Our goal is to bring to our readers engaging fiction in the forms of poetry, prose poetry, short stories, and novellas. We welcome both the profound and the quirky. We are open to most styles and genres of fiction and enjoy all forms of poetry. While some selections are made available in electronic formats and traditional print, others will be offered as handbound originals and paper ephemera as we strive to celebrate the art of the book and letterpress printing. Our print studio consists of three presses including the Cooks Victor, the Baltimore #14 and a vintage sign press.

If you are new to Haunted Waters Press, we encourage you to explore our website to get to know us better. Here you will find news and information about our small press as well as links to recent publications. Downloading free copies of our latest issues will help you get a better feel for the kinds of work we tend to publish and the level of attention paid to each and every published piece. From the Depths features custom artwork inspired by our contributors’ works to create a cohesive collection of prose, poetry and art. It truly is a labor of love. We hope you enjoy what has been described as one of the most compelling and beautifully illustrated literary journals.

SPLASH! and the HWP Print Pool . . .

SPLASH!—the Haunted Waters Press online showcase for fiction and poetry—also features author interviews, news from the press, and creative non-fiction from our regular contributors. Works accepted for publication in SPLASH! are sourced primarily from our no fee reading periods. Up to four works per year may be selected for direct paid print publication. Occasionally, works submitted in other categories and contests may be offered online publication in lieu of print. These works automatically enter the HWP Print Pool making them eligible for future offers of paid print publication.

New in 2020 . . .

Tin Can Literary Review . . . more details to come!

Payment . . .

Haunted Waters Press is a paying market for print publications. We offer cash payments equivalent to semi-professional to professional rates. SPLASH! publication offers exposure only and eligibility for future offers of paid print publication. Please see individual listings for details. (All monetary payments are in US dollars processed via PayPal. Processing fees from foreign currency transactions may be deducted. If you do not have a PayPal account, you can set up a free account upon receipt of automatic payment notification from PayPal to the email address you supply.)

A word on our no fee reading periods, reading fees, and submission dates . . .

For online SPLASH! publication and Penny Fiction submissions, we offer alternating no fee reading periods from December though July. We review the first 200 submissions per month. We suggest submitting early. Reading and entry fees for other competitions and calls for submissions vary from free to a nominal reading fee. We at HWP never want financial hardship to silence a story that needs to be told. If you cannot afford a reading fee where one is required, please contact us for alternate arrangements. Publisher reserves the right to extend submission dates.

Multiple works/submissions . . .

Yes! Please see individual listings for details.

Simultaneous submissions . . .

Simultaneous submissions are welcome in most categories with the exception of our no fee reading periods and Penny Fiction. For your convenience, Expedited Decision submissions are reviewed within seven days. Please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere. See individual listings for more details.

Formatting requirements . . .

We prefer an easy to read font, black type on white pages. Don’t fret over it too much.

If your work is accepted . . .

We will ask you to sign an Author’s Agreement granting HWP exclusive first worldwide publication print and/or electronic media rights. Haunted Waters Press holds these publishing rights for ninety days following publication and non-exclusive print and electronic rights for the full term of copyright. Copyright remains with the author. See author’s agreement for details. HWP will use reasonable efforts to contact each contributor, however, the inability to reach a contributor, the return of any notification as undeliverable, and/or a contributor’s failure to sign and return the required agreement may result in forfeiture of offer of publication and payment, and in the case of an award recipient, disqualification of winner, forfeiture of his or her interest in all cash awards and recognition, and selection of a substitute recipient from among all remaining eligible contributors. Yikes! We don’t want that to happen! PLEASE keep your contact information updated, check your email spam settings, and respond in a timely manner!

If your work is declined . . .

Just because something isn’t right for HWP, doesn’t mean it isn’t right for another market. In some cases, we simply feel the work would benefit from another publisher’s perspective. Let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you in your path to publication.