Submissions | The Team

Submissions

Current Theme:

What Creeps in the Shadows

Submissions Open:

May 1st, 2026

Submissions Close:

August 15th, 2026 (or once we reach 200 submissions)

Hear something breathing in the dark? Is there a creature waiting to be noticed, hidden behind the silhouette of the nearby tree? Are the shadows alive? Is someone hiding in one?

Send us your questionable existences, your adventures into the deep dark, your hidden passages, your shadowy organizations, your shadow puppets, and your shady creatures to kick off our inaugural issue of Northern Shadows Magazine. Northern Shadows is an online, dark speculative fiction magazine featuring stories set in the real world or fantastical realms that resemble the foggy cave shadows of the cold, rocky coasts to the shadows of the trees in the rainy, deep forests, crags, and valleys. Whether plot-based or literary in style, if you have the right vibes, we have the print. We take dark speculative, dark fantasy, science fiction, horror or horror-adjacent–anything dark, weird, spooky, creepy, or unsettling.

Short Stories: 500 – 5,000 words (Note: 5,000 word stories will have a lower acceptance rate as we are only able to accept a few per issue)

See The Team page to get an idea of what our editors and first readers are looking for!

Please don’t send us:

  • Any racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, or any content that is offensive in similar veins. We are an inclusive magazine, aiming to unite readers with scares rather than ostracize with villainous ideals.
  • Perverse content involving minors or forced sexual acts of any kind, minors or otherwise.
  • Torture-porn or glorification of violence.
  • Things created by AI. We are a human-valuing magazine. We don’t live in a simulation. At least, we hope not. Stories suspected to be written in whole or in part with AI will be immediately disregarded.


The Basics:

  • Simultaneous submissions are okay. Make sure to tell us as soon as possible if your story is accepted elsewhere, so we can withdraw your submission.
  • Multiple submissions are too many. Send us only one story per issue, please!
  • Original stories only. We are not taking reprints at this time, including excerpts from longer published stories. We do not accept fanfiction.
  • Anonymous manuscripts only. We don’t want to be biased by names and credentials. Please remove your name, pseudonym, and any personally identifying info from your manuscript document before you submit it.
  • Formatting: 12-point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced. Page numbers are lovely. Use of paragraph indentations is a virtue. Acceptable file types: .docx, .doc, .pdf. Please follow Shunn Modern Manuscript Format when submitting. Instructions can be found here: https://www.shunn.net/format/story (please do not include your phone number or physical/mailing address on submissions).
  • Story title only; no chapter labels. Remember, you’re submitting a standalone story. You can use hashtag or asterisk dividers, but we’re not expecting a novel.
  • In your cover letter, please include a max three sentence bio, your speculative genre, your author or poet name under which the story should be published, and any trigger warnings. No need for a story summary, but you’re welcome to state which preferences it meets.
  • For accepted works, a contract will be provided for first publication rights. We will retain exclusive rights to publish your story for the first 6 months, including audio rights. During this time, the work will be published on our website and may be read for our podcast. After 6 months, we retain nonexclusive rights to keep your work on our site in our archives, but you are welcome to re-publish it anywhere else you wish. We ask that you cite our magazine as the first publication.
  • We want your story to be the best it can be on its debut! All accepted works will be reviewed by our editors for pre-publication edits, and authors will be asked to respond to all editorial suggestions. We want you to be comfortable with any final decisions, but we do reserve the right to refrain from publishing any piece we feel has not met the minimum editing standards for publication.
  • We are a non-paying market, though we would love to become a paying market in the future. Currently, we are not able to provide compensation for accepted works. We will promote your story on our social media and may feature it on our podcast.
  • We are an electronic-only magazine, so although we do ask for first audio rights, we will not be publishing a print copy at this time.


All submissions are to be submitted to our email: submissions@northernshadowsmag.com

You should receive an email confirmation that we have received your story. If you do not hear back from us with a decision after four (4) months, you can inquire at editor@northernshadowsmag.com.

As this is our first issue, we do want to acknowledge that production delays are a possibility. In the case of a publication delay, the author retains the right to withdraw their story prior to publication.