Interstellar Flight Press is currently open for the following submission calls:
- Infinite Branches: Queer, Speculative Disability Poetry in Conversation - Open 10/15/24-12/1/24
- Nonfiction Essays
- Nonfiction Books
Call for Submissions: Infinite Branches: Queer, Speculative Disability Poetry in Conversation - Open 10/15/24-12/1/24
Interstellar Flight Press is seeking poets who are both queer/trans and disabled for a special collaborative series in 2025, to be published at Interstellar Flight Magazine. Our guest editor for this call is Toby MacNutt. This call is different than our past calls: Please read the guidelines carefully.
Guest Editor’s Biography
I’m queer, nonbinary (they/them) trans-masculine, chronically ill, autistic, and a speculative poet. I’m a white person living in rural Vermont (US), and also a textile artist, teacher, and dancer. I won’t be choosing your poems - I’m here to facilitate the process. I’m an experienced facilitator, and my goal is to support your work in the way you want it to be read. I can provide access support for group conversations, prompt questions for writing your statement or explore it in conversation for transcription, facilitate group conversation, help with files and sharing. I’ll also be working with poets to create content warnings as needed, and can offer feedback or light edits on work.
You can find out more about me on my website, www.tobymacnutt.com or say hi on instagram @tobymacnutt or mastodon @[email protected]
Description
In this round-robin series, the poems are selected by the poets and positioned in the context of one another. One poem leads to a responding poem from another poet, with a short statement on the reasons for their choice and whatever else they’d like to share about it. Each pod of six poems concludes with a group discussion of what we see when our work sits next to each other (and we’re still there with it, still in the room). What themes and variations emerge? What unique things are we doing with the form? What about your work is understood by your peers in ways out-group editors can’t keep up with? Let’s find out!
We’re looking for speculative poetry from poets who are both queer/trans and disabled, with all these categories being broadly defined:
Please make sure you meet all three categories’ criteria for this project and are comfortable with your work appearing in the context of queer, trans, disabled identities. If you would like to use a pseudonym for this project, that’s fine.
How It Works
Poets will be sorted into three groups of six. At your turn, you’ll be sent the poem that came before you and have a week to submit a poem from your own body of work (not written for this publication; unpublished or reprint is fine; it does not have to be a poem you submitted in your questionnaire).
After confirming your poem, you’ll need to write a response statement about your choice - we can support or guide this process in a way that works for you. Once all six poets in your group have submitted, you’ll each see the full chain of poems and responses, and have a discussion about it on the platform that most suits the group’s needs, likely Zoom or Discord. That discussion will be lightly edited for clarity as needed, and you’ll have a chance to check it for accuracy before publication. Poems will be released in the series one by one every two weeks, with their written responses accompanying, and then the group discussion as a separate post after each pod. At the end of the series, we will collect it into an anthology.
What We Want
Editor’s Statement
I am looking for poems that are grounded in a queer disabled perspective - whatever that may be for each poet. That does not mean the poems need to be about queerness and/or disability or even reference them explicitly. I am, in particular, looking for poets who feel the queer disabled perspective is inherent or fundamental to their work, and who are eager to discuss what that means to them, and make connections - and contrasts! - to other poets working from these perspectives. Poets should have some existing awareness of their own queer and disabled identities, whether those have been discussed publicly or not. They should have enough speculative poetry under their belt to allow them to choose response pieces from work they've already written (whether published or unpublished).
I especially want the poems written from your bodymind and your being in the way that only you can write, in worlds only you - or perhaps we - could imagine. I want to find out what those poems mean to you, and to us, together.
What we don’t want: almost no topic is off-limits with adequate content warnings, but please, no “AI” generated work, no hate speech/promotion of fascism (n.b., making a dominant group uncomfortable is not hate speech)
Guidelines for Submission (What to Submit)
At publication, poets will be paid a $50 honorarium.
Interstellar Flight Magazine asks for non-exclusive First World Publishing Rights in English, or in the case of previously published works, the right to reprint the poem online and in the anthology. Poets are welcome to place their poem behind the Medium paywall if they are a member of the Medium Partner Program. For a sample copy of our contract, please email [email protected].
