other for years. Give us deep space, dusty frontiers, or dreamy fantasy. We want stories and poetry with strong, confident relationships amid all the sci-fi/fantasy. While we are primarily looking for stories with happy endings (yeah, yeah), we also want endings that are earned. If things get a little teary or gory, that’s ok.
We are especially interested in stories featuring queer platonic relationships, ace/aro love stories, and polycules. My Insights - 19 Rejections from this market. No sales. I’ve had friends who’ve hit the vibe and sold to them, but no luck yet. Here goes lucky #20…
Imagitopia
Fantasy - Reprint - 5000 max - 1c pay - deadline May 31 - IMAGITOPIA is a fantasy fiction podcast and digital magazine produced by Android Press and featuring narrated fantasy fiction plus other fun stuff like author and editor interviews, news and events, and nerd-outs on fantasy tropes and other related topics.
We currently accept submissions of previous published fantasy short stories for REPRINT ONLY to be narrated for the podcast. We'll also publish in print here on the webzine. MY INSIGHTS - I sent them one story when they first opened in 2023, and I just sent in one for this call.
Cast of Wonders
Banned Books Week 2025 - open May 14-May 31 - 8c a word - 6000 words max -- This year, they are looking for stories of irrepressible joy. Show them sparks that cannot be extinguished, the many facets of humanity in all its splendour. Stories that show the hopefulness and power of diverse voices, stories of music in the dark times, and stories that are unapologetic and inspiring.
We’re dedicated to publishing fiction that reflects the entire spectrum of the human experience. We acknowledge the realities of unconscious bias and make our best effort to account for it during our review process. Read our full statement in support of lowering publishing’s barriers to entry for authors from historically underrepresented backgrounds below.
All submissions must be anonymous. Non-anonymous manuscripts will be rejected unread, and no permission granted to resubmit. MY INSIGHTS - I sent in a story that is sort of joyful. I don’t know if I hit irrepressible, but I hate to miss an open Cast of Wonders call!
Guages & Ghouls
Horror - deadline May 31 - royalties - 5000-10,000 words -Haunted workplace stories, modern day or historical, it’s completely up to you. Just write a great character-driven story that hooks the reader fast and reels them in hard. There do NOT need to be ghosts. You don’t need to have a truly haunted workplace. You can have spooky vibes, vampires, werewolves, the whole nine. My Insights - as always, unless I know the publisher, be careful of royalty calls, they rarely pay much. However, this is a really cool concept. I don’t have anything that matches the word count.
The Stygian Zine
Lit (or genre) - May 31st deadline - Theme - The Old Gods - max words 2500- pay $20 - Welcome to The Stygian Society, a Montréal-based small press rooted in the ethos of 'art for art's sake.' Here, we celebrate a timeless sensibility—when books were beautifully bound, and getting published meant having true literary talent, not a high follower count.- My INSIGHTS - I can’t really get a handle on their aesthetic. If anyone has published here, drop me a note about your experience!
Memento Mori Ink Magazine
Horror - 2026 Anthology exploring the power of artifacts or relics working with Crystal Lake Publishing- deadline June 1 - 2c a word - 3000-5000 words - no sub-sims - In this collection, we explore the power of Memento Mori artifacts or relics. We want ancient objects or seemingly mundane items that have the power to whisper to those who possess them. We are looking for character-driven stories with a focus on the history and source of power behind their chosen object which must be tied to the afterlife, the passage of time, or the thin veil separating the living from the dead. As these objects reveal their secrets, characters must confront their deepest fears and the inevitable reality of their own mortality. - MY INSIGHTS: I’ve worked with Lisa Vasquez and found her a great editor.
Bag of Bones Press
Horror - theme Patterns - deadline May 31 - pay 1c - 2000 - 4000 words - no reprints. “Please interpret this theme however you like. Write us a quiet mood piece or an action-packed powerful, character-driven story. Make it humorous or as dark as the night. Send us your best speculative, horror, dark fantasy or dark sci-fi stories, as long as it's full of the feels. We are not, however, the market for violent, bloody, racist, homophobic, or masochistic fiction. And no poetry please, just short fiction.
Some ideas: the pattern could be in the narrative technique (fragmentation, mirror writing, foreshadowing, meta-fictional repetition), the thematic composition (think cycles of death and birth, family curses, sin and retribution) for example. Or how about incorporating chants, supernatural rituals, or echoes in your prose? A story with temporal patterns in it might float our boat (although be careful, we don’t want our inbox flooded with time loops and cyclical stories, unless done exceptionally well or with a novel twist). Seasonal patterns, recurring times, patterns in nature, patterns in objects which feature in your tale, geographical patterns, repetitive architecture, patterns in weather, behavioural ticks, recurring nightmares, obsessions…any tenuous link will do, just make it your best work and give it a good edit prior to sending it our way. You get the idea. Surprise us.” INSIGHTS - I know nothing about this press.
