Category Archives: call for submissions

Cyber Smut – call for submissions

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Guts Publishing wants to know how the internet has impacted your life. We are seeking short stories and poetry for our next anthology Cyber Smut. Closing date for submissions is 29 February 2020.


This is wide open in terms of interpretation, and anything goes – poetry, memoir, erotica, literary fiction, sci fi, essays, etc – as long as it aligns with the theme. Things to consider: our daily lives are saturated with the internet, impacting our minds and behavior. Miscommunications and mishaps. Lust and desire for fame and money. Hilarity and tragedy with Tinder or Grindr. This is rich and fertile ground, and surely there are countless ways to approach this theme. We are thrilled about our next anthology and hope you are too.


• Closing date for submissions – 29 February 2020.
• Short stories (fiction & nonfiction) – 1000-5000 words.
• Poetry – up to 5 pages.
• UK & Ireland – seeking submissions from anyone living or born in the UK or Ireland.
• Unpublished work only please. We are not able to accept previously published work, print or online.

Visit gutpublishing.com for more info, or submit your work on Submittable: gutspublishing.submittable.com/submit

Fairlight Books Short Story Submissions

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Fairlight Books, an Oxford-based publisher, is accepting submissions for its online short story publishing platform. Our mission is to promote quality writing and bring attention to talented writers. We set up Fairlight Shorts to champion the short story format and we keep our short story portal freely accessible so that we are better able to bring readers and writers together.

For more information about how we publish short stories and our submission guidelines please visit our submissions page: https://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/submissions/.

To read any Fairlight Shorts visit: https://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/short_stories/.

Call for Submissions – Short Stories & Poetry

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Stories About Cyber Lives

Guts Publishing. Ballsy books about life. An independent publisher in London specializing in short story anthologies, fiction & nonfiction, and often with poetry. We also publish full-length memoirs. Our goal is to support exceptional writers to ensure that readers can find bold life stories (and that other stuff they call fiction) in the marketplace.

On 28 November 2019 we released our debut anthology Stories About Penises, a collection of 21 poems and short stories about, well exactly what it sounds like. We have some nice reviews on our website, and also on Goodreads.

We are thrilled to announce that we are open for submissions for our next anthology Stories About Cyber Lives. Seeking poetry and short stories (fiction & nonfiction) by UK writers. Which means anyone currently living in the UK, or anyone who was born in the UK. Closing date is 15 February 2020. This is wide open and anything goes (poetry, memoir, erotica, literary fiction, sci fi, lgbt, etc) as long as it aligns with the theme.

For details visit gutspublishing.com/submissions and our Submittable page.

We can’t wait to read your stories! xx Guts

Is Your Work Too Intense?

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deadline 10 janIf it is, we’d like to see it. The A3 Review and Press is seeking flash fiction or short stories that overshare, are deeply lyrical, and say something about what it’s like to be alive at this point in time. Deadline is 10th January 2020.

For examples of the kind of prose The A3 Press publishes, check out MASH by Lena Ziegler, Jason Jackson’s The Unit, and My New Car by Alan Sincic.

Selected titles receive £200 and 10 copies of the published work.

For more details and how to submit, visit their Submittable page here.

Story Friday LEAP! Call for submissions

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Story Friday in February has the theme LEAP! in celebration of 2020 as a leap year. Story Friday is on 28th February, the day before the leaping day, and we want to revel in the glory of this springing theme! Whether your stories feature proposals or boxing hares, Christmas lords or death defying jumps, we are so looking forward to reading what you come up with!

Story Friday LEAP! will be on 28th February, deadline for submissions is 17th February. We’re looking for stories that are 2,000 words or fewer.  (Full submission details are here).  Writers must be available to come to Bath for the event.  If you’d rather not read, we have wonderful actors who can read your story for you.

For more information about Story Friday, to listen to stories that we have recorded at our events over the years, and/or to submit your story please visit A Word In Your Ear.

Talking Tales #22 – 9th April – Bristol

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2019 needs a Talking Tales don’t you think? There’s a lot going on this year, so between now and 9th April I fully expect there to be at least five seasons, 64 crucial Parliamentary votes and another pancake day.

Why not another pancake day? You will need sustenance and fortitude in preparation for a night of Talking Tales stories and performances. You will have some sweet syrupy words and some sharp biting ones, I’m sure – it’s always that way.

Filling and moreish, you have my word. You’ll have your words, in fact – if you submit. Submissions close on Friday 29th March.  We love your submissions!               

E-mail your story (c1,500 words or less i.e. to be read in less than 10 minutes) to: stokescroftwriters@gmail.com

Event details – are stupendously straight-forward:

…venue:     Left Bank, 128 Cheltenham Road, Stokes Croft, Bristol BS6 5RW

…time:       we start at 7pm on Saturday 9th April 19 – doors open at 6.30

…join-in:    the ‘finish the lines’ competition – win a Talking Tales badge.

