Call for Submissions: Into the Deep, Dark Woods Anthology

Submission Guidelines for Into the Deep, Dark Woods

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INTO THE DEEP, DARK WOODS

The deep, dark woods—a place of mystery, where beauty and danger walk hand in hand among fallen leaves, dappled sunlight, and twisted shadows. A place of fairy tales, secrets, and monsters.

Into the Deep, Dark Woods is an anthology exploring the magic and mystery of the primeval wilderness, where tangled branches create a foreboding canopy. Think of the creatures that inhabit the forest and the people who stumble upon them. Behind a towering hickory could be a fairy circle, a dragon’s lair, or a druid’s cairn. The deep, dark woods lurk everywhere—on an alien planet, in the wilderness of a virtual world, or even in your own backyard.

Your story might be about a desperate lost hiker who bargains with a forest creature to find the way home; revolutionaries who combat AI-powered logging machines; a bamboo forest with wish-granting pandas who have a twisted sense of humor; someone hiding from a deadly stalker; or a wood fairy and human whose ill-fated romance might just work out after all.

Make us shiver. Make us wonder. Be mysterious, humorous, dark, romantic, or spine-chilling. But your story must take place in the one setting where anything is possible—the deep, dark woods.

Step off the path and into a world where every tree tells a story and every clearing offers a choice. The deeper you go, the darker it gets. The darker it gets, the more interesting the light becomes.

Welcome to the woods. Try not to get lost.

Genre: Original fiction and poetry in the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, suspense, mystery, humor, and romance, appropriate for up to a “PG-13” audience. The setting of “deep, dark woods” must be central to the story. Diverse cultures and non-traditional legends and persons welcomed. No copyrighted characters or worlds. Original stories only that have never been published in any format.

Edited by Kevin J. Anderson and Allyson Longueira with an editorial team provided by Western Colorado University Graduate Program in Creative Writing, Publishing MA students. Anthology made possible by a generous contribution from Draft2Digital.

PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES CAREFULLY

Length: up to 5000 words (firm limit)

Rate: 6¢/word on acceptance.

Rights: First Anthology Rights, print, ebook, and audiobook. Rights revert to author one month after publication; publisher retains non-exclusive rights to include the story in the anthology as a whole.

Due: We are open to submissions from September 1 through October 15, 2025.  Final acceptances or rejections will be made by December 2025.

Submit: A Microsoft Word or RTF file in standard manuscript format to https://wordfirewestern.moksha.io/publication/into-the-deep-dark-woods.  If you don’t know what standard manuscript format is, review (for example) Basic Manuscript Format. Submissions not in standard manuscript format may be rejected without being read.

One story or poem submitted per person, please. And NO Simultaneous Submissions—that means, if you send a story to us, DO NOT send it to another publication at the same time. If it is currently under submission somewhere else, DO NOT send it to us.

AI Policy: AI offers tools that many writers find useful, but YOU MUST WRITE YOUR OWN STORY. Your work cannot contain an appreciable amount of AI-generated content and must be fully copyrightable, per the US Copyright Office. You will be required to attest to this in the submission process. For guidance, see Amazon’s rules on the subject at https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390