Speculative writers market news 5/1/22

Upcoming submission deadlines:
- 5/15: Poetry Pea (for scifaiku)
- 5/31: Abyss & Apex (for poetry; currently closed for fiction)
- 5/31: Bleached Butterfly
- 5/31: Drabble Harvest Contest
- 5/31: Escape Pod
- 6/30: Soldiers of the Old Ones anthology
- 8/31: It Came from Under the Bed anthology

Temporarily closed to submissions:
- Abyss & Apex: will be open for fiction subs the 1st week in August
- Cemetery Dance: currently closed; unsure when will reopen
- Constraint 280: currently closed
- Devilfish Review: currently closed
- Frozen Wavelets: expects to reopen in spring 2022
- Heliotrope: currently closed; next two issues are full
- Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: next reading period begins 6/1
- Kaleidotrope: closed until 6/1
- Mirror Dance: on hiatus; hoping to reopen in late 2022
- NewMyths: next reading period begins 6/1
- Octavos: currently closed
- On Spec: expects to reopen in the fall
- Outlook Springs: currently closed
- PodCastle: closed to subs until 7/1
- Pseudopod: closed to subs until 8/12
- Space & Time: currently closed
- Strange Horizons: currently closed to fiction; always open to poetry
- Thaumatrope: currently closed
- Wretched Creations Magazine: currently closed
- Wyldblood Press: currently closed to fiction; query for non-fiction or art

January haiku contest deadlines, other market news

Haiku poets have plenty of submission options this month. The following contests close in January:

Bloodroot Haiku Award: 1/12
     - $60 and $30 prizes
     - $5 entry fee for non-NCPS members
     - US postmark deadline: 1/6
     - Only 1 poem per category

Annual Betty Drevniok Award: 1/22
     - No cash prizes
     - No entry fee
     - Can read previous winning poems on the contest page
     - Up to 3 poems

UHTS “AHA” Haiku/Senryu Contest: 1/31
     - No cash prizes
     - No entry fee
     - Up to 10 poems

Snapshot Press 2020 Haiku Calendar Competition: 1/31
     - $600 in prize money divided among 12 winners
     - $15 entry fee for up to 4 haiku, or $30 for up to 12
     - Published poems OK

It has a deadline of February 1st, but the Utah State Poetry Society Contest has haiku and tanka categories. The haiku category is members-only, but the tanka category is open to anyone.

The Mamba Journal is reading submissions until January 15th. Skylark stops reading on February 1st.

For speculative writers, Space and Time closes to submissions tomorrow (January 2nd) and Freeze Frame Fiction closes on the 31st.

some markets & stuff to read

Ghostlight, the journal of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers, opens for its next reading period on December 1st. This is a good market for writers of horror or dark fiction -- response time is only one month, and they accept reprints. Payment rates are $5/story or $4/poem. There is also an Editor's Choice award given for each issue, which comes with $10 and a year's membership to the GLAHW. Stories should be 500-6000 words.

Emerald Tales is a fiction and poetry journal out of Florida. The editors will accept both snail mail and email submissions, and they pay $40/story or $20/poem. Each issue has a theme; the "Winter Solstice" issue has a deadline of November 1st, and the "Carnivale" issue is open until January 1st.

For Horror Writers Association members, writer and publisher J. Bruce Fuller had a well-written and intriguing article in the September issue of the HWA newsletter (available in the newsletter archives) on "Imagination and Persona in Horror Poetry." I had the unfortunate luck to follow him with my article in the October newsletter, "Trick or Treat: Haiku and Its Place in Dark Poetry." (Marge Simon came up with the title -- thanks Marge!)

Here are a couple of good haiku, courtesy of tinywords (which is hopefully making a comeback) -- one by Ed Markwoski and one by Helga Härle.

two calls for submissions

We have two markets today in need of your submissions. The first comes from speculative poet Joshua Gage:

Many poets sent scifaiku in for the promotional pamphlet that Deborah Kolodji distributed at HNA and WorldCon. So many, in fact, that I was forced to make some really difficult decisions and only choose a few. I went with a more scifi theme, and the final results can be seen here:

http://www.sfpoetry.com/files/Scifaiku_Sampler_Aug2009.pdf

Because this project was so much fun, and because there was such interest in it, I thought I'd put together another pamphlet, this time focused on horror. Please send me your best horror themed haiku (horrorku?), published or unpublished, for this collection. If the poem has been published, please let me know where.

I look forward to reading all your great work!

Send submissions to Josh at pottygok[at]yahoo[dot]com by September 15th.

The Enchanted Conversation is a new online journal focusing on fairy tales. They want short stories, poems, artwork, and articles relating to their theme (which for the first issue will be "Sleeping Beauty") and they'll pay 4 cents/word ($10/poem) via PayPal. They'll be reading submissions until November 15th, unless they receive enough quality work before then.

Now for some unabashed bragging. One of my horror haiku just went live over at Fear and Trembling, and my short story "The Book" is part of the current issue of Sorcerous Signals (with a great illustration by Marge Simon). Bragging over.

market news

Here are some markets that will either be closing or opening to submissions soon:

Abyss & Apex - open for poetry subs through June. (Will reopen to fiction subs in August.)
Acorn - will be open to subs during July and August.
Apex Magazine - will reopen to subs July 1st.
Flashquake - open to flash fiction subs through July 31st.
Frogpond - open to subs through August 1st.
Goblin Fruit - reopens to subs (fantasy poetry only) on July 9th.
Star*Line - open to subs for its prose poem issue now. Will reopen to general poetry subs July 1st.
Tales of the Talisman - closed for now, but will reopen to subs from July 1st through August 15th.
Vestal Review - reopens to subs (flash fiction) in August.

And here are some other paying markets to submit to:

Leading Edge - pays 1 cent/word for fiction ($10 minimum) and $10 per poem (if longer than 4 pages, $1.50 extra per page). Also provides two contributor copies.
Mayfly - pays $10/haiku.
OG's Speculative Fiction - pays $35/story and $10/poem.
The Pedestal Magazine - pays 8 cents/word for fiction and $40 per poem. From June 28th to August 14th, will only be considering flash fiction (1000 words or less).