Stokes Croft Writers would love to see you there.

The A3 Press is Open for Business

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a3 press logoThe A3 Press has just launched it’s first two chapbook titles, and three more will be released by the end of March 2019. Created by the folks who publish The A3 Review, The A3 Press will publish 10-12 chapbooks every year.

We are open for submissions, and are looking for prose, poetry and artwork that tackles what it’s like to be alive at this point in history. We celebrate urgent work that might struggle to find a traditional home, work that’s lyrical and intense, a bit weird, hybrid and experimental. We also welcome work that’s traditionally beautiful. Please visit our Submittable page for full details. Deadline for chapbook submissions is 31 May 2019.

You can see our first chapbook titles here.

The A3 Review continues to run it’s monthly contests and to publish two issues every year. To be in the running to qualify for our next issue, Issue 10, enter our February contest on the theme of Romance. Full details here.

We look forward to reading your work, and do get in touch with any queries: a3@writingmaps.com

Story Friday Invitation – Call For Submissions

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Best invitation ever?  Worst??

Story Friday  in March has the theme Invitation… to the ball, to the party, to the pub, to the moon, to the wedding, to heaven, to hell?  What is more intriguing than the perfect – or imperfect – invitation? We are inviting writers to write their favourite invitation story for a glorious story-party in March.

Story Friday Invitation will be on 22nd March, deadline for submissions is 11th March. We’re looking for stories that are 2,000 words or fewer.  (Full submission details are here).  Writers must be available to come to Bath for the event.  If you’d rather not read, we have wonderful actors who can read your story for you.

For more information about Story Friday, to listen to stories that we have recorded at our events over the years, and/or to submit your story please visit A Word In Your Ear.

Story Fridays ‘2018’ – call for submissions

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How was 2018 for you?

We think it has been quite a year.  We’d like to reflect on it and even  celebrate it at Story Friday with stories that are inspired by events that happened in 2018.  These events can be personal, local, national, international; they can be political, environmental, romantic, comic, tragic.  We’d like a whole range of responses to what we’ve just experienced, as we usher in the new dawn of 2019.

Story Friday 2018 will be on 25th January 2019, deadline for submissions Monday 14th January.  We’re looking for stories that are 2,000 words or fewer.  (Full submission details here).  Writers must be available to come to Bath for the event.  If you’d rather not read, we have wonderful actors who can read your story for you.

!! STORY FRIDAY CHALLENGE !!

January’s Story Friday is all about events that have just happened, so for this Story Friday we have a special challenge.

As well as the submissions about 2018, for the first time we want to include ONE special story, inspired by a NEWS story the week before Story Friday! (ie between 18th and 24th January).  Deadline is Thursday midday 24th January, the day before Story Friday.  Max word count is 1,000 words. You are very welcome to submit both to Story Friday 2018 AND to the Challenge. The chosen story will be read by an actor at Story Friday.

Talk about HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!

For more information: A Word In Your Ear

Call for submissions: SPOTLIGHT BOOKS

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Small books, big ideas– we’re looking for a few good writers.

Inventive.  Hidden.  Compelling.  Unrecognised.  Challenging.  Unheard. Beautiful.  Ambitious.

Creative Future, Myriad Editions and New Writing South seek the best unpublished English short fiction writers from under-represented backgrounds—those who face barriers due to mental health, disability, identity or social circumstance.

We’re looking for manuscripts of 8-10,000 words–no more, no less.  We’re happy with one long story or a selection of several.  

Six writers (three fiction writers and three poets) will be selected, supported to polish their manuscripts and further their careers, and be published in individual short books with international distribution.

For more info and how to enter, please click here  

Deadline: 24 February 2019

Three New Things from The A3

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A3 press copyThe A3 Review & Press announces its new monthly contest themes: Romance, parties, and whatever the word “top” inspires you to create. Anything from spinning tops to top-shelf magazines. Click here to see all the new themes, each with a deadline on the 4th Saturday of the month.

The current issue of The A3 Review has recently been published and is available to order here. Stories, poems and artwork about fairs, fireworks, and fathers, along with flies and zebras, too. Nancy Stohlman answers questions in the issue’s A6 Q&A.

The A3 Press is soon to launch alongside The A3 Review. The press is looking for manuscript submissions for this new chapbook press. Deadline for submissions is the 20th of November. Do you have a series of short stories, or maybe a long story that can be spread out over several pages? Do you have a combination of drawings and short stories? Or even photographs without text that would fit into our The A3 Press’s map-fold format.

The A3 Press will be a place for work that might struggle to find a traditional home, work that’s lyrical and intense, a bit weird, perhaps, hybrid, experimental. For all the details, please click here.

