Cryptids, Kaiju & Corn Anthology Series

This is explicitly a speculative poetry (and related micro-flash-prose) market. We welcome both established artists, and those experimenting with such genre narratives and forms for the first time.

We want to read your poems and stories of monsters—whether your protagonists are giant or relatively human-sized; traditional, pop-cultural, or newly created—as set in (or against) the context, landscape, environment, and character of the 21st century American Midwest.

These can include, but not be limited to:

• Monsters, cryptids, kaiju and mythic beasts who are traditionally based in the American Midwest.
• Monsters who might be visiting, vacationing in, or relocating to/from the American Midwest.
• Monster narratives that illuminate, celebrate, or challenge stereotypes of Midwestern identity and/or experience.

As with previous Middle West Press projects, we hope to publish work that intersects in some way with the people, places, nature, and history of the terrains and cultures we inhabit, especially works stemming from the lived experiences of women, youth, writers/poets of color, writers/poets who identify as LGBTQ+, military veterans, and other marginalized voices.

Our informal rule-of-thumb is that the modern U.S. states—carved from the Louisiana Purchase, and/or states located west of the Ohio River and east of the Missouri River—safely define our intellectual playground.

The Middle West is a moveable feast, however. We recognize that the “Middle West” includes themes, histories, characteristics, and geographies that cannot be contained by mere borders. In fact, the Middle West may be most apparent in places where it is not—or when viewed and experienced by geographic “outsiders.”

Country of Publication & Year Established

AI Policy

Human-created work only; no AI use allowed