Taking Submissions: Untitled Cozy Fantasy Anthology

Deadline: January 31st, 2026
Payment: $30
Theme: Cozy fantasy

We’re looking for cozy fantasy short fiction.

We’re open to any definition of fantasy—second-world, urban, historical, paranormal, you name it—as long as it has cozy themes. We want whimsical, slice-of-life, optimistic stories and worlds that feel like a freshly laundered, warm blanket on a cool morning. We do still want something to happen in your story, though—this just isn’t the call for stories that center war, trauma, brutality, or world-ending plots. We will judge all stories by their own merits though, so if you think you have something that fits, we want to read it.

Some tips: We’re looking for character-driven stories that evoke themes of friendship, healing, and/or community. Think Practical Magic, Legends and Lattes, or The Hobbit. We prefer clean prose that makes every single word count.

All stories must be previously unpublished (this includes your own website/blog).

As always, we will not accept any stories featuring bigotry, hateful language, or sexual assault of any kind. These are stories intended for adults so some sex/violence/profanity is fine, as long as it directly pertains to the story and isn’t used solely for shock value. We do want our mothers to read this, so any sex should be fade-to-black rather than overly descriptive.

We will not accept any AI-generated stories. There will be no exceptions to this. We’ll consider stories about robots, not written by them.

Guidelines:

Deadline: January 31^st, 2026, 11:59pm EST

Word count: 3,000-8,000 words

Payment: Flat payment of $30 USD per accepted story, paid through PayPal.

Rights: First world print and digital publication rights with one year exclusivity following the date of publication. Authors will retain the rights to their stories, and will be asked to sign contracts prior to publication.

Simultaneous Submissions: We do accept simultaneous submissions: after all, life is short. We just ask that you please withdraw your story by emailing us immediately if it’s accepted somewhere else prior to our decision.

Multiple Submissions: No. We will only consider one piece per author for this call.

Reprints: No

General tips: We will not accept re-submissions and we cannot guarantee feedback on any rejected submissions. Please, no poetry. We will not accept anything outside our word count range, no matter how perfectly suited you think it may be. Craft is important to us, and while we don’t expect perfection, we do expect pieces to be polished. Please don’t send us a first draft.

How to submit: Please send all stories as .doc or .docx attachments to [email protected] with “Cozy Fantasy” in the subject line. Do not paste the story into the body of the email. Please include a brief third-person bio in your email, but we do not need (or want) a synopsis of your story. The story will speak for itself. Please, for the sake of our eyeballs, double space and use 12pt font. We also strongly suggest you use Shunn’s Manuscript Format.

Via: Hollow Oak Press.