The Year’s Best from Women in Horror, Volume 1

Edited by Lindy Ryan & Stephanie M. Wytovich

Submissions Open: October 31–December 31, 2026

Eligibility: This is a reprint anthology. Submitted work must have been originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Previously unpublished or published work is not eligible. 

Work must be written by a woman or female-identifying author. NO AI.

Work Considered: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Word Length: Fiction and Nonfiction up to 7500 words; poems up to one-page.

Multiple submissions are allowed, however you may only submit once per form. If you wish to submit multiple works per category you must submit them individually. Multiple submissions on one form may lead to some of your works not being considered.

Rights: Worldwide First Reprint in Print, Digital & Audio

Payment: 0.01/c per word USD + contributor copies in print and eBook

We are pleased to announce the call for submissions for the inaugural volume of The Year’s Best from Women in Horror, an annual reprint anthology dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and building a lasting record of the extraordinary work women are contributing to contemporary horror.

Women have always shaped horror. We have written its monsters and its haunted houses, its ghosts and its witches, its final girls and its terrible mothers. We have used horror to explore fear and rage, grief and desire, our bodies and identity, family and power. And while women’s contributions to horror have historically been buried, ignored, or forgotten, today’s work – particularly that published by independent presses, small magazines, digital venues, limited-run anthologies, and other ephemeral spaces – still too often disappears from the larger genre conversation almost as quickly as it arrives.

The Year’s Best from Women in Horror seeks to help preserve that work. 

Each annual volume will collect outstanding fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written by women and female-identifying authors, creating not only a showcase of the year’s exceptional horror, but an ongoing archive of the voices shaping the genre today: a living canon of women in horror, built year by year. Together, we are building a legacy for women in horror.

We want the work that frightened us, unsettled us, surprised us, broke our hearts, made us laugh in the dark, or showed us something horror could do that we hadn’t seen before. We welcome horror in all its forms and subgenres, including supernatural, psychological, Gothic, folk, cosmic, and body horror; horror comedy; dark fantasy; weird fiction; and work that traverses the spaces between subgenres and defies easy categorization.

The only caveat: it must be written by women and female-identifying authors – and it must be written by human women. No work generated or written with or by generative AI will be accepted. By submitting, contributors confirm that the submitted work is their own creative work and was not generated by artificial intelligence.

For Volume 1, we are considering work originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2026. All work must be eligible for reprint, and we will verify reprint rights. By submitting, contributors confirm that they hold the reprint rights to reproduce their work.

Authors may submit their own work. Editors and publishers are also strongly encouraged to submit or recommend outstanding eligible work from their 2026 publications. We want to cast as wide a net as possible in documenting the year in women’s horror.

We are particularly interested in exceptional work that may not otherwise be preserved in a permanent print edition: pieces published online or digitally, in small-press anthologies, in limited-circulation publications, and in other venues beyond the genre’s largest markets.

Submission does not guarantee inclusion. The Year’s Best from Women in Horror is a curated annual anthology, and the editors will also actively seek out and solicit exceptional work published throughout the year.

No single collection can define a year in horror. But it can help ensure that the work that defined a year is remembered. Our hope is that these volumes will become more than anthologies. Together, they will create a volume-by-volume legacy of contemporary women in horror: a place where emerging writers stand beside established voices, where work from small and independent venues can live alongside work from major publications, and where readers, writers, scholars, librarians, and future horror fans can return to see what women were writing, fearing, questioning, and transforming at a particular moment in the genre.

This is not only a celebration of the year’s best horror by women. It’s an effort to preserve it. To put it back on the shelf–and to keep it there, year after year.

The Year’s Best from Women in Horror, Volume 1

Edited by Lindy Ryan & Stephanie M. Wytovich

Submissions Open: October 31–December 31, 2026

Eligibility: This is a reprint anthology. Submitted work must have been originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Previously unpublished or published work is not eligible. 

Work must be written by a woman or female-identifying author. NO AI.

Work Considered: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Word Length: Fiction and Nonfiction up to 7500 words; poems up to one-page.

Multiple submissions are allowed, however you may only submit once per form. If you wish to submit multiple works per category you must submit them individually. Multiple submissions on one form may lead to some of your works not being considered.

Rights: Worldwide First Reprint in Print, Digital & Audio

Payment: 0.01/c per word USD + contributor copies in print and eBook

We are pleased to announce the call for submissions for the inaugural volume of The Year’s Best from Women in Horror, an annual reprint anthology dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and building a lasting record of the extraordinary work women are contributing to contemporary horror.

Women have always shaped horror. We have written its monsters and its haunted houses, its ghosts and its witches, its final girls and its terrible mothers. We have used horror to explore fear and rage, grief and desire, our bodies and identity, family and power. And while women’s contributions to horror have historically been buried, ignored, or forgotten, today’s work – particularly that published by independent presses, small magazines, digital venues, limited-run anthologies, and other ephemeral spaces – still too often disappears from the larger genre conversation almost as quickly as it arrives.

The Year’s Best from Women in Horror seeks to help preserve that work. 

Each annual volume will collect outstanding fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written by women and female-identifying authors, creating not only a showcase of the year’s exceptional horror, but an ongoing archive of the voices shaping the genre today: a living canon of women in horror, built year by year. Together, we are building a legacy for women in horror.

