Voting is now open for our flash fiction contest! Preliminary rounds of voting will run weekly through June 10. Semi-final voting will run June 12-19, and the finalists will be determined June 20-27.

Contest voting is open to everyone, not just authors who entered stories! Find all the details at our community forums here: http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?board=315.0

Escape Pod’s Flash Fiction contest returns to the Solar System this year, and it lands on April 15!

Submissions will run from April 15-30, 2018, via this link on Submittable:

https://escapepod.submittable.com/submit/52382/escape-pod-flash-fiction-contest-2018

To be a valid submission to the contest, each story must adhere to the following rules:

1. The story must be no more than 500 words long, not including its title. Do not use the title to skirt around the word count. Word count will be determined using Google Docs.
2. Each author may submit only ONE story.
3. The story must adhere to the general Escape Pod submission guidelines. Most importantly, it needs to be a science fiction story; other genres, including horror and fantasy, are discouraged. As a general rule, we will take a very liberal view of what constitutes science fiction, but authors should note that experience shows that stories that attempt to skirt the genre restriction tend to fare badly in the voting.
4. The story must be original and previously unpublished. Stories will be posted on a members-only portion of the forum (http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php), so first publication rights will not be spent if your story does not win. If you are not sure whether your story counts as published or not (for example, if an earlier version has appeared on your blog but nowhere else), please write (PM or send a query to eytan@escapeartists.net with the subject line “QUERY”) and ask before submitting. Please do not submit stories that have been entries in a previous Escape Artists contest.
5. The person submitting the story must be the story’s author (or acting for the author with express permission) and hold full publishing rights to the story. A story that is derived from a previously published work in another format (i.e. not a short story) is fine (assuming doing so isn’t in violation of copyright, obviously).
6. The story must be submitted in its final form, as the author intends it to be read by the voting public. We may or may not allow minor typo corrections if those slip in, but as a general rule, we will not allow authors to submit changes to stories, especially not after submissions are closed.
7. The title and the text must be included in the body of the submission. Any byline will be stripped when the stories are posted in the contest, and will be revealed when either the story fails to advance, or ultimately wins. Feel free to request a pseudonym for the byline, but we will need a legal name if you win for prize purposes.
8. Authors under 18 are welcome. By submitting, any author under 18 asserts they have obtained the permission of a parent or guardian with whom Escape Artists, Inc. can enter into a contract on behalf of the author.

Winners will be paid $30, making this a pro sale of at least six cents a word.

Please blog, tweet, email, send postcards, telephone, summon demons, and otherwise get the word out.

As with all orbital bodies, the flash fiction contest is returning to Escape Pod’s system next month. Get your 500 word story calibrated and ready to launch! Only one entry per author. Voting and results will be on our community forums so if you don’t have an account, register here: http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php

Full details coming soon!

Escape Pod is proud to present the fourth annual Artemis Rising event through the month of March, 2018! We have five original stories for you this year, all guest-edited by our Associate Editors, Laura Pearlman and S. Kay Nash.

You can find the full list of all the Artemis Rising stories across all four podcasts here: http://escapeartists.net/news/artemis-rising/

Our custom artwork this year is by the talented Geneva Benton. You can buy prints of the illustrated cover or underlying fine art image directly from Geneva.

In case you are eligible to nominate and/or vote for science fiction awards, please consider the stories first published by Escape Pod in 2017, or reprinted in Escape Pod and first published elsewhere in 2017. All of these stories fall into the Short Story category for the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Escape Pod is also eligible for the Best Semiprozine Hugo Award. In 2017, our editors were Mur Lafferty, S.B. Divya, and Norm Sherman.

