Short Story Anthology

The world is in crisis while helpful posthuman ideas are often confined to Academia. There is a tendency to believe we are alone and that the planet's problems are largely the fault of capitalist systems. But everything is entangled. Does society shape the consumer or does the consumer shape society? It is a vicious loop where you can't have one without the other. We need to critique the entire Anthropocene and all systemic issues present whilst owning responsibility for our role in society so that we can deal with the problems together.

We need stories to playfully imagine and bring to life possible futures in response to the urgent challenges of our time. But we also need stories that lean into reality and engage with the polycrisis instead of demonstrating another form of escape as mere entertainment. We need stories as a creative practice to help foster posthuman ethics for a more inclusive and pluralistic present and future. 

This brings us to the announcement of an anthology, which will gather short stories around the theme of Posthuman Entanglement(s) and Co-Existence. We invite stories that offer diverse posthumanist perspectives that also speak to our collective relationality with the more-than-human world. Inspire us with our shared vision, showing the ways in which everything is interconnected; critique the effects of capitalism in this postnatural era; explore our intimate relationship with other species, technologies and living organisms; or anticipate new practices of sympoiesis, among other considerations.

We are very flexible with the notion of "short story": both fiction and creative non-fiction are equally welcome, and we encourage you to be as creative and experimental as you can in whatever style or mode you choose. We invite contributors to think beyond the notion of established genres. We are open to any "story" as long as it speaks to the theme.

For organisational reasons, the anthology will be in English. However, we invite authors to develop their writing projects in their native or preferred language and then proceed to submit an English translation. If you are unable to translate your work into English, then we will also accept submissions in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, which we will then translate if accepted.

We primarily aim to collect original stories that have not been previously published. However, we will also accept translations of previously published stories, provided they speak to the theme and are not under copyright or have any other legal restrictions.

Payment: $50 AUD per story, plus a free digital copy of the book. Authors also have the opportunity to purchase a discounted physical copy of the book at wholesale price.

Rights: We get first publication rights and hold the rights to your story for three years from publication. After that time, the rights revert back to you.

Please submit your original composition consisting of maximum 5000 words, comprehensive of a title and a 150 word bio to: editor@posthumanpress.com by 31st January, 2025.

The main theme is Posthuman Entanglement(s) and Co-Existence, but we encourage contributors to expand on this idea in any direction. Below are some suggested topics, though you are not limited to these.