Submissions Guidelines
Summer Prose & Poetry Contest
Theme: Sirens
Open for Entries May 15-31, 2026
Our Themed Prose & Poetry Contest
For our Summer Bonus Mini-Issue 2026
Entry Fee: $5.00 per piece whether it’s poetry or prose.
Enter as many times as you wish! Multiple entries encouraged!
Prizes:
First Prize in both categories: $100 and publication
Two runners up in both categories will receive $50 and publication
About the Theme: Sirens
This is a Siren Song! You are Getting Sleepy. If you have lashed yourself to a mast and put wax in your ears, we yearn to know what you see. Is it bird-women? A fish-women? A Naga? How about a gender swap? Sing us your songs of friends or foes. Share your focus: is it the siren or the song? Malevolence or nature-driven protection? Is your tale a cautionary one? A tale of love? Or grief? Do you warn of treacherous waters, storms, drunken sailors seeing something fishy?
We want your siren stories and poems from around the world. Anywhere there’s a sea, there’s a story to be told. You can also give us a siren poem or story that’s set on land—as long as it's giving SIREN vibes, it’s a fit for the contest! Give us your Nagas/Nagini, your Iara, La Sirena, Parasol, Ipupiara! Share the lure of the Jiaoren, the dangers of Guhuo Niao (Ubume), Sirena/Magindara, Siyokoy, the Sirim, Rusalka, Alkonost, Gamayun! Do the sirens you’ve encountered hail from a specific locale? Tell us of the Galli near Sorrento, or off the Amalfi Coast, the tale of the home to the Le Sirenuse (Li Galli) near Positano. Give us Sirin, Alkonost, Gamayun from Russian tales, or the Ningyo of Japan, the Sirena/Magindara of the Philippines.
Contest Details and Guidelines
Entry window: May 15 - 31, 2026
Winners announced: June 25, 2026
What to submit:
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Poems (up to 500 words per poem) or prose
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Prose (900 - 2,000 words per story)
Prizes:
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1st Prize: $100 + publication
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Two Honorable Mentions per category: $50 + publication
How to Enter: (Blind Entries!)
Upload your work (Word document) via our Entry Form here (will be an active link when the contest is live!)!
Remove your name from the document and file name for blind judging.
Entry fee: $5 USD per each entry (Use PayPal ONLY - thefairytalemagazine@gmail.com. You'll be paying Enchanted Press for each entry!) (On the Google Form, you’ll include proof of payment).
No erotica! No horror!
A Few More Things
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Contest fees go directly to prizes and to supporting the contest issue of The Fairy Tale Magazine.
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Questions? Email us at thefairytalemagazine@gmail.com.
Winners and runners up are announced by June 25th, 2026.
Click Here to Submit via our Google Form!!
Meet the Judges below:
About Us
The Fairy Tale Magazine is an online lit magazine that publishes two full issues per year and one bonus mini-issue for our Prose & Poetry Contest. We seek fairy tale stories and poems from and about a wide range of backgrounds. Our full issues are released online on April 15th and November 1st. Bonus issue for the contest is released July 15th.
This is NOT a children's publication. It is intended for teens and adults (age 15 and older).
Guidelines 2026
(Updated on April 13, 2026)
The Fairy Tale Magazine accepts only previously unpublished stories and poems. We accept unsolicited submissions. Use the following word counts:
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Short Stories (between 900-2,000 words): Fairy tales inspired by any aspect of the above-listed themes. (1 piece per submission period)
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Poetry (500 word limit): Poetry inspired by any aspect of the above-listed themes are welcome. (1 piece per submission period)
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We do not accept submissions of art or nonfiction. We are not hiring. No inquiries please.
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We pay $25 USD per piece (whether prose or poetry).
Note: If you were published in the previous full issue, please wait one full issue before submitting your work again.
How to Format and Submit Your Work
Submit your work using our fillable Google Form only. The link to the submission form appears here when submissions are open.
The portal closes January 21st at midnight!
(If you encounter issues, please notify us at: thefairytalemagazine@gmail.com.)
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Prose should be single spaced. Indent new paragraphs.
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For poetry, special spacing may be submitted if necessary for your poem
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Include a brief third-person bio (50-word max)
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Please include your PayPal address so we know how to pay you. PayPal ONLY! Thank you!
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Only works in English, please.
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We are happy to read and publish work from any country, and are open to work with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.
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Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please email thefairytalemagazine@gmail.com with WITHDRAW in the subject line to let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. Once we accept a story or poem for publication, be sure to withdraw your submission from other publications
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You must be 18 years old or older to submit work to The Fairy Tale Magazine.
About Theme and Content
Keep in mind that all fairy tale related fiction and poetry needs an element of the supernatural—as well as transformation. Mashups welcomed. The essence of classic fairy tales should be maintained in stories and poems submitted here. You can take a lot of license with the work, but there must be a clear connection to the theme.
Absolutely none of the following for any submissions: sci-fi, time-travel, futuristic, space travel, high fantasy, erotica, stage magic, dystopian, extreme horror/gore, western, lengthy grossout descriptions of bodily functions or injuries, objectifying descriptions of people’s bodies, excessive world building (a.k.a., info dumps) war or battle as a major plot device, love triangles, and any form of romance that is not between humans or human-like creatures like fairies.
All content must be PG. Many children find our site even though it’s not a children's publication.
Notification and Payment
Our google form is set to email you a copy of your submission. You will receive an email notifying you of our decision. Chosen authors will be announced on the blog at fairytalemagazine.com. The Spring/Summer Issue (PDF) will be on the blog on or around April 15th. There will be a contract to sign.
No editorial feedback is provided. We do not justify decisions.
RIGHTS
First and all electronic and digital rights are being sought, as are rights to use the work for promoting and to benefit The Fairy Tale Magazine (FTM) in perpetuity, although you will retain the right to withdraw consent for using your work in promotional efforts after one year from publication. We are also buying the first podcast, YouTube, and all potential digital media rights to your work. Media rights are not exclusive.
Once a work is published on this website, you are free to shop it elsewhere—meaning electronic and digital and electronic rights revert to you immediately after publishing, but FTM will continue to sell or publish your work as part of the magazine’s mission, on media platforms such as YouTube and on podcasts platforms indefinitely. FTM is not published anywhere but on this site.
Annual Contest
Our 2026 Contest is in May. The winners of the Prose & Poetry Contest will be featured in our July 15 Bonus Issue. First place winners in both categories will be awarded $100 USD and publication (one in prose and one in poetry) and two runners up in each category will be awarded $50 USD + publication for their work. Please see the information above to learn more about our 2026 contest and prepare your entries. (Entries are $5.00 per piece. We encourage multiple entries!) We look forward to reading your fairy tale work for our contest!
Sample Work
To see what we have published before, browse our blog publications to find current samples of the type of work we publish. Or search for Throwback Thursday in our search bar to find more examples. Older works are archived at Enchanted Conversation, which you may search for a deeper connection to the fairy tale stories and poems we publish.