10 Calls for Short Stories ($100+ Per Story)

These magazines pay up to $100 for fiction, and a few pay significantly more. Some also publish other genres, like non-fiction, cross-genre work, and poetry. A few have really short submission windows, with rapidly approaching deadlines. – S. Kalekar

Electric Literature: The Commuter
Electric Lit’s The Commuter is a space for poetry, flash, graphic, and experimental narratives. It publishes weekly and they have just opened a brief submission period for prose. Send either one standalone or three short, connected flash fiction pieces. They will be open for comic and graphic narrative submissions soon (16-23 December 2019).
Deadline: 9 December 2019 for prose
Length: Up to 1,500 words
Pay: $100
Details here

Escape Artists: Cast of Wonders
This is a YA podcast and online magazine. They want stories aimed at the 12-17-year age range. Stories should “evoke a sense of wonder, have deep emotional resonance, and have something unreal about them.” They publish fantasy, sci-fi, horror, comedysteampunk, age-appropriate paranormal romancesuperheroes and many other genres. They also accept reprints.
Deadline: 15 December 2019
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.


Gay Mag
Apart from cultural criticism, personal essays, artwork and photography, this online magazine also publishes short fiction. They are looking for work on the themes of Community and Power. They accept pitches for essays.
Deadline: 16 December 2019 for Community; 16 March 2020 for Power
Length: Can accept more work in the shorter (1,200 words) than longer (3,500 words) range
Pay: $1/word
Details here.

Zombies Need Brains
They need stories for three science fiction and fantasy anthologies. They are looking for a range of tones, from humorous all the way up to dark. They want stories which use the theme in an unusual and unexpected way, and those will get preference. Apocalyptic willfeature science fiction or fantasy stories set during or after an apocalypse (of any kind); Galactic Stew will feature stories involving food, whether it be poisoning, a cultural or societal ritual, a trade meeting over dinner, etc (no cannibalism); and My Battery is Low and it is Getting Dark will feature stories where some type of tech has outlived its time and yet, during the course of the story, it discovers a new purpose or is used in a new, purposeful way (the theme is inspired by the Opportunity rover).  
Deadline: 31 December 2019
Length: Up to 7,500 words
Pay: Minimum $0.08/word
Details here.


The Stinging Fly
This Irish magazine publishes fiction and poetry from Ireland and abroad, and they have a particular interest in promoting the short story. They also publish commissioned essays, occasional author interviews and novel extracts, and have a ‘Featured Poet’ section by poets working toward their first collection (see guidelines). They welcome translations of poetry and prose.
Deadline: 16 January 2020
Length: No length guidelines for fiction; up to 3 poems
Pay: €25/page for fiction and nonfiction; €40 for single poem/magazine page; €200 for Featured Poet
Details here.

Bennington Review
This literary magazine aims to carve out a “distinctive space for innovative, intelligent, and moving fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing and cross-genre work.” They are particularly taken with writing that is simultaneously graceful and reckless.
Deadline: 15 May 2020
Length: Up to 30 pages of prose; 3-5 poems; 10-20 pages of film (or TV) writing
Pay: $100-200 for prose; $20/poem
Details here.

Grain Magazine
This Canadian literary magazine accepts work from around the world and publishes fiction, poetry, and literary non-fiction. Queries for submissions of work in other forms (i.e. short plays, comics, etc.) are welcome. Visual art submissions are usually by invitation, though queries are welcome.
Deadline: 15 May 2020
Length: Up to 3,500 words for prose; up to 6 pages for poetry
Pay: $50/page, up to $250
Details here.

Reckoning
They want creative writing about environmental justice. Their guidelines say, “Fiction preferably at least a tiny bit speculative, nonfiction preferably more creative than journalistic, poetry tending towards the narrative and preferably with some thematic heft, art leaning away from the pulpy heavily towards the political. But the heart of what we want is your searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be, as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth.” They actively seek work from Indigenous writers and artists, writers and artists of color, queer and transgender writers and artists, and anyone who has suffered the consequences, intended or otherwise, of dominant society’s systemic disconnect with and mistreatment of the natural world. They welcome translations.
Deadline: 22 September 2020
Length: 0-45,000 words for prose; 3-5 poems
Pay: $0.08/word for prose; $30/page for poetry; minimum $25/piece of art
Details here.

Daily Science Fiction
This flash fiction market accepts speculative stories. They also accept flash series, of three or more stories around a theme; each story needs to stand on its own. They may publish dark fantasy, but they try not to publish pure horror. They also publish artwork.
Deadline: Rolling; not accepting submissions from 24 December to 2 January 2020
Length: 100-1,500 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.

tdotSpec
This Canadian magazine publishes speculative fiction. There are no theme restrictions. They also publish review and non-fiction articles (though these are unpaid), speculative poetry, and graphic format stories and comics. They also accept reprints of fiction and poetry. 
Deadline: Unspecified; open on Mondays for submissions
Length: 100-10,000 words for fiction; up to 3 poems
Pay: 1.5c/word for fiction; 25c/line for poetry (Canadian)
Details here.


Author Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She is the author of 182 Short Fiction Publishers. She can be reached here.

 

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