Archive for 28 February 2016

Sunvault will open for submissions soon

Writers! Upper Rubber Boot Books wants your stories for Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk & Eco-Speculation, the upcoming anthology of speculative fiction edited by Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Wieland. Set for publication in spring 2017, Sunvault will open to submissions following the funding of our Kickstarter project in April.

We want this anthology to reach outside Western and Anglophone traditions of speculative fiction, showcasing the way environment and environmental issues are talked about and perceived in all parts of the world. We encourage and welcome submissions from diverse voices and under-represented populations, including, but not limited to, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, those with disabilities, and the elderly. Authors of all walks of life should feel encouraged to send us stories celebrating these diverse characters and settings all around us.

What are we looking for?

We want short stories that fall under the scope of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, weird fic, etc.). If you’re unsure, submit! We love to be surprised.

The anthology will focus on times of environmental crisis and the people inhabiting these tipping points, fighting to effect change and seek solutions, even if it’s already too late. But these are stories of hope, not just disaster! Turn your lens to those crucial moments in a world’s history when great change can be made by the right people with the right tools. Remember: hope can spark in even the grimmest of situations.

Is there environmental SF already?

There is! Although environmental factors in SF aren’t seen as frequently as other issues, writers are addressing it in revolutionary ways. Here are some examples of SF with primary environmental concerns:

  • Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy
  • Paulo Bacigalupi’s novels (The Windup Girl, The Water Knife)
  • George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road
  • Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer
  • Edan Lepucki’s California
  • Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy

The list goes on. Not all of these stories, though, truly fall into the solarpunk category. So what is solarpunk?

What is solarpunk?

Solarpunk follows in the tradition of steampunk and cyberpunk as the embodiment of a counterculture ideology: innovating a way of life that is better for the present and ultimately better for the future. Concepts like clean energy and sustainability are integral to solarpunk as they are outlets for societal reform. The fight for positive change is where -punk comes into play.

There are various communities online that are imagining and building solarpunk as an idea and an aesthetic, but as a literary movement, it is as yet largely undefined. That’s where you come in. Sunvault is the SF community’s opportunity to define the solarpunk genre. We want to see your conceptions and interpretations of the genre. We want to see what solarpunk looks like to you.

Length & Payment:

We’re looking for short stories from 500 to 7500 words. Don’t query about longer pieces. We want to include as many stories as possible in the anthology, so we aren’t able to consider longer works. All authors will be paid 6 cents USD per word upon publication for original fiction.

We are also open for reprint submissions. Reprints are paid a flat rate of $50 for stories under 2000 words and $100 for stories over 2000 words. Please include a complete publication history for reprint submissions.

We will accept submissions from any country.

Translations:

Translations are welcome. Please include proof that you have the permission of the original author to translate and submit the story, and provide the original author’s contact details as well as your own. Payment will be split equally between the translator and the author. If this is the first publication of the story in English, even if it has appeared in its original language in print, we will pay the rate for original work.

How do I submit?

Submissions will open as soon as our Kickstarter is fully funded and run for approximately a month. Send your story to us at sunvaultanthology[at]gmail.com with the subject like Original Submission: Story name for originals and Reprint Submission: Story name for reprints. Submit translations as original stories (if previously unpublished in English), but be clear that it is a translation in the body of your message. If the format is wrong, your story may end up in our spam folder, so be diligent. We will only read files sent as .doc, .docx, .odt, or .rtf.

Include a cover letter in the body of your email to tell us a bit about who you are. Please include the story’s length, any relevant info we should know about the story, and an author’s bio. Do not describe your story in the cover letter.

We will not be accepting simultaneous submissions. You may only submit one story during the reading period.

Response Time:

We won’t be responding to submissions until the reading period has officially closed, so response times will vary, but expect to hear back from us within 2-3 months. Please don’t query until after 3 months.

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