YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM announced; cover art reveal & submissions info!

Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!

Hope you're as excited about this as we are: we're ready to announce submission details, and reveal the cover, of the next YOUR BODY volume.

Mx Morgan G Robles crafted the exquisite cover that graced YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY in 2022.

Fittingly, they're back to give its companion volume some visual connective tissue. Unsurprisingly, they've outdone themselves.

Tenebrous Cult: feast your eyes on the cover art for YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM: A Cosmic Body Horror Anthology from trans and gender nonconforming voices:

The original volume came about in a spontaneous, emotional frenzy, when the Texas government announced they would begin prosecuting not only trans individuals, but their family members too: we conceived the anthology in an afternoon—title first, of all things!—publicly announced it that evening, with submissions opening the following morning.

YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY released five months later, without too many bumps in the road; a miracle in itself. To date it's raised over $12,000 for Equality Texas, the Trevor Project and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

Well, the world is still a bit of a mess, yeah? Let's make some more Weird shit happen.

YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM

A cosmic body horror anthology from trans and GNC voices, a companion volume to YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY, and a charity drive all rolled into one.

Currently aiming to contribute to:

Trans Legal Services Network

Trans Doe Task Force

Always open to further suggestions!

If you wish to support this project, but are not part of the target demographic for writers and artists, here are some other great ways you can help:

- Contribute to the art fund HERE. Any donation, no matter how small, will be put fully towards purchasing a piece of interior art. Anything over what we can use for interior art will go directly to the anthology fund itself.

- Sign up to help us read and process submissions HERE.

- Sign up to be a Tenebrous ARC reader (advance review copies) and be a reviewer, promoter, and hype person for this release HERE

- Sign up to our NEWSLETTER and engage with it, and share it with your friends

Alright, so what do we want?

Only accepting submissions from creators who are: Trans, NB, agender, intersex, GNC, and generally any gender identity other than binary cisgender.

Discretionary note: while we respect your privacy (we will not ask details on your identity nor require your legal address or name), being involved with this anthology will definitely come with an assumption on readers' part that the identity of the name you're using is within this demographic. Please do not submit (or if you do, use an alternative pen name) if that's not comfortable or not safe for you. The anthology will be distributed broadly and given every opportunity to be in the public eye and it's important to be prepared. 

FICTION GUIDELINES:

4,000 words maximum (no minimum)

Reprints are welcomed 

Simsub: always. Multiple subs: yes but no more than two submissions per creator, please.

Genre: Weird Cosmic Body Horror/SFF 

The hell does that mean? 

It means if it's dark, and involves themes like great unknowable forces, big concepts, space, dimensions, existential drama, good ol' body horror, cosmic dread, genre blending, weird format fuckery (hell yes, send us your experimental one page RPG lyrical cosmic horromance with a soundtrack), then it's probably for us. If it isn't, that's our job to figure out, not yours to worry about!

Target audience is adult. 

Narrative poetry welcome.

Pay: 3c/w original, $25/piece reprints

Deadline: 10th of January 2026

Love a content warning under the title if possible, won't hold it against you if it's missing.

Submit HERE.

ART GUIDELINES:

One page interior illustrations or comics, spot illustrations, mini comic strips, and potentially multimedia weirdness.

We can only print B&W/grayscale interiors.

Final print dimensions: 8.5" H x 5.5" W

No bleed please! This limits some of the venues who will print and distribute the book; art submitted with bleed will be reformatted with framing on the page.

While we won't discourage you from creating pieces for this if you want to, we are aware that our means don't cover what your art is worth, and prefer if you submit pieces you already have & would like to reprint with us.

Pay: $25/piece

Submit HERE.

Okay, submissions are open, Weirdos. Let's do some Good Work.

Hail Indie Publishing.

Hail New Weird Horror (+ More!)

Hail the Tenebrous Cult.

Hail the Fever Dream.

Matt + Alex

Submissions open for Brave New Weird volume 4

REMINDER: THIS IS FOR ELIGIBLE REPRINTS ONLY

Tenebrous Press presents the FOURTH (!!!) Annual Brave New Weird Awards—to reward and promote this unique blend of genres—and its accompanying anthology, Brave New Weird: the Best New Weird Horror of the Year, Vol. 4.

