Someone Else's September
Ends on
Someone Else’s September is our new annual special edition issue for H2, where someone else—from the Fellowship of Foofaraw—takes the reins, pairing nicely with H1’s Mindlessly Massive March.
Guest editor (2026):
Megan Diedericks
Theme (2026):
Something has gone terribly wrong—Dinosaur Edition
We are looking for stories that feature dinosaurs in some form or fashion (fossils count), where something has gone terribly wrong. If your dinosaurs talk or you have a dinosaur theme park a la Jurassic Park, the odds won’t be in your favor. Otherwise, get funky, get ferocious, scare us, thrill us, make us laugh, or question our entire existence.
We will be publishing 3-4 flash stories (250-2500 words), 1-2 short stories (2500-7500 words), and 1-2 poems in the September issue.
Guidelines
Word Limit:
- 250-7500 words
Pay Rate:
- Fiction: $0.02 per word; up to $50
- Poetry: $1 per line; up to $25
- Op-ed/Satire/Cartoon/Comics/Other: $15.00
Response Time:
You can expect to hear back within 30 days
Language:
- English
Rights:
We request first serial rights, non-exclusive, indefinite archival rights, and the right to publish in a limited biannual print collection and a monthly ebook edition. Any rights not used by the publisher within twelve months will return to the author.
Requirements:
- We do not accept multiple submissions from a single person at a time
- We do not accept previously published works
- We do not accept work created or assisted by AI
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed—please let us know as soon as they are accepted elsewhere
What are we looking for
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Humor/Satire
- Comics
- Columns, essays, and other creative non-fiction
- and anything else that fits the vibe
Hard sells:
religious themes / anthropomorphism / zombies / ghosts / vampires / dragons / retelling of fairy tales, folklore, etc.
Comps that would be an easy NO: Walking Dead, Midnight Mass, Cars, Sinners, Salems Lot, Apostle, NOS4A2
Fiction
The general areas/genres of interest for fiction in foofaraw are:
- Surreal, Slipstream, Speculative, Strange
- Magical Realism
- Sci-Fi / Horror / Fantasy
- Mystery / Thriller / Crime / Noir
- Experimental
Poetry
We are looking for speculative, abstract, experimental, or poems with a bite.
We are not looking for typical rhyming patterns or religious, nature, or mythological themes.
Quantity:
Up to three poems per submission
Preferred styles:
- Free verse, Prose poetry
- Haiku/Senryu, Haibun, Tanka, Zuihitsu
- Villanelle, Epigram, Glosa, Triolet
Mainstream authors we enjoy include: Robin Sloan, Cory Doctorow, Haruki Murakami, Kurt Vonnegut, Tamsyn Muir, Ray Nayler, Martha Wells, Corey J. White and fiction from McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Uncanny Magazine, The New Yorker, Flash Fiction Online, GigaNotoSaurus, Zoetrope: All-Story, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and The Paris Review.
Magazine inspirations come from the likes of: Believer, The New Yorker, NY and London Review of Books, Real Review, Delayed Gratification, Cereal, New York, Monocle, The Modernist, and The Economist.