Call for Submissions to Anthology on Theme of "Wonder and Whimsy": Wandering Words Media

Wandering Words 

Deadline: May 30, 2026 

What to Submit

We are currently accepting short stories, poetry, visual art, and creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction includes genres like memoir and creative essay. Very Short Prose: Writers can submit up to three pieces of fiction or creative nonfiction of 500 words or less.

Short Prose: Writers can submit one short story or short piece of creative nonfiction of between 500 and 5000 words.

Poetry: Poets can submit up to five poems, all in the same document. Each poem should be no longer than two pages.

Visual Art: Artists can submit up to five pieces. Photography, painting, drawing, digital art, collage, photos of sculpture, fiber art, and all other kinds of visual art are welcome, as long as they can be presented in an image. Note that, except for art chosen for the cover, all art will be printed in black and white in the print copies of the anthology. JPEG or PDF format preferred.

How to Submit

• Work should be double spaced and in Times New Roman, 12 point font. Work should be submitted as a PDF or Word document. We are unable to accept submissions in any other form (Pages file, Scrivener file, etc.).
• We accept submissions via our Google form. Not following our submission guidelines may lead to automatic rejection.
• There is no fee to submit to this anthology.
• You may only submit once per submission period.

 Other Details

• Writing must be fully original and your own work.
• We are unfortunately unable to publish all submissions. If you are not accepted for publication in this anthology, do not take it as a personal rejection of your writing skill—it is likely your piece simply did not fit in this issue for one reason or another. We encourage everyone to try again with our next submission opportunity.
• We only publish work that has been unpublished elsewhere. This includes publication on your personal website or social media, or self-publication.
• We strive to get back to all submitters within 6 to 8 weeks, but we sometimes will take longer. We will reply to every submission.
• Payment: we are unable to pay for work accepted to this anthology, though we hope to pay authors and poets in the future. We will send every author a digital copy of the complete anthology.
• Publication: the Wonder and Whimsy anthology will be published digitally and as a physical book and will be available on Amazon. We aim to publish this anthology in autumn, 2026, and will keep all authors of accepted pieces updated on that process.
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere, email us ASAP to withdraw that piece from your submission.
• We cannot accept any work that includes copyrighted song lyrics or uncited quotes.
• We do not accept work that has been AI-generated. The use of programs like Grammarly are okay to check spelling and grammar, but all work should be original and written by the author, not by a program. If we suspect a piece has been written in part or in full by ChatGPT or another similar program, it will not be chosen for publication.
• We will consider work that is violent, sexual, or political—however, we will not publish work that is discriminatory or pornographic in nature.
• We accept work internationally, but we can only accept work that has been written primarily in English.
  
  Journey’s End Publishing and Wandering Words Media requires non-exclusive first publication rights and incidental promotional rights. We retain the unrestricted right to publish selected stories in its anthologies, in print and online, and in any relevant promotional material, and will retain copyright and economic rights for the anthology as a whole. All rights for individual stories, poems, and art revert back to their respective author/creator upon publication. The author/creator is free to republish their work, either in part, as a whole, or in an altered form, wherever they like after we have published the anthology, but we ask that you list “Journey’s End Publishing with Wandering Words Media” as the first publisher if you do so.
  
  Please note that submission of work by an author to this anthology shall be considered acceptance of the full guidelines above.
  
  If you have any questions or need further clarification, please feel free to contact us at:

 christina@wanderingwordsmedia.com.