Submission Opportunities: March 2025

What’s better than your favorite sandwich for lunch? Eating it while knocking out submission goals. Each month, Story Street shares open or upcoming submission opportunities we’re looking at to get you hungry for publication. Grab a sandwich, be a grinder, and sink your teeth into those subs! 

You can join Story Street for a live submission party on our YouTube live stream. Monday, March 3 starting at 1pm EST. Hopefully the first of many monthly such streams. Join the chat, follow along while you eat your lunch and submit some kick-butt writing along with us!

---

The Disappointed Housewife| Deadline: None

The Disappointed Housewife is open year-round and seeks offbeat fiction, poetry, and essays. Writers may submit up to 1,000 words for fiction and essays and up to three poems. Submissions must be pasted into an email provided in the submission guidelines. Bonus: The editors tend to respond quickly (within 30 days)!

Fee: $0 | Pay: $0

Type: Fiction/Poetry/Essays

Notes: No reprints. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify the editors immediately if accepted elsewhere.

---

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest| Deadline: May 1

Sponsored by Winning Writers and Duotrope, the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest gives away $3,500 for the winning Fiction and Essay submissions. The top two winners also receive two-year gift certificates from Duotrope. In addition, ten honorable mentions receive $500 each. The final judge is Mina Manchester, assisted by Sarah Halper. The length limit is 6,000 words. Bonus: Winning Writers provides a helpful entry checklist.

Fee: $25 | Pay: Prize money for winners.

Type: Fiction/Essays

Notes: Published and unpublished work acceptable and multiple entries.

---

The Missouri Review | Deadline: none

Fee: $4 | Pay: per printed page

Type: Fiction / Poetry / Essays / Omnibus book reviews

Notes: Pieces that don’t fit a given issue may still be considered for The Missouri Review’s online anthology, BLAST.

---

Indiana Review | Deadline: March 31

The Indiana Review asks for you best ‘carefully strange’ work! The word count limit is 6,000 for fiction+creative nonfiction; for poetry, it is 3-6 poems (max 12 pages).

Fee: $3 | Pay: $5 per printed page

Type: Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction

Notes: The Indiana Review’s Poetry Prize and Creative Nonfiction Prize are also open until the 31st. Entry to both costs $20, and both prizes award $1000.

---

Michigan Quarterly Review | Deadline: April 1

Fee: $3 | Pay: n/a

Type: Prose / Poetry / Translations

Notes: Stories and poems accepted for publication may be passed on to judges for prize consideration — at no additional fee. Check their submissions guidelines for full details!

---

It Came from the Trailer Park! | Deadline: July 1

Creature feature style anthology from Three Ravens Publishing. This year focused on Creepy Killer Clowns. “Think Pennywise, Killer Clowns from Outerspace, or John Wayne Gacy.”

Fee: $0 | Pay: Sales distributed evenly among authors.

Type: Fiction / Horror

Notes: 5000-10,000 words.

---

Beast Under Your Bed Anthology | Deadline: Open until full

Young Adult Horror Anthology. Short stories in the tradition of R.L. Stein or Christopher Pike.

Fee: $0 | Pay: None

Type: Fiction / Horror

Notes: 3000-10,000 words. Open deadline for now. They also have other horror anthologies accepting submissions.

---

Untold Tales Podcast | Deadline: Ongoing

A bi-weekly fiction podcast that specializes in in Sci-fi sub-genres (such as steampunk, fantasy, space opera, etc). If you think it’d be fun to have a story produced into an audio drama, send them your story.

Fee: $0 | Pay: None

Type: Fiction / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Speculative

Notes: 2000-5,500 words.

---

Beyond the Grave Mystery Novellas | Deadline: May 31

Selecting 6 novellas with the theme “Beyond the Grave” to be published over the year. “The novellas must strongly embody the theme, but may be in any subgenre of mystery fiction (cozy, noir, procedural, detective, amateur, historical), or have cross-genre elements (romantic elements/romance, paranormal, speculative).”

Fee: $0 | Pay: Negotiable, royalty-bearing contract

Type: Fiction / Flash Fiction

Notes: 20,000 – 40,000 word novellas.

---

Archive of the Odd | Deadline: May 15

A biannual magazine of found fiction—stories told in the style of found footage, also known epistolary, neo-epistolary, found file, or found document fiction.

Fee: $0 | Pay: None

Type: Fiction / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Speculative

Notes: 500-8,000 words is preferred for the main magazine, but you can check the Long Fiction Guidelines for longer pieces that you feel may fit!

---