We want the work that frightened us, unsettled us, surprised us, broke our hearts, made us laugh in the dark, or showed us something horror could do that we hadn’t seen before. We welcome horror in all its forms and subgenres, including supernatural, psychological, Gothic, folk, cosmic, and body horror; horror comedy; dark fantasy; weird fiction; and work that traverses the spaces between subgenres and defies easy categorization.

The only caveat: it must be written by women and female-identifying authors – and it must be written by human women. No work generated or written with or by generative AI will be accepted. By submitting, contributors confirm that the submitted work is their own creative work and was not generated by artificial intelligence.

For Volume 1, we are considering work originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2026. All work must be eligible for reprint, and we will verify reprint rights. By submitting, contributors confirm that they hold the reprint rights to reproduce their work.

Authors may submit their own work. Editors and publishers are also strongly encouraged to submit or recommend outstanding eligible work from their 2026 publications. We want to cast as wide a net as possible in documenting the year in women’s horror.

We are particularly interested in exceptional work that may not otherwise be preserved in a permanent print edition: pieces published online or digitally, in small-press anthologies, in limited-circulation publications, and in other venues beyond the genre’s largest markets.

Submission does not guarantee inclusion. The Year’s Best from Women in Horror is a curated annual anthology, and the editors will also actively seek out and solicit exceptional work published throughout the year.

No single collection can define a year in horror. But it can help ensure that the work that defined a year is remembered. Our hope is that these volumes will become more than anthologies. Together, they will create a volume-by-volume legacy of contemporary women in horror: a place where emerging writers stand beside established voices, where work from small and independent venues can live alongside work from major publications, and where readers, writers, scholars, librarians, and future horror fans can return to see what women were writing, fearing, questioning, and transforming at a particular moment in the genre.

This is not only a celebration of the year’s best horror by women. It’s an effort to preserve it. To put it back on the shelf–and to keep it there, year after year.

The Year’s Best from Women in Horror, Volume 1

Edited by Lindy Ryan & Stephanie M. Wytovich

Submissions Open: October 31–December 31, 2026

Eligibility: This is a reprint anthology. Submitted work must have been originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Previously unpublished or published work is not eligible. 

Work must be written by a woman or female-identifying author. NO AI.

Work Considered: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Word Length: Fiction and Nonfiction up to 7500 words; poems up to one-page.

Multiple submissions are allowed, however you may only submit once per form. If you wish to submit multiple works per category you must submit them individually. Multiple submissions on one form may lead to some of your works not being considered.

Rights: Worldwide First Reprint in Print, Digital & Audio

Payment: 0.01/c per word USD + contributor copies in print and eBook

We are pleased to announce the call for submissions for the inaugural volume of The Year’s Best from Women in Horror, an annual reprint anthology dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and building a lasting record of the extraordinary work women are contributing to contemporary horror.

Women have always shaped horror. We have written its monsters and its haunted houses, its ghosts and its witches, its final girls and its terrible mothers. We have used horror to explore fear and rage, grief and desire, our bodies and identity, family and power. And while women’s contributions to horror have historically been buried, ignored, or forgotten, today’s work – particularly that published by independent presses, small magazines, digital venues, limited-run anthologies, and other ephemeral spaces – still too often disappears from the larger genre conversation almost as quickly as it arrives.

The Year’s Best from Women in Horror seeks to help preserve that work. 

Each annual volume will collect outstanding fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written by women and female-identifying authors, creating not only a showcase of the year’s exceptional horror, but an ongoing archive of the voices shaping the genre today: a living canon of women in horror, built year by year. Together, we are building a legacy for women in horror.

We want the work that frightened us, unsettled us, surprised us, broke our hearts, made us laugh in the dark, or showed us something horror could do that we hadn’t seen before. We welcome horror in all its forms and subgenres, including supernatural, psychological, Gothic, folk, cosmic, and body horror; horror comedy; dark fantasy; weird fiction; and work that traverses the spaces between subgenres and defies easy categorization.

The only caveat: it must be written by women and female-identifying authors – and it must be written by human women. No work generated or written with or by generative AI will be accepted. By submitting, contributors confirm that the submitted work is their own creative work and was not generated by artificial intelligence.

For Volume 1, we are considering work originally published between January 1 and December 31, 2026. All work must be eligible for reprint, and we will verify reprint rights. By submitting, contributors confirm that they hold the reprint rights to reproduce their work.

Authors may submit their own work. Editors and publishers are also strongly encouraged to submit or recommend outstanding eligible work from their 2026 publications. We want to cast as wide a net as possible in documenting the year in women’s horror.

We are particularly interested in exceptional work that may not otherwise be preserved in a permanent print edition: pieces published online or digitally, in small-press anthologies, in limited-circulation publications, and in other venues beyond the genre’s largest markets.

Submission does not guarantee inclusion. The Year’s Best from Women in Horror is a curated annual anthology, and the editors will also actively seek out and solicit exceptional work published throughout the year.

No single collection can define a year in horror. But it can help ensure that the work that defined a year is remembered. Our hope is that these volumes will become more than anthologies. Together, they will create a volume-by-volume legacy of contemporary women in horror: a place where emerging writers stand beside established voices, where work from small and independent venues can live alongside work from major publications, and where readers, writers, scholars, librarians, and future horror fans can return to see what women were writing, fearing, questioning, and transforming at a particular moment in the genre.

This is not only a celebration of the year’s best horror by women. It’s an effort to preserve it. To put it back on the shelf–and to keep it there, year after year.