We are very excited to announce a new call for submissions, on the theme of The Valkyries! Please read through the details for submissions carefully before submitting your stories.

 Flame Tree are bringing you the next titles in our latest gorgeous hardcover series brimming with myths and short stories. 

Discover the mythology of humankind through its heroes, characters, gods and immortal figures. Myths, Gods & Immortals brings together the new and the ancient, familiar stories with a fresh and imaginative twist. Each book brings back to life a classic mythological or folkloric figure, with completely new stories alongside the original tales. New and emerging writers from open submissions reveal hidden themes, casting fresh perspectives on well-known stories, alongside specially commissioned text on the origins and the cultural background of the mythology. The first eight books in the series are Medusa, Odin, Circe, Anansi, Achilles, Morgana le Fay, Loki and Aphrodite. We're now opening up submissions for the next two books, The Valkyries and Odysseus. (Both will publish in April 2026).

The Valkyries

And from the light the flashes leaped;
High under helms on heaven's field;
Their byrnies all with blood were red,
And from their spears the sparks flew forth

The Valkyries – fierce daughters of battle, riders of storm and shadow. They choose the slain and carry souls to glory, moving between mortal and divine. For this call, we seek stories that tell their own back stories, and echo their power: tales of fate, war, sacrifice and the mythic eternal. Awe-inspiring and magical, when we think of the Valkyries, we conjure a vision of fierce but angelic warrior goddesses racing across the sky. They come to select half of those who have died in battle and escort them to Odin's hall of heroes: Valhalla. There they receive the heroes with horns of mead. But there is so much more to these heavily symbolic beings. The Valkyries are many and amorphous, some are named and famous – Brunhild (powerful and defiant), Gunnr (courageous in battle), Skuld (a Norn but also a Valkyrie)... – others exist in the shadows. 

This submission theme offers an exciting opportunity to explore and expand on existing stories associated with Valkyries (not simply retell classic tales) or imagine completely new names and narratives for those who have never seen the limelight. Perhaps the Valkyries do not only exist to ferry the dead and attend to their needs as glorified waitresses; perhaps even Freyja herself has a story here – goddess of love, beauty, fertility and magic, but also of war and death, who receives the other half of fallen warriors in her hall Sessrúmnir, in the heavenly field Fólkvangr – if she is not a Valkyrie she is surely their Queen. 

Submissions to: valkyries@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. So follow these rules to avoid your story getting lost in our system!

• 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.
• If you'd like to add some details about the story, confirm if it's new or a reprint, or add a short bio of yourself, please add to the body of the email not as an attachment.
• Story length is most likely to be successful at 3,000-4,000 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.
• Deadline for submissions is 24th August 2025.

Thank you, and good luck!