Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology Essential Dreams Press (Gold Star Program) Gold Star

About: STORYTELLER: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology is a celebration of Lee’s influence in speculative fiction. Not only did Tanith Lee write nearly 90 novels, but she also wrote hundreds of short stories in and across a wide range of genres including fairy tales, science fiction, horror, fantasy, erotica, gothic, historical fiction, and the weird. Her work has inspired generations of writers and has influenced some of the greatest authors working in speculative fiction today. A few of those who cite Lee as being influential in their own work include N.K Jemisin, Martha Wells, Holly Black, C.S.E. Cooney, China Miéville, and Jo Walton. Acknowledgement of her ground-breaking strides in the development of contemporary fiction has been a long time coming. At this year’s Nebula awards, Tanith Lee was finally granted the 2024 Infinity Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA). Scheduled to be published on the tenth anniversary of Lee’s death, STORYTELLER will include sixteen stories including pieces by C.S.E. Cooney, Maya Deane, Andy Duncan, Theodora Goss, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Nisi Shawl, Martha Wells, and Terri Windling. Essential Dreams Press has also reserved eight slots for stories selected from open submissions.

Submission Procedures

For this anthology, Essential Dreams Press will have two submission windows.
Call #1
July 16-22
Limited Demographic: We will only be accepting stories from underrepresented and historically marginalized voices including BIPOC, LGBTQAI+, disabled, and neurodiverse writers.

Call #2
July 23-29
Open to all.

Guidelines: STORYTELLER is seeking original, unpublished stories under the umbrella of genre, including but not limited to science fiction, fantasy, horror, YA, romance, and any of their many subgenres. We are especially interested in work from or about diverse perspectives and traditionally under-represented groups, settings, and cultures, written from a non-exoticizing and well-researched position. We do not accept simultaneous submissions or multiple submissions.

As part of their submission, you will be required to provide two short statements: 1) how Tanith Lee inspired or influenced your own writing practice and 2) why you submitted this particular story for our Tanith Lee tribute anthology i.e., what makes it a perfect fit.

Word Count: We will consider stories of 2,000-5,000 words.

Pay Rate: Essential Dreams Press pays 10 cents per word for original fiction. Payment is via PayPal or check. (International authors may request wire transfers.)

Submissions: All submissions will be read anonymously. As such, do not include your name, address, email, or other identifying information on your manuscript (header, byline, file name, etc). Any documents that include identifying information will be automatically rejected.

Formatting: All submissions should follow proper manuscript format (Shunn’s). Stories should be double-spaced and set in 12pt Times New Roman. We will not accept PDFs or submissions that include images or graphics

Rejections/Response Times: We will send an autoresponder message in response to every submission we receive. If you haven’t received an autoresponse within 24 hours after submitting, please query immediately. Missing an autoresponse usually means we have an incorrect email address for you and won’t be able to contact you when we make our decisions. We cannot offer personalized feedback on each story. We will reply to submissions as quickly as possible but expect that replies might take as long as 60 days.

Rights: We are purchasing first-printing world exclusive English-language rights (including audio rights) for publication in the anthology STORYTELLER published on or before December 31, 2025. Rights shall be exclusive for a period of 12 months following publication.

AI-Generated Content Policy: Essential Dreams Press is committed to publishing stories written and edited by humans. We reserve the right to reject any submission that we suspect to be developed, assisted, or written by language modeling software, Chat GPT, chat bots, or any other AI apps, bots, or software. We reserve the right to ban submissions from accounts, emails, or users who we believe or suspect have submitted such works.