midnight & indigo, the literary platform celebrating Black women’s voices across the diaspora, has three submission windows open right now, all closing June 30 at 11:59 pm ET. Since 2018, the platform has published over 400 Black women writers across the US, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Canada, Asia, and Australia, and it pays for every piece it publishes.

The first call is for short stories: previously unpublished literary fiction, 1,500 to 7,000 words, exploring identity, relationships, and the textures of everyday life through character-driven narrative. The second is for Black speculative fiction: original, unpublished stories of 2,000 to 7,000 words that bend reality, whether through the eerie, the dystopian, the supernatural, or the fantastical. The third is for creative nonfiction: personal, evocative first-person essays of at least 1,200 words that offer an unfiltered window into the writer’s own experience.

All submissions must be made through Submittable, with up to three stories submitted at any time; email submissions are not accepted. Work must be entirely human-authored, submissions using AI will be automatically rejected. Average response time is 90 days. Compensation is $0.07 per word for short stories and speculative fiction, and $150 for personal essays, paid upon publication. Authors retain copyright, with midnight & indigo acquiring first North American serial rights and select additional rights as outlined in their contributor agreement.

Submit at midnightindigo.submittable.com/submit.