Guest Editor’s Biography
I’m queer, nonbinary (they/them) trans-masculine, chronically ill, autistic, and a speculative poet. I’m a white person living in rural Vermont (US), and also a textile artist, teacher, and dancer. I won’t be choosing your poems - I’m here to facilitate the process. I’m an experienced facilitator, and my goal is to support your work in the way you want it to be read. I can provide access support for group conversations, prompt questions for writing your statement or explore it in conversation for transcription, facilitate group conversation, help with files and sharing. I’ll also be working with poets to create content warnings as needed, and can offer feedback or light edits on work.
You can find out more about me on my website, www.tobymacnutt.com or say hi on instagram @tobymacnutt or mastodon @[email protected]
Description
In this round-robin series, the poems are selected by the poets and positioned in the context of one another. One poem leads to a responding poem from another poet, with a short statement on the reasons for their choice and whatever else they’d like to share about it. Each pod of six poems concludes with a group discussion of what we see when our work sits next to each other (and we’re still there with it, still in the room). What themes and variations emerge? What unique things are we doing with the form? What about your work is understood by your peers in ways out-group editors can’t keep up with? Let’s find out!
We’re looking for speculative poetry from poets who are both queer/trans and disabled, with all these categories being broadly defined:
- speculative poetry: poetry that includes some element, large or small, outside of what is generally considered reality, whether it be fantasy, science fiction, slipstream, fabulism, surrealism, alternate history, or something else entirely
- queer and/or trans: the whole queer umbrella, including bi and pan, gay, lesbian, ace/aro, demi, and more, and the whole trans umbrella, binary and non, transitioning and non, including agender, bigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, two-spirit, and others
- disabled: including but not limited to poets with chronic illness, neurodiverse poets, Mad/mentally ill poets, d/Deaf and hard of hearing poets, mobility disability, sensory disability, developmental or intellectual disability, communications disabilities, limb difference, and so many more, whether lifelong or acquired. We will not ask you to disclose any diagnoses or medical information to participate. We will ask you about your access needs so we can best support your participation.
Please make sure you meet all three categories’ criteria for this project and are comfortable with your work appearing in the context of queer, trans, disabled identities. If you would like to use a pseudonym for this project, that’s fine.
How It Works
Poets will be sorted into three groups of six. At your turn, you’ll be sent the poem that came before you and have a week to submit a poem from your own body of work (not written for this publication; unpublished or reprint is fine; it does not have to be a poem you submitted in your questionnaire).
After confirming your poem, you’ll need to write a response statement about your choice - we can support or guide this process in a way that works for you. Once all six poets in your group have submitted, you’ll each see the full chain of poems and responses, and have a discussion about it on the platform that most suits the group’s needs, likely Zoom or Discord. That discussion will be lightly edited for clarity as needed, and you’ll have a chance to check it for accuracy before publication. Poems will be released in the series one by one every two weeks, with their written responses accompanying, and then the group discussion as a separate post after each pod. At the end of the series, we will collect it into an anthology.
What We Want
- Queer/trans & disabled poets who are excited to share work with one another!
- Poets who like to talk/share about their work
- Poems that aren’t about being queer or trans or disabled; poems that are about it
- Poems that are joyous and unashamed; poems that struggle in the hard places; and everywhere in between
- Poems that get misunderstood out-group (but your award-winners are welcome here too)
- Poets from all over the world, including immigrant and diaspora poets
- Poets with layers of intersecting identities, including BIPOC
- Old poets, young poets, unpublished poets, established poets, newly-out poets, community-elder poets
- Poets who get excited about poetry :)
Editor’s Statement
I am looking for poems that are grounded in a queer disabled perspective - whatever that may be for each poet. That does not mean the poems need to be about queerness and/or disability or even reference them explicitly. I am, in particular, looking for poets who feel the queer disabled perspective is inherent or fundamental to their work, and who are eager to discuss what that means to them, and make connections - and contrasts! - to other poets working from these perspectives. Poets should have some existing awareness of their own queer and disabled identities, whether those have been discussed publicly or not. They should have enough speculative poetry under their belt to allow them to choose response pieces from work they've already written (whether published or unpublished).
