Special Call: Reprints from Defunct Markets Only

Even an excellent literary magazine doesn't necessarily last forever. There are quite a few journals the After Happy Hour editors used to read (or were published in) that now no longer exist--and that's a shame, because they published great stuff that people should still be able to read. 

We'd like to help fix that with a special online issue dedicated solely to work that was published in now-closed markets. What we specifically mean by that:

• For print publications: They are no longer publishing new content in any format and past issues are no longer available for purchase directly from the publisher (or will be unavailable by May 2025, for print journals that just announced their closure).
• For online publications: Either a) the website is inactive, or b) the journal has shown no signs of activity on their website and social media accounts for 3+ years

Any creative work that was published in a journal that meets one of those qualifications is eligible for this call. This includes stories, poems, personal essays, graphic narratives, and works of art, along with hybrids and mixes of the above. We're interested in works from any and all genres, and especially in ones that blend, blur, or fall between genres. 

We are only looking for reprints for this call. Unpublished work will be rejected unread. If you have unpublished pieces that fit our current contest theme (Food) you can submit them on that form. Otherwise, please wait for our next unthemed open call, which will open March 1st, 2025.

All work selected for this issue will be paid a flat rate of $10 per piece. The reading period will be open concurrent with this year's contest, from November 1st, 2024 through January 31st, 2025.

General submission guidelines

Poetry: no line or word limits. 

Fiction: We have no hard word count limits, though we are unlikely to publish something of novella length. 

Creative nonfiction: We are specifically looking for lyric or narrative nonfiction, not scholarly essays (though if you’re using the tropes of scholarly essays within the context of a personal essay, that we do want to see).

Suites: Send up to 5 linked works that will be considered as a set. Individual works within a suite can be poems or flash or micro-length prose (under 1,000 words each).

Hybrid/Cross-Genre: Yes, please. Follow whichever of the above guidelines makes the most sense for your work. 

For all submissions:

• Please include a brief (100 words max) 3rd-person bio with your submission.
• To limit editor bias, we read all submissions anonymously. Please remove your name and contact information from the document (including the headers, top of the first page, under the title, etc.) before submitting it.
• Use standard manuscript format (11- or 12-point font like Times New Roman, double-space prose/single-space poetry, etc.). We won’t reject you for weird spacing or a bad font (probably), but following this standard makes things easier to read, and that makes the editors happy. Poets/experimental prose writers have more liberty here if the non-standard formatting is used for formal or stylistic reasons. Straightforward prose writers have no excuse.
• We accept submissions only through Submittable. Submissions sent to our e-mail will be deleted unread.
• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, just please withdraw your submission if it's accepted somewhere that would prohibit After Happy Hour from publishing it (e.g. a market with a post-publication period of exclusivity). 
• Multiple submissions are accepted.
• If you need to withdraw a longer prose piece, or an entire packet of poems or flash prose, you can choose the “withdraw” option on Submittable. To withdraw a single poem or flash piece from a packet, you can message us through Submittable or e-mail us (afterhappyhour [at] gmail [dot] com).
• Accepted submissions may be edited for grammar. All changes will be sent to the author for approval before publication.
• We request one-time publication rights (we can publish your work once) and non-exclusive electronic archive rights (we can keep the issue with your work in it online in our back issue archives). The author always holds the copyright to their work and retains all other rights, including the right to publish the piece elsewhere after its publication in After Happy Hour.