There are more than four dozen calls for submissions in January. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always, every genre, style, and form is wanted, from short stories to poetry to essays.I post calls for submissions on the first day of every month. But as I am collecting them, I post them on my page, Calls for Submissions. You can get a jump on next month's calls for submissions by checking that page periodically throughout the month. (I only post paying markets.)
Also see Paying Markets for hundreds of paying markets arranged by form and genre.
Happy submitting!
__________________
Cast of Wonders Podcast. Genre: Speculative fiction for teens. Length: 3,000 words max. Payment: 6 cents/word. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
The Temz Review. Genres: Prose (fiction and creative non-fiction) up to 10,000 words long. Payment: $20. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Bluestem. Genre: Fiction, poetry, nonfiction. Payment: $20/poem and $75/prose piece. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Constelación Magazine: Myths and Monsters. Genre: Bilingual Spanish/English speculative fiction. Payment: 8 cents/word. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Dorothy. Genre: Books. "Fiction or near fiction or about fiction, mostly by women." Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Aphotic Realm: Lycanthropy. Genre: Speculative stories about animorphs with a bloody twist. Payment: $10. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Circumference. Genre: New translations of poetry, essays, long-form writing, and drama. Payment: Not specified. Deadline: January 2, 2021.
Havok. Genre: Flash fiction on Theme of Green. Payment: $10 via PayPal for each story published in an Anthology. Deadline: January 3, 2021.
Rialto. Genre: Poetry. Payment: £20. Deadline: January 3, 2021.
Dark Dispatch: Redemption. Genre: Sci fi, fantasy, horror, and crime on theme of Redemption. Payment: $50. Deadline: January 5, 2021.
Scum. Genre: Feminist-friendly work of any variety, but as a general rule your piece should be under 2000 words (50 lines for poetry, max. 3 poems) and able to be classified as “fiction”, “culture”, “memoir”, “column”, “poetry”, and/or “review”. Payment: $60 AUD. Deadline: January 7, 2021. Opens to submissions on January 1.
Jazz House: Twisted Love Anthology. Genre: Romanic gothic horror. "Jazz House wants to read your twisted, dark, and despairing stories about romantic and gothic horror and the people who find love to have a bitter aftertaste." Payment: $75. Deadline: January 8, 2021.
The Stinging Fly. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. Payment: Fiction and nonfiction: €30 per magazine page; Poetry: €50 per poem; Featured Poet: €250. Deadline: January 8, 2021.
Mermaids Monthly. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art on topic of merfolk. Payment: $0.10/word for fiction, $50 – $100 for poems, Comics (up to 5 pages) $75-$100 per page, micro art and word submissions $25, $50 for spot illustrations, $25 – $50 licensing fee for interior and $100 – $150 for cover art licensing reprints, $0.10 per word for non-fiction, $0.01 per word for these with a minimum of $20 if the piece is shorter than 2,000 words for reprints. Deadline: January 9, 2021.
Planet Scumm: Snake Eyes. Restrictions: Open to cisgender women, transgender women, transgender men, non-binary people, and genderqueer people. Genre: Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, speculative fiction, weird fiction, and slipstream on theme of Snake Eyes. Payment: $0.02/word. Deadline: January 10, 2021.
Full Bleed: Archives. Genre: Criticism, fiction, poetry, graphic essays, belles lettres, artwork, design, and illustration. "We are especially interested in submissions on the theme of adaptation. In this time of accelerating change, we invite artists, designers, and writers to reflect on the various ways that ecological, technological, and social conditions have necessitated and will necessitate reinvention, hard resets, or new modes of coping, working, living, and thinking." Payment: Modest honorarium. Deadline: January 10, 2021.
Midnight & Indigo. Restrictions: Open to black women. Genre: Fiction, personal essays. Payment: $50 for essays, and $50-$75 for fiction. Deadline: January 10, 2021.
The Other Stories Podcast. Genre: Horror on theme of Lost Civilizations. Payment: $5. Deadline: January 11, 2021.
Wyldblood. Genre: Speculative fiction. Payment: £0.01 per word. Deadline: January 14, 2021.