2017 first publications:

• “Impossibility Crow” by Remy Nakamura
• “Vegetablemen in Peanut Town” by August Marion
• “Run” by C.R. Hodges
• “Trusted Messenger” by Kevin Wabaunsee
• “The Zombee Project 3.0” by Allison Mulder
• “Honey and Bone” by Madeline Alvey
• “Baro Parrajmos, or Love in the Vardo” by Eileen Gunnell Lee
• “Dr. Mbalu and the Butcher’s Daughter” by Megan Chaudhuri
• “Safe Harbour” by Kristine Perron
• “What Good is a Glass Warrior?” by G. Scott Huggins
• “Beetle-Cleaned Skulls” by J.E. Bates
• “Nothing to See Here” by Arthur Doweyko
• “Whatever Tower, However High” by Julia K. Patt
• “Yosemite” by D.S. McNab
• “Red Kelly Owns the Moon” by Shaenon K. Garrity
• “The Ghosts of Europa Will Keep You Trapped in a Prison You Make For Yourself” by Matt Dovey
• “Cherry Squid” by Celeste Hollister
• “Texts from the Ghost War” by Alex Yuschik
• “Nozizwe and Almahdi” by J.R. Dawson
• “Unit Two Does Her Makeup” by Laura Duerr
• “The Librarian” by Andrew Kozma
• “We All Scream” by Marie Vibbert
• “Seb Dreams of Reincarnation” by Aimee Ogden
• “When All the Clocks are Wrong” by Beth Goder
• “The Spice Portrait” by J.M. Evenson
• “Islands in the Dark” by Sarah Goldman
• “The Wind You Touch When You Run” by James Beamon
• “Miss Figgle-DeBitt’s Home for Wayward A.I.’s” by Kurt Pankau
• “An Equal Share of the Bone” by Karen Osborne

2017 reprints:

• “Planetbound” by Nancy Fulda, originally appeared in CHASING SHADOWS, edited by David Brin and Stephen W. Potts, January 2017

Escape Pod is pleased to announce that Artemis Rising will return in March, 2018, across all four Escape Artists podcasts! Our annual event is a month-long showcase of stories by women and nonbinary authors in speculative fiction. This year’s stories will be guest edited by two of our Associate Editors, Laura Pearlman and S. Kay Nash.

Escape Pod is seeking original science fiction with a length of 2000 – 6000 words and will be open for Artemis Rising submissions during September 1-30, 2017. Anyone who identifies as a woman, to whatever degree they do, and non-binary authors are welcome and encouraged to submit a story.

Payment, rights, and manuscript format will be the same as specified in our general guidelines, but Artemis Rising will have a dedicated submissions portal. We will not be accepting simultaneous or multiple submissions for this.

Our fellow Escape Artists podcasts are also taking original submissions for the event. Please visit Cast of Wonders for young adult stories, Pseudopod for horror, and PodCastle for fantasy.

As always, Escape Artists strongly encourages submissions from people of backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented or excluded from traditional science fiction, including, but not limited to, people of color, LGBTQIA authors, persons with disabilities, members of religious minorities, and people from outside the United States. Our goal is to publish fiction that reflects the diversity of humankind, so we strongly encourage submissions from these or any other underrepresented groups.

The Escape Pod Artemis Rising submissions portal will open on September 1, 2017. We look forward to reading your stories!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: If a story has been rejected by Escape Pod in the past, can I submit it to Artemis Rising?
A: No.

Q: Can I submit a rejected Artemis Rising story to Escape Pod’s General Submissions?
A: No, because the Artemis Rising editors may refer your story to the show’s regular editors at their discretion. Otherwise please take a rejection as a rejection of the story from the venue for all purposes.

Q: If a story has multiple authors, do they all have to meet the Artemis Rising criteria?
A: Yes.

Q: If I’ve already submitted an Artemis Rising story, can I submit another I wrote with a co-author to the same podcast’s Artemis Rising?
A: No.

Q: If I have a story on submission to a podcast, can I submit a different story to that podcast’s Artemis Rising while the first one is still in the queue? Or vice versa?
A: Yes.

Q: Can I submit a different story to multiple Escape Artists podcasts for Artemis Rising?
A: Yes! Publication on one show doesn’t preclude publication on another. We’ve had multiple authors accomplish this impressive feat in the past.