{"id":900116,"date":"2026-10-12T12:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/2026\/10\/12\/open-call-for-short-fiction\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T23:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T23:22:20","slug":"open-call-for-short-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/2026\/10\/12\/open-call-for-short-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Call for Short Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Astounding Outpost is open to short-fiction submissions for our regular periodical and future themed anthologies.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended length<\/p>\n<p>We prefer short stories between 1,500 and 5,000 words.<\/p>\n<p>Human writing<\/p>\n<p>The Outpost focuses on human writing. We will consider work created with AI assistance, but we do not accept AI-generated fiction.<\/p>\n<p>Our regular periodical is an open call, although we especially welcome stories that fit one of the themes below. Each themed call will remain open until we have accepted enough stories to produce an anthology of roughly 350 pages, combining new work with classic material.<\/p>\n<p>Current themed calls<\/p>\n<p>Weird West<\/p>\n<p>Science fiction, steampunk, supernatural, and fantasy stories set in the Old West.<\/p>\n<p>Midnight Blood<\/p>\n<p>Vampire stories.<\/p>\n<p>Goblins, Gunslingers, &amp; Gangsters<\/p>\n<p>Fantasy stories featuring gunpowder and firearms. These may be flintlock fantasy, urban fantasy, or six-shooter fantasy\u2014the key is combining fantasy elements with firearms.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Astounding Publications and our submission program:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/astounding-publications-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/astounding-publications-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Send submissions to <a href=\"mailto:submissions@astoundingoutpost.com\" target=\"_blank\">submissions@astoundingoutpost.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Astounding Outpost is open to short-fiction submissions for our regular periodical and future themed anthologies. Recommended length We prefer short stories between 1,500 and 5,000 words. Human writing The Outpost focuses on human writing. We will consider work created with AI assistance, but we do not accept AI-generated fiction. Our regular periodical is an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-900116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-astounding-submissions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900117,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900116\/revisions\/900117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}