What We Want:
Bone Parade is not accepting submissions at this time. Please join our mailing list to find out when we open for submissions or release new issues.
Bone Parade accepts previously unpublished works of magical realism, fabulist, speculative, weird, and genre-bending fiction up to 4,000 words in length.
We want writing that captures what it is to be human, but we don't need humanity to come in humanoid form. We're partial to character driven stories that work through the mucky waters of ethics and existentialism.
We do not support work that was created by generative AI, and we do not accept work that was created by generative AI. Sorry, robots.
We don't like it when you use too many big words.
Submission Guidelines:
Please Do: Submit one magical realism, fabulist, speculative, weird, or genre-bending story up to 4,000 words in a single .doc or .docx file attachment in proper manuscript format. In the body of the email, please include your name, the title, and your story's hook. We don't want a list of your prior publications, but if you've never been published, we'd love to know that so we can celebrate you if we accept your story.
We're happy to accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know immediately if your work is accepted somewhere else. We can't express how disheartening it is to edit, accept, and get excited about a story only to find out it was accepted elsewhere and the author forgot to notify us. Please don't do that.
Please do not submit more than one short story during a submission period. If your work was not accepted, please feel free to submit again during our next open call for submissions.
Send submissions to theboneparade@gmail.com.
Please Don't: Send us audio files, paste your work into the body of the email, send a .pdf, or include your bio, prior publications, or a link to your blog. We prefer not to know anything about the people we read so we aren't accidentally influenced by how fabulous you are.
Response Time: We will send you a response as soon as we can, but you should hear from us within three months. Please feel free to send us an email if you haven't heard from us during that time frame.
Pay: No. Bone Parade is a labor of love that costs money and lots of time, and unfortunately we are not able to pay contributing authors at this time. We're genuinely sorry about this and are exploring ways to make this possible in the future.
Cover Art Submissions: We're always on the lookout for great cover art! If you have a previously unpublished work of art that you think we might love, please send it our way for consideration! When we don't receive cover art, we use old family photos. Please save us from ourselves.
Networking: We love to hear about the success of Bone Parade contributors! If you've been published in Bone Parade and have some good news, please let us know so we can pass it on. We're most active on Mastodon and Bluesky these days: https://writing.exchange/@BoneParade
https://bsky.app/profile/boneparade.bsky.social
Rights: We don't claim any rights to your work (until we can pay you, it doesn't feel ethical), but please understand that if you publish with Bone Parade it will disqualify you from publishing that story with another magazine who can pay you and requests first time rights. If your work appears somewhere else in the future, we would love it if you credited Bone Parade as the first site of publication.
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us. We love reading you.
