Night Sky Press is a brand-new, biannual, same-world anthology series. For every issue, Founders A’liya Spinner and Keith Nelson come up with a different unique and original world for you to root your stories on. The first issue’s focus is Orcanus: The Crystalline World, a brilliantly detailed creation designed to inspire your imagination and prompt a curated collaboration while pushing “same-world speculative fiction into an accessible, modern spotlight.”

Your submissions must, in some way, have this world as a setting or key factor in the story. “This is meant to inspire creativity, rather than constrain it, and we encourage authors to expand on the world’s provided skeleton in unique and visionary ways.”

Selected works will appear together in that planet’s anthology, reimagining collaboration to build a world from contributors’ shared vision.

Submissions are open until 30th April 2021.

The emphasis is on collaboration.  “As an idea, it’s as expansive as the universe we wish to create,” A’liya Spinner and Keith Nelson say. “Night Sky Press was founded on the ideals of teamwork, creativity, and openness to ideas that haven’t garnered ‘mainstream’ attention. For now and forever, our vow is that every issue will be a new and incredible vision, every planet will be a playground for inventiveness, and every author will be as greatly valued as they deserve to be. (…) We have created the skeleton and the sky; you will create the stars.”

You are invited to send:

• Flash fiction and short stories between 500 and 5,000 words. Longer stories accepted within reason. Poetry submissions are also accepted, so long as they relate to that issue’s world.​
• Stories about hope, discovery, mercy, love, and passion. “We love tales about the better half of humanity (or alien-ity!), but we won’t reject stories about struggle, turmoil, or conflict, either. We acknowledge that life, even in the interstellar age, isn’t all glory and tranquillity.”
• The founders welcome works from authors of all backgrounds, and especially encourage works by and about LGBTQ+, BIPOC, disabled, and other traditionally marginalised writers and characters.
• Unusual perspectives are welcomed. “Have you always wanted to write from the viewpoint of an android, alien lizard, or amorphous, sentient fog, but been unsure where to submit it? We love the creative, the strange, and the new.”
• “Stories that take creative use of our setting, and expand, deepen, and enrich our world. Don’t be afraid to add your own flare, aliens, landmarks, and history within our provided framework.”

Along with the usual vetos on gore, sex and hate-writes, the founders comment: “Our anthology is open to all writers, of all experience levels, ages, and perspectives. Don’t doubt yourself or your work; we want to hear your voice!”

Find full details of how to submit here: https://nightskypress.wixsite.com/night-sky-press/submit 

Got an event, challenge, competition, opportunity or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) ICloud (dot) com.