🔥 Campfire Stories: Abjection ($50 Prize)
🎃 This October, Cosmographia Books invites you to share your most chilling, playful, or uncanny short fiction. We’re looking for bite-sized terrors and strange delights — stories short enough to tell by firelight, but haunting enough to follow us home. 🎃
Theme: Abjection
In Gothic tradition, abjection is what gets pushed to the margins — the cast-off, the unclean, the monstrous, the shameful. It’s what we fear becoming and what we can’t stop staring at. Think of the shiver when the familiar turns strange, when the body betrays us, when love curdles into revulsion. Abjection lives in that tension: fascination and disgust, desire and dread.
Interpret it however you like: literally, psychologically, metaphorically, or playfully. Let it stalk the edges of your story, or howl from its center.
🔥 Submission Guidelines
Length: about 1,000–2,000 words
Deadline: October 10, 2025 (11:59 PM EST)
Cost: $3 submission fee (supports prize and production costs)
🕯️ Publication & Performance
🏆 First Prize: $50 honorarium + publication in The Cosmographia Codex (free to read, not paywalled)
✨ Selected Stories: Publication in The Cosmographia Codex, each featured in its own issue
🎭 Performance: Select pieces may also be performed in Halloween episodes of our podcast WKOZ: Camp Cosmographia Radio
🎉 A Special Anniversary
This October marks Cosmographia Books’ 10-year anniversary — and we’d love for you to be part of the celebration. Whether you’re sending us your creepiest tale or simply gathering around as a reader, we hope you’ll help us make this Halloween one for the books. You can follow along at the Cosmographia Codex.
🎃 The Pumpkin Patch Library — Early Reader Halloween Books | $450 Prize + Publication
A New Early Reader Series & Contest from Cosmographia Books
Cosmographia Books is delighted to open submissions for The Pumpkin Patch Library — a new line of Halloween-themed early reader books for ages 5–7.
We’re seeking playful, cozy, and imaginative stories full of autumn wonder. Think pumpkins, costumes, friendly ghosts, silly witches, and trick-or-treat adventures — the kind of tales kids will want to read again and again.
✨ What We’re Seeking
Age Range: Early readers, ages 5–7
Length: 1,000–3,000 words
Tone: Fun, whimsical, magical — a little spooky is fine, but nothing that will give nightmares
Illustrations: These books should be heavily illustrated — full-color art on most pages, with words and images working hand-in-hand to tell the story
Who Should Submit: We welcome author-illustrators and author/illustrator teams submitting completed projects. Authors without illustrators may still submit, but priority will be given to projects with art attached.
📖 Submission Guidelines
Submit the full manuscript along with 3–5 finished sample illustrations (plus sketches or storyboards for the rest, if available)
Author-illustrators and collaborative teams should submit together and indicate their roles
Include a short author and illustrator bio (100 words max each), relevant experience, and platform links (website, social media, Substack, Etsy/Shop, Patreon, etc.)
Format: Manuscript in 12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced; upload as Word or PDF
Multiple submissions are welcome, each submitted separately
Simultaneous submissions are fine — just notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere
💰 Entry Fee & Prize
Entry Fee: $15 per submission
Prize: The winning submission will receive a $450 award and publication in The Pumpkin Patch Library series.
We charge a modest entry fee to help offset the cost of Submittable and the editorial time invested in carefully reviewing submissions.
📚 What Authors & Illustrators Receive
A traditional small press contract with royalties
Professional editing, design, and production
Inclusion in The Pumpkin Patch Library series (with series branding on covers/spines)
Promotion through Cosmographia Books’ newsletters, Substack, Patreon, WKOZ radio (our podcast), and seasonal campaigns
🗓 Timeline
Deadline: November 30, 2025
Reading period: December 2025 – January 2026
Winner announced: February 2026
Publication: Fall 2026
🦉 The Lantern Tree Library — Halloween Chapter Books | $450 Prize + Publication
A New Chapter Book Line & Contest from Cosmographia Books
Cosmographia Books invites writers into the shadows of The Lantern Tree Library — a new line of Halloween-themed chapter books for ages 6–9.
We’re seeking spooky-but-fun stories that capture the thrill of October nights: mysterious woods, glowing lanterns, friendly ghosts, neighborhood mysteries, and adventures that make readers’ hearts race — but won’t keep them awake all night. Think Goosebumps-lite for younger readers, or a dash of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark softened for the age group.