Celestial Echo Press
Choices - Behind the Revolving Door - May 1 to June 1 - 500-4000 words - 1c a word - reprints YES for $10- SOME BIG TIME AUTHORS IN THIS ONE. Jonathan Maberry, Charley Heenan, Rik Hoskin, Susan Shwartz, Chris Bauer, and Marisca Pichette.
Each of us makes a multitude of choices daily, some minor and some with major consequences. Do you or don’t you wear your lucky shirt to the sports event? What do you think the consequences would be if you didn’t wear your lucky shirt?
This anthology will be a collection of stories that take the reader on a journey with the author’s protagonist as they go through a trial and are forced to take an action, to make a choice. For example, does the character find a wallet on the ground? Do they open it? Return it to the owner, or keep it? What are the consequences? Do they encounter a second choice, thus going back through the revolving door? Do they find classified information, implicating a family member in a coup? What do they do with it? Is the character hiking through the woods only to find a portal, not knowing where it will take them if they enter? What happens? Is it so bad that they try to return, hence going through the revolving door? There are many, many ways this theme can be interpreted.
MY INSIGHTS - I just learned of this press and sent them in a reprint. My Dancing into the Dark short from Ira Nayman’s The Dance, “Jasmine’s Quantum Quandry.” (paid subscribers could read it in one of the lists I sent earlier.)
They are using a google link.
Black Beacon Books
Horror - Samhain Screams - closes end of May - pay $50 - max words 5000 - Halloween. So much more than costumes and candy, it’s the time when the veil between our world and the other side is at its thinnest. The hour when dark forces come into the light in search of innocent souls. A time of blood and evil.
Australian Shadows Award-winning and multiple Bram Stoker Award-nominated author and artist Greg Chapman, and acclaimed author Cameron Trost, are seeking new original Halloween tales for this anthology, planned for release in October 2025.
We want memorable, character-driven stories set on, or near, the last night of October. Give us ghosts, serial killers, rituals and monsters, heroes and villains, but most of all give us the true dark side of Halloween - and make it terrifying.
Looking to sell to the editor Cameron Trust? I asked him for his most important piece of advice.
“Less than half the submissions we receive meet the full guidelines, and ten or fifteen percent don’t meet the call at all.”
CT: This is a really important question. Basically, read the full guidelines. I know they are detailed, but this is the key. Less than half the submissions we receive meet the full guidelines, and ten or fifteen percent don’t meet the call at all. That’s a waste of time for everyone. Reading at least one of our publications is a great idea too because it shows you what I like—as simple as that. What is the single most important element I look for? So for argument’s sake, I’ve received a submission that fits the call—theme and length, the guidelines have been adhered to more or less, and the writing is good—that’s already a lot of boxes ticked. What’s the key element now? It’s the story. As simple as that. We publish genre fiction, and that means there has to be a story. We don’t want the same old story over and over again either. Originality doesn’t sell, unfortunately. The big publishers are constantly rehashing the same stories—but that bores me. I need to be surprised. That doesn’t necessarily mean every story needs a twist, but I need a dose of originality. Teenagers go camping, hear noise, and a werewolf jumps out of the forest and tears them apart—again? Not for me. I want stories that stand out, that grip me and leave me thinking about them long after I’ve finished. That’s a challenge, I know—but that’s the single most important element once all the nuts-and-bolts of the guidelines have been met.
BONA BOOKS
SPEC - Theme: Wrath Month - open till May 31st - 6000 word max (target 4000 - 5000) - pay 8c a word - ANON subs- They are seeking fantasy, sci-fi, and horror stories that embrace punk and queer rage.
There’s a glass ceiling in SFF representation, and we want you to throw a brick through it. Bring us the coven that burned Salem and your roaring bear-serkers. We want gangs of acid-wash werewolves, furious bipyromancers, flesh-eating femmes, and vengeant celestial bois—a cast of the downtrodden who make ruins of their oppressors.
Wrath lies at the heart of queer liberation—it can be a spur to action and the only righteous response to a world that would prefer we didn’t exist. So crash mainframes, collapse empires, and break normativity.
Pride month is over. It’s time for— Wrath Month
Wrath is a complex emotion. It can burn hot like fire or cold like ice. It can encompass righteous anger or bloody vengeance. It can also go too far. The editors are open to the full spectrum of fury.
Jerry Jazz Musician
Lit Contest - No fee - deadline May 31 - 3000 max, but will take up to 4000 - $150 for winning story.
For complete contest details, please visit this page:
If you have questions concerning the submission process, please click here.
If you would like to read Aishatu Ado’s “Saharan Blues on the Seine,” the winning story in the recently concluded 68th Short Fiction Contest, you can do so by clicking here.
My Insights: I’ve subbed here 3 times, withdrew once, and got rejected twice. I’m going to send them in my bowling ghost story.