We define New Weird Horror as a subgenre focused on progress, creatively capturing themes and questions that bleed into fiction straight from the modern reader's life and future. It acts as a challenge to break new ground in terms of form and content and to engage with the unknown. Beyond that, New Weird Horror will be defined by the winning pieces themselves.

Buzzwords: speculative; eclectic; horror-centric but genre-blended; progressive and innovative in terms of content, social themes, form, or voice; concept-driven.

Does this sound like your writing? Submit your previously published work to the New Weird Horror Awards today!

Eligibility

Any previously published piece of short fiction under 7.499 words originally published in the English language within the eligibility period.

You may submit NARRATIVE poems only; poems will be judged on their storytelling.

Stories published in other languages are welcome if there is an English translation available, and the English translation falls under the eligibility period.

Any work published through Tenebrous Press is not eligible INCLUDING THE SKULL & LAUREL MAGAZINE. We already think you're awesome, regardless. Tenebrous staff are also not eligible.

THE PREVIOUS YEAR’S WINNERS (Volume Three, in this case) are NOT eligible; please do not submit. Anyone published in BRAVE NEW WEIRD before last year’s volume is eligible.

NOMINEES from previous years ARE eligible.

Eligibility period

Works published between the 31st of October 2024 and the 31st of October 2025 will be considered for BNW Vol. 4.

Simply: If it's published before Halloween this year, it competes for this year's award. If it's published after Halloween, it competes for next year's award.

Final submission deadline for this year's award: November 1st, 2025. Send ARCS if necessary to get the submission in on time.

Response

As this is an award, there will not be any rejection notices. Stories are submitted by editors, readers, reviewers; imagine sending rejection letters to someone who didn’t even submit their own work.

Instead, if we want to award & feature a story, we will reach out to the author. There will be a published shortlist, and the shortlisted works that don’t end up being featured will still be mentioned & advertised in the anthology.

Results

Selected authors will be asked to sign a non-exclusive contract allowing their reprint to be featured.

A reprint payment of $25 + one paperback copy + one award certificate will be given to the selected authors.

How to submit

ANYONE may submit. Readers, reviewers, editors, and the authors themselves are all welcome to submit.

Authors submitting on your own behalf: Submit a short story as a text document. Add the link if the story is available online. Authors, please submit ONLY YOUR ONE LIKELIEST STORY.

Editors, reviewers, and readers submitting on behalf of others: please submit up to THREE individual stories.

For full issues/full anthologies/full collections, type them into the relevant field of the form.

Electronic submissions only.

SUBMIT HERE.

Other rules

You may speak about this award, submitting to this award, and being shortlisted for this award, in any way you like.

If we missed anything, drop us an email or DM!

Meet the WEIRDOS: BRAVE NEW WEIRD Award Winner M. L. Krishnan

M. L. Krishnan originally hails from the coastal shores of Tamil Nadu, India. She has been awarded Fellowships and Residencies from Tin House, MacDowell, Millay Arts, and the Clarion West Writers Workshop. Her stories and essays have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Strange Horizons, Black Warrior Review, Diabolical Plots and elsewhere. Her work has been anthologized in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Afterlives: The Year’s Best Death Fiction, Wigleaf Top 50, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions and more. You can find her at: mlkrishnan.com.

Her BNW-winning story “Measurements Expressed as Units of Separation” originally appeared in The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread (Neon Hemlock).

BRAVE NEW WEIRD is out now! You can order it here.

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Give us the elevator pitch of your BNW-winning story.

Set in a remote South Indian college, "Measurements Expressed as Units of Separation” is a circuitous, queer love story about obsessions that fester, a snake, a long-forgotten prince, and a large body of water.

This world is friggin' Weird in a lot of ways right now, and many of those ways are not the fun kind. What secret tips can you share to help others navigate this mess on a daily basis?

I’m going to say it, because I’m terrible at it: staying off social media. The days I put a moratorium on relentless scrolling and actually commit to anything else that does not involve a screen, are the days where my brain breaks free from the incessant guilt-doom-guilt-doom-guilt-doom hamster wheelies. This is how I remember that I’m still a human person, and not an anxious swarm of wasps trapped in a meat suit. 

Gotta say, Guilt Doom Hamster Wheelies is a great band name.