Muse Magazine. Genre: Nonfiction articles for children on theme of Layers of Meaning. Payment: Not specified. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Great Weather for MEDIA: Annual Print Anthology. Genres: Poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction. "Our focus is on the fearless, the unpredictable, and experimental but we do not have a set theme for our anthologies." Payment: $10. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Stellium is a literary magazine centering Black queer and trans prose writers. (Other Black and QTPOC writers accepted.) Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art. Payment: $50. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
The Periodical, Forlorn. Genre: Dark and creepy stories that give us an unusual spin on vampiric items or people. Payment: $15. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness. Genre: Speculative stories about queer witches, "the knife edge between the sacred and the profane, and infinite darkness." Payment: 8 cents/word. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: I’m Speaking Now: Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope. Genre: True stories and poems. “We’re looking for everything from the serious to the silly. There will be 101 stories, so we can go wide and deep, and we’d like to share stories from Black women of all ages, from late teens to women in their nineties.” Payment: $200. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Channel. Genre: Short stories, poetry, and essays that engage with the natural world. Payment: €40 per poem and €40 per page of prose up to a total maximum fee of €120. Contributors will also receive a copy of whichever issue their work appears within. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Women Artists Datebook. Genre: Poems and artwork by women on theme of social justice. Payment: $70. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Rattle. Genre: Poetry. Theme: Tribute to Appalachian Poets. Payment: $200. Deadline: January 16, 2021.
Gypsum Sound Tales: COLP: Underground. Genre: Short stories, all genres on theme of Underground. Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words. Deadline: January 17, 2021.
Ruminate. Genre: Short nonfiction (See themes). Payment: $20/400 words for prose, and $20/image for visual art. Deadline: January 20, 2021.
Electric Literature: The Commuter. Genre: Poetry, short fiction. Payment: $100. Deadline: January 24, 2021. Opens January 18.
Electric Literature: Recommended Reading. Genre: Short fiction between 2,000 and 10,000 words. Payment: $300. Deadline: January 24, 2021. Opens January 18.
The Other Stories Podcast. Genre: Horror on theme of Government Experiments. Payment: $5. Deadline: January 25, 2021.
Luna Novella for Speculative Scotland. Restrictions: Open to all writers who call Scotland their home, irrespective of place of birth or ethnicity. All levels welcome (unpublished, published, solo or agented). Genre: Speculative fiction novellas. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 26, 2021.
Every Day Fiction. Genre: Flash fiction up to 1000 words. Payment: $3. Deadline: January 27, 2021.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Eldercare. Genre: True stories and poems. "Eldercare on an ongoing basis is a very difficult task, whether the care is in your home, the person’s home, or an outside facility. Eldercare requires the caregiver to be patient, kind, compassionate and giving. And having a little humor doesn’t hurt! Are you providing eldercare for a spouse, partner, or sibling due to dementia, chronic illness, permanent physical or mental disabilities, or just plain old age? Did you move in with an older family member to care for him or her? Are you part of the “sandwich” generation—caring for a parent and a child at the same time?" Payment: $200. Deadline: January 30, 2021.
Dragon Soul Press: Valiance. Genre: Fiction on theme of Valiance. "Female samurai are rarely written in books and are shrouded in mystery. With no limitation on genre, the only special requirement for this anthology is that a female samurai be the main character in each of these stories." Word Count – 5,000-15,000. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
Last Girls Club. Genre: Feminist horror: short stories and poems on theme of Strange Births. Payment: Short Story-$20 upon acceptance and copy of magazine; Art-$15 for full page; Poems-$15 less than 200 words. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
The Great Void. Genre: Speculative fiction. Length: 4000 - 15,000 words. See themes. Payment: 30% of profits shared equally among contributors. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
Shenandoah. Genre: Novel excerpts, short stories, and essays. Payment: $100 per 1000 words of prose up to $500. Deadline: January 31st, 2021. Opens January 15.
