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.
We currently have no published stories in these categories: Asteroid Apocalypse, Fertility-Collapse Apocalypse.
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 care most about one thing: the quality of the story itself. If you can use AI tools and still produce excellent fiction, that is absolutely fine with me.
In practice, trying to reliably detect AI-assisted writing is neither enforceable nor predictable, and I do not plan to turn submissions into a detection exercise. This is a merit-based process, and the work stands or falls on its own.
I also think AI can be genuinely useful for the more utilitarian parts of creative work. I used AI while designing this website, and I built an assistant that helps me surface character details and plot points from earlier books when I need continuity support.
How far you take it is your call, and that decision ultimately belongs to you, the artist.
Thanks for sending your story to Ash Tales. Your submission is now in the review queue.