If you’d like to support the new press, you can also pre-order the first 6 titles via the website here.

Call for submissions…The Best of British Fantasy

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I’m currently seeking stories for The Best of British Fantasy series from the award-winning NewCon Press.

NewCon already publish fantastic science fiction and horror ‘Best of’ anthologies, and I’m glad to be adding this new horse to their stable.

The Best of British Fantasy will reprint stories first published – in any format (anthology, online, zine, website) – in 2018. All authors born in and/or long-term residents of the UK are welcome to submit.

Ideally, I’m looking for stories between 2,500 and 6,000 words, but I will be flexible. Multiple submissions are welcome. All the submission details can be found here.

Any questions? My email address is at the link above, or prod me on Twitter at @straycarnivore[Art by the versatile and talented JRR Tolkien!]

 

 

 

New Small Press: The A3 Press

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a3 press logoThe A3 Review is launching The A3 Press, a new small press for short stories, poetry and artwork. All our titles will be printed in our signature map-fold format. Click here for all the details and find us at TheA3Press.com.

Think of us as a chapbook press, a place for work that might struggle to find a traditional home, work that’s lyrical and intense, maybe a bit weird, hybrid, experimental. We also welcome work that’s traditionally beautiful. We like work that is urgent, that says something about what it’s like to be alive at this point in history.

Our first six titles will appear in early 2019. We’ll then publish six new titles every six months.

Deadline for manuscript submission is 20th November. Visit our Submittable page, where you can also find details about our regular monthly contests and The A3 Review.

We’re excited to see where this new publishing adventure takes us and look forward to reading and seeing your work. Please do get in touch with any questions you may have.

V. Press flash submissions!!!

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V. Press will be open to submissions for flash fiction pamphlets in July 2018.

Shortlisted in the Michael Marks Publishers’ Award 2017, V. Press publishes poetry and flash fiction that is very very.

Publications include Carrie Etter’s Hometown, Jude Higgin’s The Chemist’s House, Charlie Hill’s Walking Backwards, Santino Prinzi’s There’s Something Macrocosmic About All of This and Michael Loveday’s flash fiction novella Three Men on the Edge.

V. Press currently publishes two fiction titles a year and is looking for stunning flash selections to publish next year.

The flash submissions window will be open throughout July 2018. Please do follow the submission guidelines at http://vpresspoetry.blogspot.com/p/submissions.html carefully.

There will be a V. Press showcase be at this year’s U.K. Flash Fiction Festival on Sunday, July 22.

 

 

Talking Tales #19 – 16th June – Bristol

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Time to get off your lilo and get writing for the mid-Summer edition of Talking Tales.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Talking Tales #19 is sun ripened, Solstice appropriate and beach-ready for anything you can throw at us. So go on, show us your black and white bits – on a page that is, constituting a story for the telling.

The people will be warm. The beer will be chilled. Wine will flow like…wine…and it all promises to be a roasting hot Saturday night in, always cool, Stokes Croft. Wear flip flops and your best shades and listen to a brilliant mix of stories and surprises. All you have to do is write a story (200 to 1500 words should do it) and be ready to read it out on the night. Then send it to us so we can choose the best mix for the best of evenings.

Submissions close on Saturday 9th June – at midnight.                            

E-mail your story (to be read in less than 10 minutes) to: stokescroftwriters@gmail.com

Event details – are stupendously straight-forward:

…venue:    Left Bank, 128 Cheltenham Road, Stokes Croft, Bristol BS6 5RW

…time:       doors open at 6.30 and we start at 7pm on Saturday 16th June 18

…join-in:    the ‘finish the lines’ competition – win a Talking Tales badge

Stokes Croft Writers would love to see you there.

Write for a Flash Walk

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Totterdown coloured houses cr Judy Darley

After a year’s hiatus, the #FlashWalk is set to return as part of the National Flash-Fiction Day UK celebrations on 16th June 2018. Far less seedy than it sounds (depending on the tales submitted), the Flash Walk will take place in Bristol, celebrating fiction in its shortest and most intense form.

The Flash Walk will take place in central Bristol, and your words can be part of it.

To be in with a chance of being included, send us a piece of flash fiction, prompted by some aspect of the theme Urban Landscape. You can take this idea in any direction you choose, using any theme and any genre, providing your tale is between 40 and 400 words in length.

Bristol can be but doesn’t have to be a source of inspiration.

The deadline for submissions is Monday 21st May 2018.

The selected stories will be shared by actors during the walk, so if yours is chosen, all you need to do is come along and enjoy the performance!

The walk begins at 10.30am on 16th June, outside the main entrance to Bristol’s M-Shed on the harbour side. It will finish at the GreenHouse, Hereford Street, BS3 4NA (just under a mile’s stroll away), between an hour and an hour and a half later.

