Open submission call & critique service
Issue one: Submissions
The Orange & Bee is currently open to submissions for Issue #2. This window will close at midnight AEST on May 31, 2024, or earlier if we fill our issue (acceptance go out on a rolling basis).
UPDATE: Due to an overwhelming number of high quality submissions—we have received more than 800 submissions in the last two weeks—we are now closed to submissions for Issue Two.
We are seeking short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction (essays, braided narratives, memoir, hybrid, and experimental work). We pay professional SFWA rates of eight cents a word for short fiction and prose (up to 4,000 words). We pay flat rates for all other accepted work: $80 for flash fiction, $50 for poetry. Payment is in USD, and is issued upon publication through PayPal.
We are seeking stories that stretch between the shadows, and we are as likely to accept a reimagining of a familiar fairy tale as a unique creation waiting to be added to the rich tradition of the continually evolving literary canon. While we welcome work in a range of genres and forms, there must be a strong link to the fairy tale tradition evident in your work to meet our particular niche. Please feel free to share your inspiration in your cover letter, especially if you are working from an obscure source.
Send us your best work. No multiple or simultaneous submissions. In return, we will strive to issue a response within three weeks. If your work is rejected, please wait 30 days before submitting another piece for consideration.
For more details, please refer to our Submission Guidelines.
If we pass on your submission, you can expect a form rejection. Please don’t take this personally! This streamlined approach allows us to read and respond to everyone’s submissions in a timely manner.
If you would like detailed commentary on your work, we invite you to consider our professional and supportive critique services provided by the editing team at The Orange & Bee—Nike Sulway and Carina Bissett. We are experienced editors and mentors, who work with writers at all stages of their development.
Critiques are provided in the form of written reports. Your report will include honest and informed feedback on the overall strengths of your work, and advice for how to develop it further. We’ll offer constructive and practical advice for addressing issues with structure or argument, voice or style, characterisation, setting or worldbuilding, and (where relevant) what aspects of the folkloric tradition could help you to enrich your work, or strengthen your writing skills.
Our report may also include recommendations for further reading, either craft essays or books, or examples of short stories or poems that might inspire you to go deeper, wider, or fly higher during your revision process.
For more information (including fees and response times), please refer to our Critique Service.