I especially want the poems written from your bodymind and your being in the way that only you can write, in worlds only you - or perhaps we - could imagine. I want to find out what those poems mean to you, and to us, together.
What we don’t want: almost no topic is off-limits with adequate content warnings, but please, no “AI” generated work, no hate speech/promotion of fascism (n.b., making a dominant group uncomfortable is not hate speech)
Guidelines for Submission (What to Submit)
- 2-3 poems by queer, disabled poets. These submitted poems are not binding choices; selected poets will choose their poems at their turn in the round-robin structure. Instead, these are intended to give us a sense of your work in general. They can fall anywhere within the broad label of “speculative” (see call) and do not have to explicitly involve queerness, transness, or disability, though they certainly may do so.
- A short bio (50-100 words)
- Submit in .doc, .docx or .pdf
- Please use 12pt font with each poem beginning on a new page.
- Please provide content warnings in the document for potentially triggering/traumatic content as applicable.
- Please use the submission form (below) to submit. Submissions sent via email will not be read.
- Please answer the following questions (on the submission form)
- Is there anything about you, including but not limited to specific identities or intersections, that you’d like us to know about when considering your work?
- What interests you about these particular poems? For example, are there certain details you are proud of, themes that resonate for you, important life experiences you drew from, or questions you wish you could ask your peers about them?
- When thinking about discussing your work with other queer/trans & disabled poets, what do you yearn for? What excites you?
- What access needs or other support might you require to participate in this kind of discussion process? For example, live captions, deadline reminders, or prose editing support. It’s fine if these needs change or emerge during the process.
At publication, poets will be paid a $50 honorarium.
Interstellar Flight Magazine asks for non-exclusive First World Publishing Rights in English, or in the case of previously published works, the right to reprint the poem online and in the anthology. Poets are welcome to place their poem behind the Medium paywall if they are a member of the Medium Partner Program. For a sample copy of our contract, please email [email protected].
Nonfiction Essay Submissions - OPEN
Interstellar Flight Magazine is seeking essays and nonfiction on pop culture, movies, geekery, and scifi/fantasy related topics. Submissions are open year-round. (Please note: We close to submissions briefly at the end of each year from 12/15-1/15 to work on our anthology. Submissions sent during this time will be read after the break.)
We want essays on popular culture, movies, books, video games, SFF culture, conventions, and anything else geeky. We love essays on the craft of writing, the publishing industry, and advice for new writers by published authors as well as personal essays/creative nonfiction about speculative genres. We are interested in coverage of major awards (Hugos, Nebulas, Bram Stoker, etc.) We love reviews but believe that the goal of criticism should be to know and understand not to like or dislike. The tone of our essays are conversational and accessible, but we do enjoy a good academic debate (for more on book reviews, check out this article by our Managing Editor). We're always interested in hearing from underrepresented and marginalized voices. How you define that is up to you.
Please check out some of our favorite articles that illustrate what we are looking for:
Guidelines:
We want essays on popular culture, movies, books, video games, SFF culture, conventions, and anything else geeky. We love essays on the craft of writing, the publishing industry, and advice for new writers by published authors as well as personal essays/creative nonfiction about speculative genres. We are interested in coverage of major awards (Hugos, Nebulas, Bram Stoker, etc.) We love reviews but believe that the goal of criticism should be to know and understand not to like or dislike. The tone of our essays are conversational and accessible, but we do enjoy a good academic debate (for more on book reviews, check out this article by our Managing Editor). We're always interested in hearing from underrepresented and marginalized voices. How you define that is up to you.
Please check out some of our favorite articles that illustrate what we are looking for:
- Unknown Number: Interview with Hugo-Nominated Author Blue Neustifter (Interview)
- I Don't Read Horror (& Other Weird Tales (Horror)
Guidelines:
- Essays should be 800-1500 words. (Longer is fine, but please pitch us first.)
- Please submit in .doc, .docx, or .rtf form.
- Essays should be timely, i.e., about media published in the last year.
- Essays should be about speculative genres (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and anything in-between)
- Essays should be substantive, i.e., adding to a larger conversation, more than simply opinion, well-researched, about a significant topic in SFF, etc.