The Rumpus. Genre: Fiction, Poetry. "We strive to be a platform for marginalized voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere, and to lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers we love. We work to shine a light on stories that build bridges, tear down walls, and speak truth to power." Payment: $300 divided among all contributors. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
Muswell Press: Queer Life, Queer Love. Genre: Non-fiction pieces, short stories, flash fiction and poetry. "What do we mean by Queer? We are looking for writing that explores characters and experiences beyond mainstream society. Celebrating the fascinating, the forbidden, the alien, the subversive, the view of the outsider." Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Please See Me. Genre: Poetry, creative nonfiction/essays, fiction/short stories/flash fiction, and digital media (photography, drawings, podcasts, and short films) on theme of Hope. "We are especially looking for content that connects us, make us feel something, or helps us see illness, wellness, health, or the healthcare environment differently." Payment: Not specified. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
The New Gothic Review. Genre: Gothic fiction. Payment: $30. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Room. Genre: Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art. "We invite creatives to submit work that centres storytelling from Indigenous perspectives, methods, and forms. We envision this special issue to encompass different communities coming together with a shared vision of Indigenous resurgence: one that exists through the act of making space for ourselves and each other, through community building, and through the radical act of living and loving. This issue encourages writing and visual art, as well as diverse non-literary art forms to be submitted." Payment: All contributors will be paid upon publication: $50 CAD for one page, $60 for two pages, $90 for three pages, $120 for four pages, $150 for five or more pages. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Nashville Review. Genre: Fiction, poetry, art, and nonfiction. Payment: $25 per poem & song selection; $100 per selection for all other categories, including featured artwork. Translators receive $25 per poem & $100 for prose selections. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Quommunicate Publishing: Hashtag Queer – LGBTQ+ Creative Anthology, Vol 4. Genre: Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and scripts on LGBTQ+ themes. Payment: $5/page. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Split Lip Magazine. Genre: Fiction (flash and short stories), memoirs, and poetry. with a pop-culture twist. Payment: $50 per author (via PayPal) for our web issues. Payment for print is $5 per page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies and a 1-year subscription. Deadline: January 31, 2021. Note: Submit early in January to avoid submission fees. Free submissions for black writers all year.
Orca. Genre: Literary fiction. Payment: $25. Deadline: January 31st, 2021. Submit early in the month to avoid submission fees.
MORE...
Volney Road Review. Genres: Fiction, poetry, CNF, art. Payment: $10. Deadline: February 1, 2021.
The First Line. Genres: Fiction, poetry, nonfiction using the first line provided. (See site.) Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction. Deadline: February 1, 2021.
The Southampton Review. Genre: Poetry, prose, art. Payment: Prose: $100+, Poetry: $75 per poem. Illustration: $100 per page. Art Portfolios: $200 for up to 12 images Deadline: February 1, 2021. Submit early in the month to avoid fees.
Also see Paying Markets for hundreds of paying markets arranged by form and genre.
Happy submitting!
__________________
Cast of Wonders Podcast. Genre: Speculative fiction for teens. Length: 3,000 words max. Payment: 6 cents/word. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
The Temz Review. Genres: Prose (fiction and creative non-fiction) up to 10,000 words long. Payment: $20. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Bluestem. Genre: Fiction, poetry, nonfiction. Payment: $20/poem and $75/prose piece. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Constelación Magazine: Myths and Monsters. Genre: Bilingual Spanish/English speculative fiction. Payment: 8 cents/word. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Dorothy. Genre: Books. "Fiction or near fiction or about fiction, mostly by women." Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Aphotic Realm: Lycanthropy. Genre: Speculative stories about animorphs with a bloody twist. Payment: $10. Deadline: January 1, 2021.
Circumference. Genre: New translations of poetry, essays, long-form writing, and drama. Payment: Not specified. Deadline: January 2, 2021.
Havok. Genre: Flash fiction on Theme of Green. Payment: $10 via PayPal for each story published in an Anthology. Deadline: January 3, 2021.
Rialto. Genre: Poetry. Payment: £20. Deadline: January 3, 2021.
Dark Dispatch: Redemption. Genre: Sci fi, fantasy, horror, and crime on theme of Redemption. Payment: $50. Deadline: January 5, 2021.
Scum. Genre: Feminist-friendly work of any variety, but as a general rule your piece should be under 2000 words (50 lines for poetry, max. 3 poems) and able to be classified as “fiction”, “culture”, “memoir”, “column”, “poetry”, and/or “review”. Payment: $60 AUD. Deadline: January 7, 2021. Opens to submissions on January 1.
Jazz House: Twisted Love Anthology. Genre: Romanic gothic horror. "Jazz House wants to read your twisted, dark, and despairing stories about romantic and gothic horror and the people who find love to have a bitter aftertaste." Payment: $75. Deadline: January 8, 2021.
The Stinging Fly. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. Payment: Fiction and nonfiction: €30 per magazine page; Poetry: €50 per poem; Featured Poet: €250. Deadline: January 8, 2021.
