Open Reading Period
Lanternfish Press is currently closed to unsolicited manuscripts.
Sign up for our Authors & Writers newsletter to receive updates and reminders about our open reading periods.
Categories for submissions are as follows. You will have to select one in Submittable in order to have your manuscript considered. Gothics often fall somewhere in between literary-speculative and historical/regional; please choose the category that you think suits your work best.
Novel, literary-speculative (60-100K words)
Novella, literary-speculative (20-40K words)
Novel, historical/regional (60-100K words)
Novella, historical/regional (20-40K words)
Memoir, full-length (60-100K words)
Memoir, short (20-40K words)
Worldbuilders Welcome
The heart of our publishing program is fiction on the boundary of literary and speculative. Submissions in the literary-speculative novel and novella categories should incorporate elements of fantasy, science fiction, and/or horror. We love monsters, but they are not a requirement. We enjoy both humor and lyricism. Our eyes are currently peeled for anything that speaks to climate change in a nuanced and emotionally resonant fashion.
We are also open to well-researched historical fiction that brings a forgotten past to life. Lately, we seem to have acquired a particular taste for revisionist westerns and regional gothics. Every plot of soil has its ghosts.
In the memoir category, we like to see a strong regional focus with vivid worldbuilding. We are also interested in life between worlds—stories of the immigrant experience or of growing up bicultural/biracial.
Send us your tales of the in-between!
Formatting Guidelines
Please submit your manuscript in PDF form.
Use a common serif font (Courier, Courier New, Times New Roman, and Garamond are good choices) in a standard size (11 or 12 point). Double-space the lines, indent the first line of each paragraph, and do not add extra space between paragraphs.
Include your contact information and a word count on the opening page of the manuscript. Approximate word counts are fine (to the nearest 1000 words).
Response Time
Our goal for this reading period is to respond to all submissions within four months. We are, however, a very small staff, and though we try our best, we often get behind. If you have not heard from us within four months, you are welcome to message us on Submittable regarding your status.
We are unfortunately not able to consider the following categories at this time:
short story collections
poetry
children’s books
YA fiction
works previously self-published
AI-generated works
works shorter than 20,000 words
Work in these categories will be archived without response.