Closed to submissions
Send us something strange.
We want dark, beautiful, boundary-pushing speculative fiction — stories filled with marrow and heart, twisted and strange. We especially seek work from marginalized and under-represented writers.
Our submissions window opens in odd months only. We are closed in February, April, June, August, October & December.
What we want
Not for us
The terms
How it works
Your path to publication
Every submission moves through the same careful, multi-reader process — and our Flash Fiction track follows its own five rounds. Here's the whole journey, from Moksha to print.
Apex Magazine Flash Fiction
The monthly Flash Fiction Contest
Our Flash Fiction Contest is open to the public from the 7th until the final day of each month. The contest is themed — if your story does not meet our monthly theme, it will be rejected. The new theme for each month is announced on our Patreon.
Open from the 7th through the last day of every month.
Each month has a theme, posted on Patreon. Off-theme stories are rejected.
Literary, speculative genre fiction: horror, science fiction, and fantasy.
No multiple or simultaneous submissions, due to the contest structure.
Published as a Patreon exclusive before appearing in Apex Magazine.
Won recently? Winners are asked to wait one issue cycle before submitting again — for example, October/November winners wait until February/March.
Ready when you are.
Read the full guidelines on Moksha, then send us your strangest, sharpest work.
Submissions closed this month