Do you take naps?

I do, and I always feel less-rested and worse after taking a nap. 

Ah, a human after my own heart! “This isn’t making me feel better, but if I keep doing it I can at least learn to ignore how unpleasant it is.” It’s a can’t-lose-don’t-research-further solution.

On the Tenebrous Discord board, we ask everyone to introduce themselves as a Film-meets-Music Artist (Citizen Kane x Metallica, f’rinstance). It doesn’t have to be your favorite, and don’t spend too much time overthinking it; now GO.

I didn’t even have to think about this, my hands moved on their own. Only Lovers Left Alive x INXS. 

What's the capital-W Weirdest thing that's ever happened to you (that you're comfortable sharing)?

When I was a kid, I rode an elevator at a construction site that was not completely installed. It was not connected to any source of power. I stepped into it with the ignorance and bravado of an average ten-year-old, pressed the button for the fourth floor, and it took me up to the fourth floor. I remember my parents panic-screaming as they ran up the (unfinished) stairs. I remember that I was too short for the stairs that were laid too far apart, and that’s why I stepped into the elevator in the first place. I remember being grounded for an entire month. I was fine. I took the partially-installed, disconnected elevator. It worked for me. 

I remember that elevator. I’m still in that elevator!

…we’re all still in that elevator. We always were. We always will be.

***

BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror + More, Vol. 3, is out now!

You can order it here.

Meet the WEIRDOS: BRAVE NEW WEIRD Award Winner Hannah Greer

Hannah Greer’s work has been featured in Solarpunk Magazine, Radon Journal, and elsewhere. She is a first reader for Fusion Fragment, hoards books, and competes in combat sports. She resides in North Carolina with her partner, a trio of cats, a small flock of pigeons, and several geckos. Find her on Bluesky or at hannahgreer.carrd.co.

Her BNW-winning story “To Be Human” originally appeared in PseudoPod.

BRAVE NEW WEIRD is out now! You can order it here.

***

Give us the elevator pitch of your BNW-winning story.

Growing organs for the wealthy means living like livestock. It means missing out on what it is to be human. But there are acts, rebellious acts, that offer a level of humanity otherwise unattainable. Are they worth it?

Yeah but to be fair, if we don’t let the wealthy sustain themselves with our organs, how will they live long enough to bestow upon us all that sweet sweet trickle-down wealth that they swear is on its way?

This world is friggin' Weird in a lot of ways right now, and many of those ways are not the fun kind. What secret tips can you share to help others navigate this mess on a daily basis? 

It's not really a secret, but it is easy to forget that you need to take care of yourself. Turn off the news. Get yourself a sweet treat. Take a nap. Go to a rage room. Whatever taking care of yourself looks like for you. It can feel like we need to be on top of everything all the time, but with so much going on, that's not really possible. And that's okay. Do what you can, when you can. And when you can, maybe fuel all those messy emotions into a story! It helps me, but only when it's not quite so fresh.

You’re speaking my love language. “Costco-sized Box of Hostess Cupcakes + Napping in the Rage Room” and I’m swept away on an ocean breeze.

Speaking of… Do you take naps? 

Of course! It's the only way to get through the day!

On the Tenebrous Discord board, we ask everyone to introduce themselves as a Film-meets-Music Artist (Citizen Kane x Metallica, f’rinstance). It doesn’t have to be your favorite, and don’t spend too much time overthinking it; now GO. 

Oh no, I don't really listen to music! Do I even know any artists? Hmm. Oh, quickly? Uh, Lilo and Stitch x Girl in Red

What's the capital-W Weirdest thing that's ever happened to you (that you're comfortable sharing)? 

Maybe when this big peking duck developed an unhealthy obsession with me. And by that, I mean unhealthy for me. He would chase me down and attack me on sight. I couldn't go outside in shorts for years because his bites could hurt! I also had to take care of him, which led to some other interesting animal encounters. Specifically, I regularly had beef with an opossum who would steal the duck food. We'd get into hissing matches from my ground-level bedroom window.

Okay yeah, granted, that’s Weird, but I’m still stuck back on “I don’t really listen to music”. Hearing you say that is officially the capital-W Weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me. 

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BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror + More, Vol. 3, is out now!

You can order it here.