Ash Tales is open for short story submissions. We're especially looking for post-apocalyptic and apocalyptic fiction: stories set after the world has ended or while it is ending.
Submissions open Up to 2,500 words
If your story is accepted, it will be published as its own dedicated page in the Ash Tales story archive at ashtales.com/stories/, where readers can discover and share it.
Some accepted stories are also selected for audio adaptation and featured as episodes of the Ash Tales podcast, giving your work another format and audience.
Use the form below to send complete, edited short fiction for review by the Ash Tales fiction desk.
Focus on post-apocalyptic and apocalyptic fiction. Post-apocalyptic stories are the most likely to be accepted, and we're also keen to read stories set during the end of the world. We receive a lot of dystopian submissions and do accept some, but our main focus is the apocalypse and its aftermath. Speculative science fiction without an end-of-world scenario isn't a fit for Ash Tales.
Don't use gore for gore's sake. Gore can be a useful writing device, but it isn't interesting in itself. We receive many stories that are gory without offering an emotional or narrative payoff. Make the violence serve the characters or the story, and give readers something to care about beyond the shock.
Explore an apocalypse we don't see as often. Browse our story categories and consider submitting to one with fewer stories. We'd love to see a wider range of ways the world might end.
Accepted stories are published under non-exclusive rights for Ash Tales digital publication, including website publication, podcast adaptation, and potential future anthology use.
You retain your rights. If your story is accepted elsewhere while pending, contact ryan@ashtales.com to withdraw it.
Response time varies by volume. If accepted, you will be contacted directly by email.
I pair selected stories with landscape photographs chosen for their sparse, empty beauty, with each choice inspired by the story's setting or themes. People are absent, echoing the depopulated worlds of post-apocalyptic fiction. I add a mild digital distortion to interrupt that beauty, offering a little visual interest while keeping the focus on the words.
The photographs are sourced from real photographers through sites such as Unsplash and Pexels, alongside some of my own work. I don't use generative AI to create or edit these images.
If you'd like to share your landscape photography, please send me an email at ryan@ashtales.com.
Thanks for sending your story to Ash Tales. Your submission is now in the review queue.