NOTICE: QUOTAS HAVE BEEN FLLED FOR HORROR & SUPERNATURAL AND SCIENCE FICION AND FANTASY IN ALL GENRES!!! ONLY SUBMISSIONS FOR DETECTION & MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE WILL BE HONORED FROM THIS DATE (02/15/2026 FORWARD. ANY SUBS IN THE CLOSED GENRES WILL BE DISREGARDED AND NOT ACCEPTED FOR FINAL INCLUSION>

Again: Please submit only Detection & Mystery and/or Adventure submissions between now and March 5th, end of day.

 Call for Submissions: JOURN-E: 5.1,The Journal of Imaginative Literature, Vernal Equinox 2026 vol. 5, no. 1, Whole #9 OPENS  5 February 2026 /  CLOSES end of day 5 March 2026  Quotas for maximum number of entries are set for each of the five genres covered in this semi-annual journal: Horror & the Supernatural (25), Science Fiction (25), Fantasy (25) , Detection & Mystery (15), and Adventure (10). JOURN-E seeks short fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and illustration/art in these five genres. Each issue also contains public domain "classics" in each genre.  ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE MADE THROUGH OUR SUBMITTABLE.COM SITE  BASIC FORMATTING for BOTH FICTION AND NON-FICTION PROSE: 

Important Note: The QUOTA for submissions in this short window will be 80 total submissions. In the past, Horror & Supernatural and Science Fiction have had to be closed early due to number of subs.  It may also occur that the total QUOTA of 80 is reached early—It has been the case that submissions come in very quickly. DO NOT WAIT

• The top left of page 1 of your digitally submitted document (.docx, .doc, .rtf, or .odt file) should contain—at the top left—YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION, inclusive of name, address, email, and any other contact information you wish to provide. 
• The WORD COUNT for your document (excluding title, by-line, and any epigraph) should be given at the top right corner of page one.
• The document should be set in Times Roman or Times New Roman, 12-point.
• 1" MARGINS ALL AROUND.
• Except for your contact information on the top left of page one, which may be single spaced, ALL OF THE TEXT SHOULD BE DOUBLE SPACED.
• DO NOT TAB INDENT PARAGRAPHS. DO NOT use your space bar for pargraph indents. Use the Ruler Bar of your word processor to set a small margin (at least one pica, at most one quarter of an inch).
• ShowTITLES of long works (novels, novellas, full-length films, symphonies, works that contain shorter works within, etc.) IN ITALICS; show titles of short works (short stories, poems, essays, chapters, etc.) "IN QUOTES."
• Show breaks in the piece of prose (if any) by THREE CENTERED ASTERISKS ( * * * ) [star space star space star].
• Minimum and Maximum WORD COUNTS for prose fiction and non-fiction prose will be announced in each Call for Submissions.

​BASIC FORMATTING for POETRY SUBMISSIONS: 

• SINGLE-SPACE POETRY with any indents clearly set in the submitted document.
• Submissions of "PROSE POEMS" will be considered poetry, BUT will be transformed to poetic line count by the formula: Total # of Syllables/10, thus approximating iambic pentameter line lengths.
• Maximum and Minimum LINE COUNTS for poetry will be announced in each Call for Submissions.
• Both formal, traditional, metered and/or rhymed verse AND free verse are welcome for submission.

ALL ILLUSTRATIONS, ART, or PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK must be submitted in 300 dpi resolution (whether color or black and white). NOTE:  While we are primarily seeking NEW, NOT PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED work, we will consider previously published works IF and ONLY IF all rights have reverted to the creator of the work. If such a work is accepted for inclusion in this issue, ALL APPROPRIATE CITATION INFORMATION must be included as part of the text of the submission. PAY RATES: 

• 1/2 cent per word for accepted FICTION and NON-FICTION, but with a MINIMUM of  $15.00 and a MAXIMUM of $30.00. Word Counts for Fiction should be from 1000 to 6000 words. Word Counts for Non-Fiction should be from 1000 to 4500 words.
• $10.00 for accepted Poems of fewer than 14 lines; $15.00 for accepted poems of 14-50 lines; $20.00 for poems of more than 50 lines, with a MAXIMUM length of 100 lines.
• $15.00 for accepted Half-Page Illustrations; $25.00 for accepted Full-Page Illustrations; or for a full page of Cartoon Cells.​