Mermaids Monthly. Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art on topic of merfolk. Payment: $0.10/word for fiction, $50 – $100 for poems, Comics (up to 5 pages) $75-$100 per page, micro art and word submissions $25, $50 for spot illustrations, $25 – $50 licensing fee for interior and $100 – $150 for cover art licensing reprints, $0.10 per word for non-fiction, $0.01 per word for these with a minimum of $20 if the piece is shorter than 2,000 words for reprints. Deadline: January 9, 2021.
Planet Scumm: Snake Eyes. Restrictions: Open to cisgender women, transgender women, transgender men, non-binary people, and genderqueer people. Genre: Hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, speculative fiction, weird fiction, and slipstream on theme of Snake Eyes. Payment: $0.02/word. Deadline: January 10, 2021.
Full Bleed: Archives. Genre: Criticism, fiction, poetry, graphic essays, belles lettres, artwork, design, and illustration. "We are especially interested in submissions on the theme of adaptation. In this time of accelerating change, we invite artists, designers, and writers to reflect on the various ways that ecological, technological, and social conditions have necessitated and will necessitate reinvention, hard resets, or new modes of coping, working, living, and thinking." Payment: Modest honorarium. Deadline: January 10, 2021.
Midnight & Indigo. Restrictions: Open to black women. Genre: Fiction, personal essays. Payment: $50 for essays, and $50-$75 for fiction. Deadline: January 10, 2021.
The Other Stories Podcast. Genre: Horror on theme of Lost Civilizations. Payment: $5. Deadline: January 11, 2021.
Wyldblood. Genre: Speculative fiction. Payment: £0.01 per word. Deadline: January 14, 2021.
Muse Magazine. Genre: Nonfiction articles for children on theme of Layers of Meaning. Payment: Not specified. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Great Weather for MEDIA: Annual Print Anthology. Genres: Poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction. "Our focus is on the fearless, the unpredictable, and experimental but we do not have a set theme for our anthologies." Payment: $10. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Stellium is a literary magazine centering Black queer and trans prose writers. (Other Black and QTPOC writers accepted.) Genre: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art. Payment: $50. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
The Periodical, Forlorn. Genre: Dark and creepy stories that give us an unusual spin on vampiric items or people. Payment: $15. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness. Genre: Speculative stories about queer witches, "the knife edge between the sacred and the profane, and infinite darkness." Payment: 8 cents/word. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: I’m Speaking Now: Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope. Genre: True stories and poems. “We’re looking for everything from the serious to the silly. There will be 101 stories, so we can go wide and deep, and we’d like to share stories from Black women of all ages, from late teens to women in their nineties.” Payment: $200. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Channel. Genre: Short stories, poetry, and essays that engage with the natural world. Payment: €40 per poem and €40 per page of prose up to a total maximum fee of €120. Contributors will also receive a copy of whichever issue their work appears within. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Women Artists Datebook. Genre: Poems and artwork by women on theme of social justice. Payment: $70. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Rattle. Genre: Poetry. Theme: Tribute to Appalachian Poets. Payment: $200. Deadline: January 16, 2021.
Gypsum Sound Tales: COLP: Underground. Genre: Short stories, all genres on theme of Underground. Payment: AU$5.00 for stories under 2500 words / AU$10.00 for anything above 2500 words. Deadline: January 17, 2021.
Ruminate. Genre: Short nonfiction (See themes). Payment: $20/400 words for prose, and $20/image for visual art. Deadline: January 20, 2021.
Electric Literature: The Commuter. Genre: Poetry, short fiction. Payment: $100. Deadline: January 24, 2021. Opens January 18.
Electric Literature: Recommended Reading. Genre: Short fiction between 2,000 and 10,000 words. Payment: $300. Deadline: January 24, 2021. Opens January 18.
The Other Stories Podcast. Genre: Horror on theme of Government Experiments. Payment: $5. Deadline: January 25, 2021.
Luna Novella for Speculative Scotland. Restrictions: Open to all writers who call Scotland their home, irrespective of place of birth or ethnicity. All levels welcome (unpublished, published, solo or agented). Genre: Speculative fiction novellas. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 26, 2021.
