foofaraw zine
Ends on
Response Time
You can expect to hear back within 21 days.
We are looking for 18 short stories (<2,500 words), five longer stories (up to 7,500 words), and five poems that will run in the second half of 2026.
Submissions are anonymous—please remove any identifying information from your story document you upload.
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
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
Fiction
The general areas/genres of interest for fiction in foofaraw are:
- Surreal, Slipstream, Speculative, and Strange
- Magical Realism, Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy
- Humor, Satire, Absurdist/Experimental
- LGBTQIA+ and other underrepresented demographics
- Mystery, Thriller, Noir
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.