- We do not publish fiction or poetry unless it is part of a separate submissions call.
- Please include links as hyperlinks in your submission. Please do not include images (Tweet embeds are fine).
- You may also submit pitches (a summary of your article idea that is around 100 words). Send us several ideas at once if you like.
- We prefer not to publish articles that only work as a series (we are not a "monthly" or "quarterly" publication, so series columns don't really work for us.) Instead, focus on one thing and dive deep into it.
- Reprint essays are fine if they are relevant, but we regret that we cannot pay for reprints at this time.
Book Submissions
Call for Nonfiction Proposals - Open
Interstellar Flight Press is accepting submissions of book-length nonfiction manuscripts. We invite scholars of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and related genres to submit proposals via our submission form. Our areas of focus are: Books about SFF genres, writing speculative fiction, poetry, film, comics, pop culture, diverse and marginalized voices, feminism, and disability, as long as these topics intersect with speculative genres. We are very interested in books from researchers outside the U.S. We also welcome collections of essays. Authors should be experienced in the field of SFF research.
Guidelines:
Interstellar Flight Press is accepting submissions of book-length nonfiction manuscripts. We invite scholars of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and related genres to submit proposals via our submission form. Our areas of focus are: Books about SFF genres, writing speculative fiction, poetry, film, comics, pop culture, diverse and marginalized voices, feminism, and disability, as long as these topics intersect with speculative genres. We are very interested in books from researchers outside the U.S. We also welcome collections of essays. Authors should be experienced in the field of SFF research.
Guidelines:
- Full-length books 30,000-125,000 words.
- Please use our Proposal Format to prepare your submission.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- Multiple submissions are allowed.
- If your book is in-progress, please include a delivery schedule in your proposal.
We are keen to publish new authors as well as to hear from more established authors. As always, we love hearing from authors from underrepresented backgrounds and marginalized communities.
All of our books receive a full marketing plan and are printed in paperback formats, as well as distribution as eBook. We consider publishing a collaboration and pay 30-40% of all Publisher’s Net Receipts to the author as royalties. Depending on the project, we may also offer an advance. We ask for exclusive world English rights and audio rights (for novellas). We believe in transparency. If you would like to see a sample of our contract, we encourage you to email us at contact (at) interstellarflightpress (dot) com.
Our turnaround time around three months, although it may vary depending on the call. You may query if you haven't heard from us after 90 days.
All of our books receive a full marketing plan and are printed in paperback formats, as well as distribution as eBook. We consider publishing a collaboration and pay 30-40% of all Publisher’s Net Receipts to the author as royalties. Depending on the project, we may also offer an advance. We ask for exclusive world English rights and audio rights (for novellas). We believe in transparency. If you would like to see a sample of our contract, we encourage you to email us at contact (at) interstellarflightpress (dot) com.
Our turnaround time around three months, although it may vary depending on the call. You may query if you haven't heard from us after 90 days.
Previous Submission Calls
Call for flash fiction - Closed
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Annika Barranti Klein.
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Annika Barranti Klein.
Call for Horror Novellas - Closed
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Lee Murray.
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Lee Murray.
Call for Short Story Collections - Closed
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.
Call for BIPOC Novellas - Closed
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Premee Mohamed.
This submission call is now closed. All submissions have been responded to. Our guest editor for this call was Premee Mohamed.
Call for Flash Fiction from BIPOC - Closed
Our 2020 Alternate Endings Submission call has closed. You can read the accepted pieces for this call on our website. Our Guest Editor for this call was Jamileh Jemison.
Our 2020 Alternate Endings Submission call has closed. You can read the accepted pieces for this call on our website. Our Guest Editor for this call was Jamileh Jemison.
Chapbooks & Poetry Collections - Closed
Interstellar Flight Press is currently closed to poetry book submissions. Our Guest Editor for this call was Saba Razvi. All submissions from our 2019 call have been responded to.
Interstellar Flight Press is currently closed to poetry book submissions. Our Guest Editor for this call was Saba Razvi. All submissions from our 2019 call have been responded to.
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