Brain Mill Press is an independent publisher of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and graphic novels, as well as essays on our digital magazine platform, VOICES.
Our acquisition priority is work by authors of color, women, LGBTQIA+, disabled authors, and First Nations authors.
This page is where our editors will open calls for queries, open reading periods, magazines, and essays. Please follow the guidelines provided by each editor for any open calls.
We do not accept queries, pitches, or manuscripts via snail mail or email. Please use the Submittable platform. If you have any questions or barriers to using this platform, please email us at inquiries@brainmillpress.com. Brain Mill Press accepts directly solicited queries, pitches, and manuscripts via the "Invited Submissions" portal. Do not use this portal unless you have communicated with an editor at Brain Mill Press who has directed you to submit via this portal.
Brain Mill Press accepts agented submissions directed to one of our editors or to the publishers via inquiries@brainmillpress.com.
Ab Terra 2024 - An International Science Fiction Anthology
Edited by Yen Ooi & Dawn Ostlund
OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS UNTIL 28TH FEBRUARY 2026.
“Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty.”
On December 24, 1968, astronaut William Anders took a photograph after remarking on the beauty of earth from the moon—an image we know today as “Earthrise,” it introduced us to our home, to the vastness of humanity’s planet.
Ab Terra 2023 is a short story anthology that will seek to recreate that feeling when we first laid eyes on our whole world, through stories of science fiction belonging to all, from earth.
Criteria - story length between 1,000 and 6,000 words
- previously unpublished (previous publication on author’s own Internet platform is acceptable) science fiction short story (not fantasy) with cultural flavors from far-reaching corners of earth
Schedule
- submissions deadline: 28th February 2026
- stories selected: spring 2026
- release: late summer 2026
Ab Terra series editors Yen Ooi and Dawn Ostlund will select stories for inclusion in the anthology.
Submit complete story manuscripts of 1,000-6,000 words via brainmillpress.submittable.com. Stories selected for the anthology will be offered a contract for publication. The anthology will be professionally edited and produced. The ebook and trade print will be internationally distributed. The anthology will be promoted by the press and submitted for industry review.
About the Ab Terra Series
Science fiction, like all other genres, has been with us for centuries. It has found its way into our homes, onto the bookshelves of readers who enjoy stories of imagination that are rooted in science and reality. To encourage this exploration further, this series seeks submissions of science fiction stories belonging to another: stories that are written with cultural flavors that will perpetuate and promote the understanding of our siblings on Earth.
Past issue: Ab Terra 2020, Ab Terra 2021, Ab Terra 2022, Ab Terra 2023, Ab Terra 2024
“Reading [science fiction] ... is about reading the marginal experience coded through the discourses of material symbolism.”
—Adam Roberts, Science Fiction, The New Critical Idiom
Dr Yen Ooi is a Hugo Award finalist narrative designer, writer, editor, and researcher with a diverse portfolio of work from short stories to books, poetry to computer games, academic papers to non-fiction books. Her interests lie in the connections between storytelling and the real world, delving into culture and philosophy—most recently, culminating in zoefuturism. When she's not got her head in a book, she lectures, mentors, and plays the viola. www.yenooi.com
Dawn Ostlund writes stories about technology’s incursion on the rituals and traditions of different cultures around the world. She holds an MA in Politics, Media and Performance and an MA in Creative Writing. She lives in Los Angeles and works as an editor and proofreader.
Your electronic submission will be accepted at the Brain Mill Press submission portal at brainmillpress.submittable.com. Incomplete submissions and manuscripts, or manuscripts that are discovered to not meet the guidelines of this call, will be automatically rejected.
Good luck, and direct inquiries not answered in this call to inquiries@brainmillpress.com.