Anathema

Full details

Who Can Submit?

You must be a queer/two-spirit person of colour/Indigenous/Aboriginal* to submit to Anathema.

Windows and Response Times

Anathema is open to unsolicited submissions year round. 

Our first round response time is usually under 8 weeks; please query after 8 weeks if you haven't heard from us.

Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry

Fiction: 1,500-6,000 words (soft min/max, but please within that general range). Original fiction only, no reprints. Must have some speculative content, however slight. No restriction on genre.

Non-Fiction: 1,500-3,000 words (soft min/max, but please within that general range). Original content only, no reprints.

Poetry: Under 100 lines, any form — traditional, free, and/or experimental. (Prose poetry may exceed this stated limit). Original content only, no reprints. Must have some speculative content, however slight.

Simultaneous Submissions: Yes. Please do notify us if you sell your sub somewhere else so we can remove it from consideration.

Multiple Submissions: No for fiction/non-fiction. Yes for poetry (maximum two), included in same email.

Payment: $100 (CAD) for fiction and non-fiction, $50 (CAD) for poetry. Paid on publication. We pay primarily through PayPal, but will arrange other payment methods as necessary.

Rights: First Electronic Rights (Online and eBook). 4 Months exclusivity from date of publication, archiving unless requested to remove story/non-fiction by author. An exemption to the exclusivity period above is granted for reprinting of work in Year's Best and other annuals and related volumes, author collections, and as otherwise agreed upon by both the publisher and the author.

Process and Queries (Fiction, Non-Fiction)

Submissions: Address your e-mails to anathemaspec [at] gmail [dot] com. Please use the Subject line "Submission: [Your Story Title]". Please attach your manuscript file as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf only. We ask that you use Standard Manuscript Formatting when preparing your file. If you wish to pitch us on a non-fiction project instead of submitting a completed piece, please query as below.

Queries: Address your e-mails to anathemaspec [at] gmail [dot] com. If sending a general query, please use the Subject Line "Query: [Your Question]". If querying about the status of a fiction/non-fiction/poetry submission, please use the Subject line "Query: [Your Submission Title]". We try and keep all responses under eight weeks, but sometimes subs go into our spam, and sometimes our responses apparently get eaten by spam filters on the other end. So if we're late sending you a response don’t hesitate to query.

Cover Letters: It's easiest just to address us as either "Dear Editors" or "Dear Michael, Andrew, and Chinelo." Please include your name and the pronouns you'd like us to refer to you by, the length of your story (word count), and a note on how you self-identify for inclusion in Anathema. Full bio and/or publication history (if any, and you don't need to be published already to submit anything to us) are optional.