Dark Horizons, published twice a year, is the critically acclaimed journal of the British Fantasy Society. It publishes fiction, poetry, articles and interviews. The current editor is Stephen Theaker. For the very latest information on submitting to this publication, please consult the Dark Horizons forum on the BFS website. There you’ll find updates on what we’re looking for at the moment, what we’re short of, and so on. You do not have to be a member of the BFS to submit to Dark Horizons, or to join the BFS forums.

Fiction

Dark Horizons is a broad church as far as “fantasy” is concerned: we're looking for heroic fantasy, dark fantasy, fantastical horror, supernatural fiction, fabulations, etc. Science fiction and science fantasy will be considered, but we're not really the best place for hard sf. Ideally, we would like to have a balance of genres in each issue. We prefer stories in the 3,000–7,000 word range, but will consider shorter or longer tales. No reprints (in general), and no simultaneous submissions.

Note: I'm now happy to receive all submissions for Dark Horizons by email (darkhorizons@britishfantasysociety.org) as attachments. For maximum helpfulness, title your file in this way: DH Story Title by Author Name.

Please email queries and submissions to the editor.

We still accept submissions by post, but they must be available in electronic form as well. Manuscripts will not be returned. Send them to: Stephen Theaker, Dark Horizons, 56 Leyton Road, Birmingham, B21 9EE, UK.

Poetry

Subject matter as for fiction; poems should have a fantastic, weird, supernatural or mythical theme. Any form will be accepted with a maximum length of 36 lines.

Poetry submissions should be emailed to the editor. Please include them in the body of the email, not as an attachment.

Lengthy poems or sagas will be considered, but should follow instead the submission guidelines given above for fiction.

Non-Fiction

We are looking for anything that will interest the members of the British Fantasy Society, in particular interviews, overviews, critiques, biographies, histories, opinions, and so on. We do suggest you contact us before writing any very substantial article (either by letter or email), to check on suitability and available space. Our readers are generally quite knowledgable when it comes to fantasy, so don't be afraid to suggest topics slightly off the beaten track. All non-fiction should be sent directly to the editor by email. Reprints are welcome.

We would also like to introduce some new and regular non-fiction sections to the journal. These may or may not pan out – it will probably depend upon the kind and quality of submissions we receive. We're happy to admit that the idea is to channel some of the energy that goes into writing on forums and other websites into writing short pieces for our journal…

Castle Wailing: this section would be for short opinion, idea or polemic pieces, similar to the reader features that appear here. Do you have a brilliant idea that you want to push out into the world? A new way of looking at a book, an author or a programme? Perhaps a research proposal you’ve no intention of ever following up yourself?

Ruminations: this section would be for things that might once have been reviews, but carried on growing. While Dark Horizons does not publish reviews as a rule (short reviews of current books or films are included in the newsletter of the BFS, Prism), more in-depth considerations of individual titles, new or old, could appear here. Is there a book or a film that you just can’t get out of your head, to which you keep seeing new angles?

BFSQ&A: this is our Notes & Queries for fantasy fans, but also a place for one-question interviews. Are you baffled by the rapturous welcome your least favourite author routinely receives? Are you terrified at the idea of visiting a fantasy convention? Questions can be emailed to the editor, or posted on the BFS Dark Horizons forum (and will appear in each issue of the magazine). Responses should also be sent to the editor. We’ll string together the most interesting responses in the following issue.

Note to Publishers

We are always on the lookout for suitable people to interview. We would also be interested in providing our readers with previews of forthcoming books, in particular of non-fiction titles. Previews could take the form of an extract, or (for example) a note from the author explaining the significance of his or her subject. Please contact the editor to discuss.

Artwork

We are looking for artists in all mediums (including photography) prepared to illustrate stories – and the front cover. Please email good quality examples of your work to the editor or simply refer us to your website or online gallery.

You don't have to commit to doing any artwork. We keep a mailing list of interested artists, and send out a list of stories and available space for each issue. If you see something on the list that interests you, just let us know and we'll send a pdf of the story in question for reference.

A Bit of a Downer

The British Fantasy Society is a non-profit organisation and therefore DH is unable to pay for submissions (although the budget will stretch to a copy of the magazine for contributors who are not society members). However, you will be in good company: Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Louise Cooper, Stephen Gallagher, Brian Lumley, Mark Morris, Lisa Tuttle, Robert Holdstock and many others have all been published by the BFS.

Note that many paying markets can be found by consulting online directories such as www.duotrope.com and www.ralan.com.

You retain all rights to your work, allowing us only the right to distribute paper copies of the issue in which it appears. If at a later date your story is reprinted elsewhere, we would be grateful if a notice could be appended regarding its original publication in Dark Horizons.

By submitting a story, article or poem the writer assumes all responsibility with regard to potential copyright, libel, trade mark infringement or any other legal proceedings which might stem from its publication. With that in mind, please do not submit any stories featuring characters from films, tv shows, other people’s novels (unless the author died in the nineteenth century or earlier), etc.

Response Times

Since Dark Horizons is only published twice a year (March and September, at present), we may have to hold onto stories a little longer than we'd like before deciding whether to use them, especially since the space available for fiction in each issue is affected by how much non-fiction we manage to acquire. However, we will aim to acknowledge your submissions fairly quickly.