Every Day Fiction. Genre: Flash fiction up to 1000 words. Payment: $3. Deadline: January 27, 2021.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Eldercare. Genre: True stories and poems. "Eldercare on an ongoing basis is a very difficult task, whether the care is in your home, the person’s home, or an outside facility. Eldercare requires the caregiver to be patient, kind, compassionate and giving. And having a little humor doesn’t hurt! Are you providing eldercare for a spouse, partner, or sibling due to dementia, chronic illness, permanent physical or mental disabilities, or just plain old age? Did you move in with an older family member to care for him or her? Are you part of the “sandwich” generation—caring for a parent and a child at the same time?" Payment: $200. Deadline: January 30, 2021.
Dragon Soul Press: Valiance. Genre: Fiction on theme of Valiance. "Female samurai are rarely written in books and are shrouded in mystery. With no limitation on genre, the only special requirement for this anthology is that a female samurai be the main character in each of these stories." Word Count – 5,000-15,000. Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
Last Girls Club. Genre: Feminist horror: short stories and poems on theme of Strange Births. Payment: Short Story-$20 upon acceptance and copy of magazine; Art-$15 for full page; Poems-$15 less than 200 words. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
The Great Void. Genre: Speculative fiction. Length: 4000 - 15,000 words. See themes. Payment: 30% of profits shared equally among contributors. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
Shenandoah. Genre: Novel excerpts, short stories, and essays. Payment: $100 per 1000 words of prose up to $500. Deadline: January 31st, 2021. Opens January 15.
The Rumpus. Genre: Fiction, Poetry. "We strive to be a platform for marginalized voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere, and to lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers we love. We work to shine a light on stories that build bridges, tear down walls, and speak truth to power." Payment: $300 divided among all contributors. Deadline: January 31st, 2021.
Muswell Press: Queer Life, Queer Love. Genre: Non-fiction pieces, short stories, flash fiction and poetry. "What do we mean by Queer? We are looking for writing that explores characters and experiences beyond mainstream society. Celebrating the fascinating, the forbidden, the alien, the subversive, the view of the outsider." Payment: Royalties. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Please See Me. Genre: Poetry, creative nonfiction/essays, fiction/short stories/flash fiction, and digital media (photography, drawings, podcasts, and short films) on theme of Hope. "We are especially looking for content that connects us, make us feel something, or helps us see illness, wellness, health, or the healthcare environment differently." Payment: Not specified. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
The New Gothic Review. Genre: Gothic fiction. Payment: $30. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Room. Genre: Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art. "We invite creatives to submit work that centres storytelling from Indigenous perspectives, methods, and forms. We envision this special issue to encompass different communities coming together with a shared vision of Indigenous resurgence: one that exists through the act of making space for ourselves and each other, through community building, and through the radical act of living and loving. This issue encourages writing and visual art, as well as diverse non-literary art forms to be submitted." Payment: All contributors will be paid upon publication: $50 CAD for one page, $60 for two pages, $90 for three pages, $120 for four pages, $150 for five or more pages. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Nashville Review. Genre: Fiction, poetry, art, and nonfiction. Payment: $25 per poem & song selection; $100 per selection for all other categories, including featured artwork. Translators receive $25 per poem & $100 for prose selections. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Quommunicate Publishing: Hashtag Queer – LGBTQ+ Creative Anthology, Vol 4. Genre: Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and scripts on LGBTQ+ themes. Payment: $5/page. Deadline: January 31, 2021.
Split Lip Magazine. Genre: Fiction (flash and short stories), memoirs, and poetry. with a pop-culture twist. Payment: $50 per author (via PayPal) for our web issues. Payment for print is $5 per page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies and a 1-year subscription. Deadline: January 31, 2021. Note: Submit early in January to avoid submission fees. Free submissions for black writers all year.
Orca. Genre: Literary fiction. Payment: $25. Deadline: January 31st, 2021. Submit early in the month to avoid submission fees.
MORE...
Volney Road Review. Genres: Fiction, poetry, CNF, art. Payment: $10. Deadline: February 1, 2021.
The First Line. Genres: Fiction, poetry, nonfiction using the first line provided. (See site.) Payment: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $5.00 - $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction. Deadline: February 1, 2021.
The Southampton Review. Genre: Poetry, prose, art. Payment: Prose: $100+, Poetry: $75 per poem. Illustration: $100 per page. Art Portfolios: $200 for up to 12 images Deadline: February 1, 2021. Submit early in the month to avoid fees.
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