March, 2026 Dark Fiction Short Story Markets

  HWA L.A.: For March, 2026
New or Reopening Market Listings/ Notes
At Minimum Pro-Paying (5 cents+ per word)

Tea or Coffee, Stars, and Gravity (Sci-Fi anthology, Air and Nothingness Press)
http://aanpress.com/submissions.html
Payment: 8 cents a word
Story Length: up to 2,000 words
Deadline: Open between March 1–March 31, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: May 1, 2026
Description: Hard Science Fiction stories that include the 3 title elements: 1. Tea or Coffee, 2. Stars, 3. Gravity.


Flash Fiction Online
https://ffo.submittable.com/submit
Payment: $100 flat
Story Length: 500 to 1,000 words
Deadline: Open each month until reaching the cap of 1,000 submissions
Reprints?: Yes (payment at 2 cents/ word)
Response: Within eight weeks
Description: A very short but complete story of flash fiction. Strong, interesting characters. See Guidelines for MONTHLY THEME.


Story Unlikely
https://www.storyunlikely.com/#submit
Payment: 8 cents a word (up to $200 cap; no longer minimum “pro” pay after 4,000 words)
Story Length: up to 7,500 words
Deadline: October 14, 2026
Reprints?: Yes (paid at 1 cent/ word up to $75)
Response: 90 days
Description: Good stories that elicit emotion. Any genre. NOTE: Submissions require (free) subscription to monthly e-mag publication.


Tales of Horror Magazine
https://ashtonspot.com/talesofhorror/
Payment: 6 cents a word
Story Length: up to 5,000 words
Deadline: Intermittent. Currently open, but may close at any time.
Reprints?: Yes
Response: unknown
Description: Non-themed horror short fiction and poetry (seemingly with a preference to work that touches on the classic style).


Pulp Literature
https://pulpliterature.com/submissions/submission-guidelines/
Payment: minimum 5 cents a word for first 5,000 words, then diminishing scale thereafter
Story Length: up to 20,000 words (preference to 5,000 and less)
Deadline: Intermittent. Currently open, but unknown when it will close.
Reprints?: No
Response: 6 months.
Description: Any genre or between-genre work of literature. Anything entertaining and well written. We want our magazine to include a balance of all genres, including fantasy, romance, mystery, literary, etc.


ESCAPE ARTISTS PodCasts (4 separate markets; different editors, similar guidelines)

All:
Payment: 8 cents a word/ original; $100 flat rate for reprints
Story Length: 1,500–6,000 words (preferred 4,500 words or less)
Deadline: Intermittent (each market opens as needs)
Reprints?: Yes
Response: Up to three months

1. PodCastle (Fantasy Fiction Podcast)
http://podcastle.org/guidelines/
Description: Publishes in both text and audio. Looking for fantasy stories. We’re open to all the sub-genres of fantasy, from magical realism to urban fantasy to slipstream to high fantasy, and everything in between.

2. Cast of Wonders (Y.A. Fantasy Fiction Podcast)
http://www.castofwonders.org/submissions/schedule
Description: Stories that evoke a sense of wonder and have something unreal about them. We aim for a 12-17 age range: that means sophisticated, non-condescending stories with wide appeal, and without explicit sex, violence or pervasive obscene language. Think Harry Potter or The Hunger Games.

3. Escape Pod (Science Fiction Podcast)
http://escapepod.org/guidelines/short-fiction
Description: Our mandate is fun. We are fairly flexible on what counts as “science” (as we’ll delve into superheroes or steampunk on occasion) and are interested in exploring the range of the genre, but we are not looking for fantasy, magical realism, or more than a tinge of horror. If your story isn’t centered on science, technology, future projections, alternate history, and how any or all of these things intersect with people, we’re probably not the right market for it.

4. Pseudopod (Horror Fiction Podcast)
http://pseudopod.org/submissions
Description: Horror: dark, weird fiction. We run the spectrum from grim realism or crime drama, to magic-realism, to blatantly supernatural dark fantasy. We publish highly literary stories reminiscent of Poe or Lovecraft as well as vulgar shock-value pulp fiction; strong pacing, well-defined characters, engaging dialogue, and clear action.



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

Bog Matter (magazine)
https://martian.press/bog-matter
Payment: 2 cents a word
Story Length: up to 3,500 words (prefer under 2,000)
Deadline: ongoing
Reprints?: No
Response: 2–6 weeks
Description: Seeks to publish new short fiction, poetry, and graphic shorts that could be described as science fiction, horror, fantasy, magical realism, slipstream, New Weird, utopian, dystopian, satirical, cross-genre, experimental, or exuding a general air of oddness.


SNAFU: Level Up
https://www.cohesionpress.com/submissions
Payment: Australian 5 cents a word (abt. 3-1/2 cents a word US)
Story Length: 2,500–12,000 words
Deadline: March 31, 2026
Reprints?: No
Response: estimate 3–4 months
Description: LitRPG-style story, where characters gain skills and level up their abilities during the combat with horrendous beasts… to be filled with tales of champions and heroes, villains and monsters, all fighting to beat the other into paste. Our reality, alternate worlds, wherever our defenders aren’t quite good enough, watch as they raise themselves to the level they need to be, or more in some cases. And VIOLENCE!