Submissions - Fiction

We are looking for highly imaginative stories with a healthy dose of the odd.  Odd characters, odd experiences, odd realities. We’re looking for genre / speculative stories and are quite partial to slipstream, cross-genre, magic realism, absurdist, and the surreal.

We want character.  For us, stories live and die by their characters.  We’re looking for fully drawn characters who surprise us with their honesty, complexity, and contradictions.

We want mysterious.  We’re looking for stories that grab the reader, make them ask, “what the hell is going on?” and then deliver on the tease.

We want ideas and we want action.  We love exploring big, philosophical ideas, but we revel in suspenseful plotting.  If you’re adept at blending these elements, we can’t wait to read your work.

We want fresh voices and exciting prose.  We want to be surprised.  We want to be inspired.  We want to find stories that we can’t wait to publish, promote, and evangelize.

Of course, the best way to understand what type of fiction we’re looking for is to read a couple issues.

Payment: 4¢ / word
Length: 2000 - 7500 words

Submissions should follow the Shunn Modern Manuscript Format (mailing address and phone number are not necessary as part of your manuscript) and be uploaded as a .doc, docx, or .rtf file.

Response time is between one and three months. We are not considering reprints or excerpts at this time.

We do not accept simultaneous or multiple submissions.

Author’s rights: Use of the author’s work by Bourbon Penn entails the assignment of first world English rights, for publication in the English language anywhere in the world. Bourbon Penn may use the author’s work only in the above-mentioned publication—paperback, web, and electronic editions—and re-printings of it.

If you have questions or need to contact us, you're welcome to send an email to submissions@bourbonpenn.com. Manuscripts sent to this email address will be returned unread.