✨ What We’re Seeking
Age Range: Chapter books for ages 6–9
Length: 6,000–15,000 words
Tone: Spooky, adventurous, but age-appropriate — more goosebumps than nightmares
Style: Engaging characters, clear story arcs, short chapters that invite binge-reading
Illustrations: These books should include occasional black-and-white illustrations — roughly 1–2 per chapter (8–15 total). Illustrations should enhance the spooky/seasonal mood without overwhelming the text.
Who Should Submit: We are seeking author-illustrators or author/illustrator teams submitting completed projects. Authors without illustrators may still submit, but please note that priority will be given to illustrated projects.
📖 Submission Guidelines
Submit the first 2–3 chapters plus a one-page synopsis of the full story
Include 3–5 finished sample illustrations (plus sketches/storyboards for the rest, if available)
Include a short author and illustrator bio (100 words max each), relevant experience, and platform links (website, social media, Substack, Etsy/Shop, Patreon, etc.)
Format: Manuscript in 12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced; upload as Word or PDF
Multiple submissions are welcome, each submitted separately
Simultaneous submissions are fine — just notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere
💰 Entry Fee & Prize
Entry Fee: $15 per submission
Prize: The winning submission will receive a $450 award and publication in The Lantern Tree Library series.
We charge a modest entry fee to help offset the cost of Submittable and the editorial time invested in carefully reviewing submissions.
📚 What Authors & Illustrators Receive
A traditional small press contract with royalties
Professional editing, design, and production
Inclusion in The Lantern Tree Library series (with series branding on covers/spines)
Seasonal promotion through Cosmographia Books’ newsletters, Substack, Patreon, and Halloween campaigns
🗓 Timeline
Deadline: November 30, 2025
Reading period: December 2025 – January 2026
Winner announced: February 2026
Publication: Fall 2026
Cosmographia Prize for Spiritual Fiction
The Cosmographia Prize for Spiritual Fiction seeks full-length manuscripts that offer expansion, delight, spiritual insight, and a transformative reading experience.
Spiritual fiction comes in many genres, including speculative—like our most recent title, After Color by Malaika Favorite or The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler—instructive like the classic Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, allegorical like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, or visionary like The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.
The winner will receive $1000 and publication.
The deadline for all manuscript submissions is May 31, 2026.
Entry fee: $30 US.
Judged by Cosmographia Books founder and editor, Nina Alvarez.
This competition is open to international submissions for all writers in English.
SUBMISSION
Your cover letter with author bio should be pasted in the submittable form. Full manuscript should be uploaded with a brief (no more than 1 page) synopsis attached.
In order to ensure unbiased review, do not include your name anywhere on the manuscript.
ABOUT US
Cosmographia Books, established in 2015 by Nina Alvarez, is a small press that embraces the spirit of multidimensional mapping, much like its namesake—a historical atlas and gazetteer detailing the geographical, social, and physical features of regions. Our mission is to publish works that explore the intricate landscapes of human experience, delving into the relationships between self, soul, love, work, society, and history.
About Founding Publisher Nina Alvarez
Nina Alvarez is the founder and publisher of Cosmographia Books, a small press dedicated to publishing "soulful books" that explore the intricate landscapes of human experience across multiple genres. With 16 titles to date, Cosmographia embraces diverse voices and bold storytelling.
With nearly 25 years of publishing experience, Alvarez has overseen the publication of 50+ books and literary journal issues, including the Anthology of Transcendent Poetry. She received the Creatives Rebuild New York grant for her work as a culture creator and writer.
If you have any questions, please email editor@cosmographiabooks.com
Previous Winner of the Cosmographia Prize for Spiritual Fiction
After Color by Malaika Favorite (2025)
Famous Orphans Short Book Series
Hello. We're looking for short novel or novella-length fiction. Do you have something that doesn't fit anywhere particularly well?
Maybe a lumpen little monster you threw in a drawer after it bit you?
Or maybe some piece that just doesn't fit into its clothes? We like to have fun, we like voice-driven stuff, and we like short books with a lot of ideas.
We’re Cosmographia Books, a small press that’s been around since 2015. The Famous Orphans series, curated by Daniel Herd, aims to make "weird little books."
There is no reading fee for submissions.
Submission Guidelines:
20,000–40,000-ish words
Word doc or pdf of full manuscript
Cover letter. Give us 500 words (max) on what it's about and what it's like (that is, what's the experience of reading it). No need to go beat by beat but give us a sense of the piece and maybe what kind of reader would like it. ALSO, please let us know where you heard about us.
author bio (150 words)
Simultaneous submissions: of course! But please let us know if it's been accepted somewhere else.