One person's scary monster is often another person's friend, sibling, mentor, or lover. This anthology will collect stories that examine the complexity that comes from having a deep emotional connection to someone that other people would find terrifying and horrible.
Ideal submissions will use the nature of the creature in its personality and actions, and consider how and why that nature is so important to the relationship that has been forged between the individuals in the story.
Human characters are welcome, as long as one or more of the other characters are non-human animals that share equal importance and agency in the progression of the story. (The human could very well BE the monster!)
There are plenty of stories that have examined this sort of relationship. What can you say that hasn't already been said? What role can you imagine a monster playing in your own life (real or imagined) and how would that make your life easier, harder, or both?
- Submissions can be poems, flash fiction (<1500 words), or short story (1500-7500 words) length. Submissions longer than 7500 words (but no longer than 10000 words) are allowed, but longer works will be less likely to be selected.
- Content should be equivalent to G, PG, or PG-13 rating. Sexual activity can be implied but not actively described. Violence should be limited and not explicitly described.
- Be mindful of cultural appropriation and the use of mythical entities that have a deep connection to contemporary societies.
- Previously published works are allowed. You will be asked to provide information on when and where the submission was previously published and confirm that the rights to re-publish have reverted to you.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed. You will be asked to indicate if this is the case and expected to pull the submission from consideration promptly should it be accepted by another party.
- No AI should have been used in the process of writing the submitted story text. The writing must be entirely your own. If you used proofreading software, you should have made any suggested changes yourself, at your sole discretion, and using your own judgement.
Submissions must be received by December 31st, 2026.
Payment will be $0.08 per word, based on the word count of the final version of the submission as it appears in print.
Sofawolf Press Inc uses no AI processes to read, evaluate, summarize, categorize, or edit your submitted work. The work will be stored in a cloud-hosted database for the purposes of submission tracking and internal review only, and will be deleted if not selected for publication or further consideration.
This is your real name. The one that contracts and payments will be assigned to. You can specify a pen name later on this form which we will use for attribution if your story is selected and appears in print.
We will only use this email to inform you of the status of your submission.
The working title of your story. It can always be changed later.
This includes online archives and self-publication.