The GreenHouse will also be the venue for the afternoon’s free writing workshops.

To be part of National Flash-Fiction Day‘s #FlashWalk2018, submit your entries to bristolflash@gmail.com before midnight on Monday 21st May 2018. There’s no charge to enter, so why not give it a try?

Talking Tales #18 – 21st April – Bristol

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SHORT STOPS - TT18

It is my pleasure to announce a full cast of Stokes Croft Writers are ready, waiting, fit, able and back in the country for Talking Tales #18. No gratuitously titled ‘work commitments’ (in what looked suspiciously like a beach) in Thailand. No snuffles. And with a full complement of Talking Tales badges… probably… Bristol awaits.

After a fantastic start to the 2018 season, April marks Talking Tales’ 3rd birthday. For this special night you will be hosted by the Stokes Croft Writers’ official photographer:  Thomas David Parker. So, as we hoover the red carpet and erect barriers for the riff-raff paparazzi, you have four things to do:

  1. write a stupidly brilliant story – 200 to 1500 words should do it
  2. send it to us – via e-mail to the address below
  3. prepare your best threads and polish the silver snuff-box
  4. practice your most photogenic of poses for Tom’s discerning lens

There will be doors and they will be thrown open at 6.30pm.

There will be brilliance – there always is, it could be yours.

Submissions close on Saturday 14th April – at midnight.                            

E-mail your story (to be read in less than 10 minutes) to: stokescroftwriters@gmail.com

Event details – are stupendously straight-forward:

…venue:     Left Bank, 128 Cheltenham Road, Stokes Croft, Bristol BS6 5RW

…time:       we start at 7pm on the dot on Saturday 21st April 18

…join-in:    the ‘finish the lines’ competition – win a Talking Tales badge

Stokes Croft Writers would love to see you there.

Can You Play the Guitar?

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a3 guitar contestAnd even if you can’t play the guitar, you’ve probably tried, or know someone who plays, or wanted to play, or serenaded you. The A3 Review‘s March contest theme is: GUITAR. For immediate inspiration, listen to BB King and write the blues.

You could write about a busker who becomes a star, or the family that jams together, or write about your first guitar teacher. Write an ode to your favourite chord: E, Dm7, or maybe C major 7 as a barre chord. Explore guitar-related settings like a Flamenco bar, the campfire on a holiday beach, or being part of the crowd at a music gig. Write about a late-night smoky blues bar in New Orleans.

Have you ever boarded a plane with a guitar? Read Debra Marquart’s beautiful poem “Traveling with Guitar” to trigger your memory.

Click here for more inspiration and ideas, and details about our contests and prizes.

Deadline is Saturday, 24th March.

We invite you to use the language of guitars as prompts for prose or poetry: riffs, licks, hammer, pull, slide, bend, distort, reverb, overdrive. Listen to an album by your favourite guitar band on a loop as you write, imagine being on a festival stage with a wild crowd in front of you, just about to strike your first chord…

The A3 Review publishes short stories, flash fiction, poetry, comics, graphic stories, memoir, photographs, illustrations, and any combination of the above. The only restriction is a word-limit of 150 and images should fit well into an A6 panel.

Visit our Submittable page for more inspiration and details.

PS. Our Issue 8 is almost ready to launch. Click here to pre-order your copy.

Issue 8 and a New Press, Perhaps

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Issue 8 coverWe’ve been thinking that it could be fun to set up a small press. The A3 Press. Same kind of format as The A3 Review and Writing Maps, a place for writers and artists to publish short work. We’re imagining these beautifully designed chapbooks that fold out. Let us know what you think! If you click here, you’ll be taken to the survey.

We’re almost ready to start compiling Issue 8, The Gold Issue. This month is the last opportunity to be included in our next issue. The theme is brief encounters and the deadline is Saturday, 24th February. Quickies, chance meetings, a brief exchange that changes a life. Click here for all the details and some further suggestions. You can also pre-order a copy of Issue 8 here.

For all our future contest themes, check out our Submittable page.

Happy Writing!

Call for submissions for The Corona Book of Science Fiction

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Corona Books UK (www.coronabooks.com) invites submissions of science fiction short stories for its forthcoming The Corona Book of Science Fiction. 

Other than not wanting fan fiction submissions, we’re not imposing any restrictions in terms of SF sub-genres. We want The Corona Book of Science Fiction to embody variety and be a ‘selection box’ of the best in new science fiction writing. We’re simply looking for the best and most original stories, regardless of SF sub-genre and from talented writers no matter how unsung.

Our submission guidelines can be found here http://www.coronabooks.com/sf-book-call/4594156175

The deadline is 12th March 2018. We will acknowledge all submissions on receipt, and will write to all authors, successful and unsuccessful, after the deadline and after our panel has decided which stories to select.

We look forward to hearing from you.