PFN – Call for Submissions to F(r)iction. Theme: Censored

For this issue, F(r)iction seeks to uncover the redacted with Censored! Let’s investigate the burning of books, witches, and bridges as we delve into all things sanitized. What are the secrets a family withholds about their past? What histories do we bury, whitewash, or blackout? What voices are lost to time, imprisoned, and expunged? Bring us stories, poetry and creative nonfiction that wants to hide truths, or protect others from them. Join us as we contemplate blacklists, consider authoritarianism, and debate the trade off between freedom and safety. Imagine an microchip in a person’s brain that keeps them from talking about certain things… and how it might go wrong. Ponder a dress code that erases identity completely. Or maybe the part of yourself you obscure to fit in. Question a person scouring their socials to delete their younger self for a job. Send us your writing that interrogates obfuscation, from without, and within.

Form:

• Short stories: 1,001 – 7,500 words
• Creative nonfiction: up to 6,500 words
• Flash fiction: (up to three pieces in the same document) up to 1,000 words per piece
• Poetry: (up to five poems in the same document) up the three pages per poem

Our Submission Guidelines

We accept work, written in English, from anywhere in the world—regardless of genre, style, or origin—and welcome speculative writing and experimental literature.

We read all submissions anonymously. Please include your name and contact information in your cover letter only and remove any identifying information from both the submitted manuscript and the file name as well.

We accept, and encourage, simultaneous submissions and only ask that you withdraw your piece(s) using Submittable upon acceptance elsewhere.

There is a small reading fee for general F(r)iction submissions ($2.50), but authors accepted will be awarded payment for their work. Our staff is almost entirely comprised of volunteers, so this fee goes toward paying all the contributors who are printed in our beautiful pages. F(r)iction pays contributors $10 per final printed page, plus two contributor copies.

We edit every piece accepted for publication; for this collaborative process we will pair you with one of our Senior Editors. All our editors have been trained to help guide the development of each piece to reach its fullest potential in keeping with the author’s vision. This does not mean we will take on a wild jumble of words and half-formed musings. But it does mean that we value your work and want to help each piece to be as unforgettable as possible.

We respond to every submission as quickly as possible, usually within one or two months.

Other notes:
● All genres are welcome, but especially those that celebrate the weird, take risks with form and content, and are driven by a strong, unique voice.
● All work must be previously unpublished. This means if your work has appeared in any print or online source (this includes personal blogs, websites, and social media pages), we cannot accept it.
● No AI submissions: We currently do not accept work from artificial intelligence (“AI”) generators or similar.