Submissions for our Fall 2026 Theme, THE CRONE, are now closed.
Accepted authors will receive an email before October. Please check your spam folders.
And we’ll announce the publication of their works on Facebook and via email newsletter soon after.

Announcing our Spring 2027 contest theme: The Mother.
Opens on January 8, 2027.
Open to all female-identifying and gender-fluid writers.
Poetry, no more than 50 lines.
Flash fiction, no more than 500 words.
Previously unpublished works only.
As always, there will be cash prizes.

You don’t have to be a mother to participate in this call, you simply have had to experience being born, maybe loved, maybe reviled. Maybe you witnessed a mother making sacrifices. Maybe you explore the Cosmic Mother. Maybe you explore the Dark Mother. Maybe you spawned something horrendous/beautiful that can not be described as human. Whatever you choose to do, I want to be moved by your words. See below to gain insight on my editorial aesthetic, and please do read a free back issue, linked above.
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To be alerted when future submissions calls open, please check back here, follow our Facebook page, or subscribe to our newsletter.

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We repeat: We only accept work from from female-identifying & gender fluid writers.
Please read carefully below for our editorial aesthetic, rights information, and AI policy.

The aesthetic:
My editorial tastes mainly align with the original vision of The Green Sheaf: I love folklore, fairy tales, mythology, and the mystical. I also enjoy the speculative, the darkly fantastical, folk horror, the weird/numinous, the surreal/strange, the gothic, and magical realism/slipstream. Furthermore, I love poetic language, exquisite prose, and lush imagery. My favorite authors of short fiction include Angela Carter, K-Ming Chang, Carmen Maria Machado, Angela Buck, María Fernanda Ampuero, Agustina Bazterrica, Gwendolyn Kiste, Jamaica Kincaid, Sheree Renée Thomas, Nalo Hopkinson, Caroline Yoachim, Karen Russell, Ramona Ausubel, Kelly Link, Aimee Bender, Barbara Molinard, Leonora Carrington, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gabriel García Márquez, among others. I love the films of Robert Eggers, Federico Fellini, Tim Burton, and Guillermo del Toro. I’m also haunted by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Transport me with your words. 

AI Policy:
We will not accept AI-generated work.

Rights:
We request first North American serial rights—which will revert to you immediately on publication—and non-exclusive rights to archive your work electronically.

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