Submissions for Issue Six: Solstice and the Solstice Essay Contest open on December 21! Issue Six is an issue all about cycles and change, light and darkness, tradition and folklore. Read more about the themed call here:
Solstice Essay Contest
We're so excited to announce our second nonfiction writing contest! Here’s what to know about contest submissions:
5,000 word count maximum
Open to personal essays, creative nonfiction, reviews of books/movies/TV, interviews/profiles
MUST relate to the theme of Issue Six: Solstice
Unlimited submissions with NO FEE
Winner receives $50 cash prize and guaranteed publication
All submissions will be considered for publication in Issue Six: Solstice
What we publish
Soft Star is always open to submissions of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art. We are especially looking for work that falls within the genres of soft science fiction, speculative fiction, slipstream, and futurism. Give us your future-facing, pondering, hopeful, otherworldly words. More on our ethos here, and submission FAQs here.
Though we specialize in "optimistic futurism," that doesn't mean we only want stories with happy endings. We view discoveries as a net positive, and the future has infinite potential for discovery. Don’t be afraid to submit surreal and uncanny stories, or even cosmic horror.
Some things we love:
Alternate universes, first contact, time and space travel, unexplained phenomena, afrofuturism/indofuturism/other culturally-specific futurist settings, philosophical themes, cosmic imagery, the overwhelming vastness of the universe, triumphs of the human spirit
Some hard sells:
Military sci-fi, cyberpunk/technoir (these tend to skew dystopian by nature), heavy technical sci-fi jargon, stories with romance as a core theme. However, there is an exception to every rule. When in doubt, submit anyway.
Compensation
While we are currently unable to pay all contributors, Soft Star does provide the following compensation to the writers and artists whose work we publish:
Free contributor copies of print issues (including shipping)
Access to paid subscriber posts here on Substack
Essay contest cash prizes for nonfiction submissions
The opportunity to have work re-published in future mini-zines (all written submissions are considered). Re-publication pays $15 USD.
Submission Fees
There is a submission fee of $2 for short fiction and poetry submissions to Soft Star (no fee for visual art or nonfiction/essay contest submissions). Every cent of these fees goes back into the magazine, primarily in the form of printing and postage costs for contributor copies of the print issues.
However, if your circumstances prevent you from being able to pay the fee and you feel strongly that your work would be a good addition to the upcoming issue, email the editors at softstarmag@gmail.com to let us know, and we can work something out.