We're delighted to announce a new call for submissions which is now open! The theme is Afrofuturism Short Stories. Please read through the submission details carefully as we’ve changed some of our guidelines and it could result in your submission not being acknowledged if you do not follow them.

Afrofuturism Short Stories

In 2025 and 2026 Flame Tree will publish two new books in the Gothic Fantasy series, following the groundwork of our successful Black Sci-Fi Short Stories, African Ghost Short Stories and First Peoples Shared Stories. First is Afrofuturism Short Stories, followed a year later by Africanfuturism. 

The National Museum of African American History and Culture characterises Afrofuturism as expressing "notions of Black identity, agency and freedom through art, creative works and activism that envision liberated futures for Black life." This is Africa, based in Kenya, defines Africanfuturism as located in "the African point of view, experience, culture, themes, and history with technology based in Africa, not the diaspora". 

The publication of these two books offers a dialogue that explores tradition and influence, and fresh insights both about our past, and visions of our future.

So, our first call, is for Afrofuturism. Please bear in mind the specific definition above for this title, as distinct from that for Africanfuturism. Authors must be writing from an authentic perspective of the Black experience, whether based in the diaspora or in Africa. 

Submit to: afrofuturism@flametreepublishing.com

Terms:

• Multiple submissions are fine but must be in separate emails.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine but you must have the right to license your story in an anthology.
• For accepted stories we pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints.
• We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the submission deadline.
• Payment for the chosen stories will be made within 30 days of the final advertised publication date (see our website flametreepublishing.com for details), although some may be paid earlier than that.
• Submission does not imply the right to publication. Each story will be read and assessed by the selection panel.
• Let us know in your submission email whether your story would be a reprint or is currently unpublished.

Important Notice about Submissions and Guidelines

We're always looking for better ways of working so we've tweaked our submission process to allow us to read more stories, and spend more time assessing the balance of our books.

• Submissions must use the dedicated email address.
• The subject line of the email must be the story title.
• The file with the story must be attached to the email (.docx, .doc or .rtf format).
• The name of the file must match the name in the subject line.
• If submitting more than one story, please submit one story per email.

Other useful tips for a more successful submission:

• The file name of the submission must be the story name only.
• Please just use spaces between words in the title (not _ or - ).
• If the story name starts with A or The, please use it at the beginning of the file name.
• Story length is most likely to be successful at 2000–4000 words, but we will still read stories slightly outside this range.
• If submitting a story that has recently been submitted to us for consideration to another anthology, please state this in the submission email.
• Publication will be in May 2025.
• Deadline for submissions is 27th October 2024

Thank you, and good luck!