June, 2026 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

Book Worms Horror Zine, Issue #11: “Summer” Theme
https://rsaintclaire.com/2026/04/21/call-for-submissions-book-worms-11/
Payment: 8 cents a word ($25 flat for poetry)
Story Length: up to 1,500 words
Deadline: June 15, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Summer Camp horror! We want your creepiest, campiest horror stories to share around the fire…
**Note: This publisher accepts submissions ONLY via postal mail

The Book of Demons (edited by V. Castro; published by Flame Tree Press)
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/the-book-of-demons-call-for-submissions
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: 2,000–4,000 words
Deadline: June 7, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: Generally within 4 months of the submission deadline
Description: The demons in your story could derive from an existing belief or culture, could be newly imagined, or could be a metaphor for human tragedy and struggles. We want your unique, horror-inflected, interpretation for this next anthology of stories, all about the otherworld of demons. This will be a fascinating new anthology for our Beyond & Within series.

Adventitious e-Magazine
https://www.adventitious.net/submission-guidelines/
Payment: 8 cents a word (1 cent/word for reprints)
Story Length: up to 17,000 words
Deadline: Open between June 1 and June 5, 2025
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Within 8 weeks
Description: Stories that offer a sense of wonder through their language, characters, plots, or all of the above. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and all speculative/surreal will always be welcomed, but we’re also happy with stories that shock and delight right here on this plane of existence.
NOTE: This publisher institutes a 200-submission cap.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact
https://www.analogsf.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
Payment: 8–10 cents a word (9 cents a word for non-fiction)
Story Length: up to 20,000 words
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: 2–3 months
Description: Science fiction stories in which some aspect of future science or technology is so integral to the plot that, if that aspect were removed, the story would collapse.

Mergnaser Magazine
https://mergansermagazine.com/about.html
Payment: 8 cents a word ($1/line for poetry)
Story Length: up to 2,000 words (soft limit)
Deadline: No closing date listed
Reprints?: No
Response: Within three months
Description: Open to all genres: Strong, well-written pieces across a wide range of material, including fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry.

Reckoning
https://reckoning.press/submit/
Payment: 15 cents a word
Story Length: up to 15,000 words
Deadline: intermittent. Currently open.
Reprints?: Yes
Response: 4 months
Description: Creative writing, art, poetry, and essays about environmental justice; any aspect of environmental justice, from food sovereignty to ocean plastics to industrial cleanup to Indigenous rights, we want to see it. Diverse work including a speculative element: Searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be..

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***Non-PRO-Paying Market, but Eric J. Guignard’s “Pick of the Month”

Mertails (anthology)
https://www.tfpublishing.com.au/anthology-calls
Payment: 1 cent a word (AU)
Story Length: 2,000–10,000 words
Deadline: June 30, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: unknown
Description: Original takes on merfolks or something a little more exotic. Fantasy, Sci Fi, or related genres; the story should be primarily focused on the merfolk way of life, and any adaptations they may need to thrive in the world - especially if they spend time out of the water. It is the editor’s very strong preference that the merfolk do not have a human form.

Trollbreath Magazine
https://magazine.trollbreath.com/submissions/
Payment: 4 cents a word (1 cent a word for reprints); $25 flat rate for poetry
Story Length: 1,500–7,500 words (prefer 4,000–5,000)
Deadline: October 31, 2026
Reprints?: Yes (paid at 1/2 cent/ word)
Response: Within 60 days
Description: Non-themed speculative fiction, poetry, and non-fiction; from dark fantasy to hope punk to surrealism, and everything in between.

Crooked Spine
https://crookedspinepress.com/submissions
Payment: $20 flat rate for short fiction/ $5 flat rate for poetry
Story Length: 1,500–3,500 words
Deadline: June 17, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: July 1, 2026
Description: All shades of horror are welcome for the debut issue, including short fiction, poems, and art.