Subs and Grinders: Submission Calls for January 2025

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

---

Three-Lobed Burning Eye | Deadline: January 15

United States-based magazine founded in 1999 that publishes speculative fiction.

Fee: No | Pay: Per piece: $30

Type: Fiction

Notes: Genre-friendly. Do not accept simultaneous submissions.

---

Phantom Worlds: The Cellar Door: Issue # 6 | Deadline: January 31

The Cellar Door is a ‘micro-anthology’ of dark fiction. Each issue is based around a theme. The theme for this issue is Phantom Worlds. Think “The Otherworld of Silent Hill. The Upside Down of Stranger Things. The Other Side in Fringe. Looking for horror stories that take place when alternate realities invade our own.“

Fee: No | Pay: $50 + digital & paperback copy

Type: Fiction

Notes: They accept simultaneous submissions, but state in your email.

---

Shenandoah Fiction Submissions | Deadline: Opens Jan. 15 for 800 Submissions

Editorial Fellow Anes Ahmed will consider the submissions. There will not be any theme restrictions but he is looking for: “…all types of fascinations, panoramas and menageries. But, if it is of any value, I find myself chronically obsessed and drawn towards subversion, lingual and historical experimentations, as well as certain archetypes within prose—the destructive despot, the vanishing artist, the beautiful revolutionary, the anti-flaneur employee, the lost citizen, the consequential progenitor, the animate insentience, & the brief lover. Additionally, stories whose settings, characters, and telling exists outside the mythological container that is America are particularly welcome. The ideal word count would be 3,000 to 4,000 words, but if you’re a rule breaker like me, you’ll break whatever rules necessary to tell the full truth of your story.”

Fee: No | Pay: TBD

Type: Fiction (Short stories and Novel excerpts)

Notes: Only accepts submissions through Submittable and closes at 800 submissions received.

---

The First Line |Deadline: February 1

The first line of each story must use the provided first line unaltered. Entries are encouraged to be between 300 and 5,000 words. The first sentence for the spring entry is:

Jayce recognized the man right away but couldn’t remember his name.

Fee: No | Pay: $25.00 – $50.00 for fiction, $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction + a copy of the issue

Type: All Genres accepted

Note: Do not accept simultaneous submissions or previously published work. All writers must include a two- to three-sentence bio.

---

Third Street Review | Deadline: February 28

Third Street Review is located in Laguna Beach, California. From February 1-28, 2025, they will accept fiction and creative nonfiction (up to 1,000) words, poetry (up to 3 poems in one document), art, and photography. Please see their website for details.

Fee: $3 | Pay: $25 (via PayPal)

Type: Open to all/most styles and topics.

Notes: Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Reprints are not allowed.

---

Fractured Lit | Deadline: Always Open for Flash & Micro Fiction/5th Anthology Contest Submissions Due February 2, 2025

Fractured Lit publishes microfiction (up to 400 words) and flash fiction (401-1,000) words year-round. They also feature new writers on Mondays and Thursdays and provide periodic contest opportunities. There is also an open contest for micro/flash fiction submissions to The Fractured Lit Anthology Volume 5, judged by Tara Isabel Zambrano. Twenty winners will each receive $250. Please see website for details.

Fee: $0 for year-round flash/micro fiction; $20 for anthology submissions| Pay: $50 for original Micro Fiction and $75 for original Flash Fiction; $250 per winner (20 winners)

Type: Open to all/most styles and topics.

Notes: Previously published fiction is considered (contests excluded) if the writer retains or obtains appropriate rights. However, they do not pay for reprints.

---

Lowestoft Chronicle |Deadline: February 15

Publishes a variety of genres and specialize in humorous, travel-centric stories.

Fee: No | Pay: No payment

Type: Fiction, Poetry, and Non-Fiction up to 3,000 words

Note: Accepts simultaneous submissions but no previously published work. Priority is given to shorter pieces.

---

Five Minutes | Rolling deadlines

Micro-memoirs. 100 word pieces about 5 minutes in your life.

Fee: No | Pay: No payment

Type: Memoir of exactly 100 words

Note: Accepts simultaneous submissions but no previously published work. Publishes 4 days per week.

---

The Other Stories Podcast | Deadline: February 1 (Repeating Monthly)

A weekly fiction podcast with a monthly theme that specializes in horror/sci-fi/thriller. If you think it’d be fun to have a story produced into an audio drama, this might be for you.

Fee: No | Pay: Not listed

Type: Fiction

Notes: Stories must be 2000 words (+/- 10%). Reprints sometimes allowed.