Teiresian is publishing our first ever short story collection!
We are currently seeking a small collection of short stories that relate to the theme of solarpunk to publish as a pamphlet/zine.
Like our last pamphlet, mouthfuls of kisses, the solarpunk zine will be A5, between 20 and 30 pages long, illustrated, and risograph printed using no more than two colours. Each copy will be hand bound.
Submissions are open to trans and gender non-conforming writers. We welcome submissions from non-binary writers, binary trans writers, drag queens, butches, genderqueer writers, and anyone else who identifies as gender non-conforming. (If you’re unsure, you’re probably fine to submit! But if you have questions or you want to check something with us, feel free to email hello@teiresian.co.uk or DM us on Instagram.)
Please send us a selection of 3-4 short stories of up to 5000 words each, or 5-10 short stories of 1000 words or below (or a combination of the two! Use your judgement, we’d rather you send us a little too much than not enough). Email your submission, along with a short author bio (up to 100 words) to hello@teiresian.co.uk.
Before you send in any work, please read the guidelines below in full. If you submit and it’s obvious that you haven’t read our guidelines, we will either ask you to re-submit or automatically reject your work — sorry, but both of us are doing this for free alongside work and studying. Our time and energy is limited.
Guidelines
- You must be 18 or over to submit work to Teiresian.
- You must identify as gender non-conforming.
- We will only accept short stories and/or flash fiction this time, no poetry or non-fiction prose.
- We do not accept previously published work.
- We do not accept work created with AI. No exceptions. (And if you submit work using AI, you will be barred from sending us work again in future. We have a strict zero tolerance policy for AI.)
- As always, no plagiarism, and nothing that encourages prejudice against a marginalised group.
- Please submit your work as a .docx file, with text size 12pt in a nice, easy to read font like Calibri, Baskerville, Times New Roman etc. Each new story should begin on a new page, clearly titled.
- Do not include any identifying information on the document containing your stories! We like to keep the decision process as anonymous as possible.
- Please include an author bio of up to 100 words in the body of your email.
- All submissions should be sent to hello@teiresian.co.uk
- You can submit work from anywhere in the world, but please note that we can only sell copies within the UK. We can post your free copy to wherever you live, but we won’t be able to sell to your area if you live outside of the UK.
We will select one successful writer, and collaborate over the coming months to publish an A5 zine of your short stories.
Payment
This is a PAID opportunity. The successful writer will receive a fixed payment of £50 upon publication. Depending on sales, you will also receive 25% of profits once that exceeds your initial £50 payment. Please note that we cannot guarantee you will receive payment over £50, as it completely depends on sales.
You will also receive a free copy of the zine — we’ll cover postage!
There is no fee to submit your work. However, you can choose to make a donation with your submission and help us keep up with the costs of running Teiresian. We also recommend you buy one of our previous publications if you’re UK-based and haven’t already, or subscribe to our Substack, to get a feel for the stuff we make!
SOLARPUNK
We’re looking for collections of short stories that draw on the theme of solarpunk.
For a deep dive into this theme you can read Sonny’s essay, Hope out of this World, on our Substack. To paraphrase, solarpunk is a subgenre of sci-fi which plays with futuristic technology, environmentalism and optimism to imagine utopian futures where tech, people and nature co-exist in harmony.
Your story doesn’t have to have all the traditional elements of solarpunk! This is a very broad theme intended to inspire you, and wherever it takes you is welcome.
Recommended reading/watching to get you started on the theme:
- Sunvault, edited by Phoebe Wagner & Brontë Christopher Wieland
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Laputa: Castle In The Sky by Hayao Miyazaki
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki
Submissions close 31 May, 11.59pm BST
After submissions have closed, we’ll start going through your work. Depending on the quantity of submissions, this may take a month or two — we’ll keep you updated via our socials! Everyone will receive a response, regardless of outcome. If possible, we’d like to give everyone personalised feedback as well, but this depends on the number of submissions and our capacity.
Any questions? Get in touch! You can email us at hello@teiresian.co.uk, or DM us on Instagram.