Self (S)care Anthology Project
HORROR - by Uncomfortably Dark - self-published horror stories - May 15-May 31 - 2c a word - 8500 word max - Calling all self-published horror authors! Get those short stories ready! Open submissions begin next week for this brand-new anthology geared toward spotlighting the best in indie horror!
In this unique collaboration project, Paul Carro and Candace Nola have teamed up to create a new opportunity for self-published authors! The incredibly talented Laurel Hightower is on-board to write the foreword, and the book will be published in all formats by Uncomfortably Dark Horror.
This is a paid opportunity for self-published horror stories only.
To be eligible: stories must have been published and be available for ordering, download or purchase within 2025, on a platform such as Godless, Google Books, D2D platforms or Amazon.
My Insights: I reached out to the editor for clarification to see if the story has to have been ACTUALLY published in 2025, because I put my anthologies out end of 2023. Here is the answer.
“It must be published in 2025 for the first time, by the author, as a stand-alone story, or as part of a single author collection.
It must be a horror story, no self care theme. it is NOT a themed anthology. The title is a play on words for self-published horror authors.”
Spec Fiction Older Writers Grant
SPEC - $1000 award - deadline May 31 - must be 50 or over - Since 2004, the Older Writers Grant has been awarded annually to writers who are at least fifty years of age at the time of application to assist such writers who are just beginning their careers as speculative fiction writers. (We define professional writers as those who qualify for SFWA pro membership; anyone whose made below $1000 from their catalog of published work are considered early in their career and are therefore eligible for the grant). These funds may be used as each writer determines will best assist their work.
This grant, as with all SLF grants, is intended to help writers working with speculative literature from all over the world. Speculative literature spans the breadth of fantastic writing, encompassing literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy, including ghost stories, horror, folk and fairy tales, slipstream, magical realism, and more. Any piece of literature containing a fabulist or speculative element would fall under our aegis.
This grant is awarded on the basis of merit. If awarded the grant, the recipient agrees to provide a brief excerpt from their work and an autobiographical statement describing themselves and their writing (500-1,000 words) for our files and for public dissemination on our website and our mailing list. My INSIGHTS - I applied last year. No cigar. So, I try again!
IRON MAIDEN ANTHOLOGY
HORROR - The Writing On The Wall: Horror Inspired By The Music Of Iron Maiden - pay $20 - May 15-June 1 - 3000-7000 words - email to maidenhorroranthology@gmail.com - The title pretty much sums it up. Each author will submit a short story inspired by and named after a single song from the Iron Maiden catalogue. You do not need to take this literally. Take it however you want. There is no specific subgenre we are looking for. Take your chosen title and shoot for the moon with whatever wild idea it instills in you. A haunting at a metal show? Awesome. A monster roving an ancient battlefield? Go for it. A highway murderer with a specific soundtrack? We’re all ears. Celebrate this band that’s been with us for fifty years any way you see fit. The point is that we’re all fans banding together to pay tribute to their art with our own.
But there are some things we need to stay away from, so…
WHAT WE DON’T WANT
Lyrics and rights to them are very tricky, so other than the title, we ask that you don’t include any direct quotes from your song.
Some gore is okay, but let’s rein it in to an extent. No extreme SA or extreme violence against children. No racism, bigotry, etc
My Insights: Like most Gen Xers, Iron Maiden played an important part in my teenage years. I’m trying to finish my Dancing into the Dark novel - plus I have a really cool new (secret) project on the go, so I probably won’t have time to write something for this, but I hope ya’all do!
Book Worms
Horror- Issue # 8 theme is CRYPTID HORROR - open now till May 31 - 8c a word - 1500 words or less - no reprints - MUST mail in story. (At this point, you better send it EXPRESS MAIL)
This summer, we’re hunting monsters—and we want you to join the chase.
Our upcoming issue is diving deep into cryptid horror, where folklore meets fear and the shadows are never empty. From the fog-drenched hollows of Appalachia to the eerie stillness of primeval forests, we’re looking for stories that stir that ancient dread—the kind that makes you glance over your shoulder… just in case.
Whether it’s beasts from local legend or psychological horrors born from the depths of your own personal wilderness, we want your weirdest, wildest, and most chilling creations.
Think: backwoods folklore, eerie encounters, survival nightmares, and twisted myths.
Unleash your inner cryptozoologist and show us what’s hiding just out of sight.
MY INSIGHTS: She likes an 80’s vibe, and don’t be afraid to push your creative boundaries. She published one story of mine in the past of mine and it was very quirky and featured sapphic vampires.
Mail your submissions to: La Regina Studio/Grundy Commons/925 Canal Street/Bristol, PA 19007
Decision notices are sent through email so there is no need to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Please include your email address with your submission. All submissions must be typed (cover letters preferred but not mandatory) and be properly formatted.
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