Submissions

We are not currently seeking new offerings in fiction—but the altar is never closed forever.

Arcane Lyre Press publishes dark fantasy with literary ambition, mythological depth, and a fascination with the intimate and uncanny. We seek stories that resonate like folklore and unravel like dreams—where language, power, and identity strike chords that echo beyond the page.

At this time, our fiction publishing calendar is fully booked through 2027 with internally developed projects. We are not accepting unsolicited novellas, novels, or short fiction collections at this time.

However, we are open to poetry chapbooks and collections.

❧ We Are Currently Seeking:

Poetry Collections

We welcome thematically cohesive poetry collections (10–40 pages) that speak in folklore, walk with ghosts, or touch the divine and uncanny. We’re drawn to:

Mythic and speculative poetry
Work that explores identity, inheritance, silence, or monstrosity
Collections that read like curses, prayers, or confessions
Experimental, hybrid, or genre-bending poetic structures

Please submit only complete manuscripts. Individual poems will not be considered.

❧ Please Note:

We are not currently accepting visual or concrete poetry, including work that relies heavily on spatial layout, shape-based form, or image-text integration. Our focus is on language-forward collections that can be cleanly rendered in both print and digital formats.

❧ How To Submit

If your poetry manuscript aligns with our vision, Seb will reach out after the next moon phase. Please allow 8–12 weeks for a response.

Submissions should be sent as a single .docx file with a short cover letter (max 300 words) to:

📩 editorial@arcanelyre.com

Subject Line: POETRY SUBMISSION – [Your Name] – [Collection Title]

Please allow up to 8 weeks for a response. If your work resonates with us, Seb will be in touch.

SubmissioPlease follow the submission guidelines carefully. Works that disregard format or file requirements will not be considered—nor will they be mourned.

❧ What We Look For in Fiction (when we open)

Arcane Lyre Press seeks literary dark fantasy rooted in character, language, and transformation. We’re drawn to stories that sit at the edge of reality and myth—where identity is questioned, power is intimate, and change is both sacred and unsettling.

We are especially interested in:

Character-driven fiction with a strong emotional core and thematic resonance
Dark fantasy through a literary lens—not grimdark, but richly psychological and narratively bold
Explorations of identity, society, intimacy, and the self, often through speculative metaphor
Folklore-inspired stories that draw from traditions outside of Western Europe
Unusual myth or fairy tale retellings (we’ve seen enough Hades & Persephone—bring us the forgotten gods, the dangerous bargains, the monsters with good posture)
Stories that blend genres, bend form, or experiment with structure
Romance as a plot or subplot—welcome but not required, so long as the characters remain central

We gravitate toward manuscripts that feel like whispered secrets or ancestral echoes—fiction that knows what it’s doing, but is unafraid to break the rules.

❧ Not Seeking

While we admire ambition across genres, we are not the right home for:

Grimdark fantasy or nihilistic narratives that revel in cruelty without emotional anchor
Retellings of Beauty and the Beast or Hades & Persephone in any form—we’ve seen them, we’ve read them, and we’ve retired them to the archives with a respectful sigh
Stories focused more on plot than character—if the worldbuilding is dazzling but the emotional core is faint, it’s not a fit
Generic portal fantasies or chosen-one arcs without a subversive or intimate twist
Work driven by violence, spectacle, or world-ending stakes rather than personal transformation
Stories lacking internal thematic resonance—if it doesn’t know why it exists, we can’t help it
Fiction primarily driven by trope mashups or fanfic-adjacent structures (unless deeply subverted)

We are also unlikely to consider:

Works over 120,000 words
Serialized fiction submissions
Screenplays or children's literature

We’re not here to shock or overwhelm—we’re here to haunt.