Open!Reading now
Issue 4: What You Worship
▸ Theme: devotion and the price it demands
Sep 1 – Oct 23, 2026
closes in 1 month
What You Worship is seeking horror about devotion and the price it demands. Familiar cults, religions, and ancient gods are welcome when the work finds something unexpected inside them; however, what you worship can mean a lover, a body, a career, money, fame, tradition, technology, grief, etc. Give us rituals, offerings, obsession, obedience, doubt, conversion, blasphemy, and sacrifices that cannot be taken back. We are drawn to character-driven horror, a strong atmosphere, and creative theme interpretations.
What we want
Short fiction, and poems for our fourth issue. We keep themes vague but please do not submit something way out of the guidelines.
What we don't want
- Reprints
- Slurs or sexual violence used as shock
- Any Ai generated work. All work will be screened for Ai use
The basics
- Fiction: 1,500–3,500 words. Pays $20 plus a contributor copy.
- Poetry: pays $5 per poem plus a contributor copy.
- Shunn Manuscript Format, sent as a DOCX
- Response within 2 weeks of close
- Multiple submissions are fine for this issue.