THRESHOLDS: Submissions Now Open

A new anthology from The Curious Post

“A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it, an apostle is unlikely to look out.”

Salutations, Writers.

You’ve found your way here. That means something.

Submissions are now open for the second anthology from The Curious Post, and this time, we’re going deeper.

The theme?

Thresholds.

The liminal. The in-between. The echo in the hallway. The second shadow in your reflection. The glitch you’re not supposed to notice. The portal you almost stepped through. Or did you?

We want stories that make us feel like we’re standing on the edge of something vast and unknowable. Things that defy classification. Pieces that brush fingers with madness, magic, machinery, and myth. From a variety of unique perspectives.

If Forbidden Fruit was about breaking the seal, Thresholds is about what comes out when you do.

What We're Looking For

• Speculative fiction. Horror. Magical realism. Science-fantasy. Slipstream. Weird tales. ARGs-in-disguise. Obscure documents. Lost gospels. Fractured occult manuals.

• Portals. Rites. Gateways. Echoes. Memory experiments. Threshold guardians. Mythic recursion. Recursive myths.

• Format-bending, form-twisting, eerie, unforgettable, esoteric work.

The only rule: No normal stories.

This is a collection for readers who see something flicker in the corner of the screen. For the ones still trying to decrypt The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows. For anyone who’s ever whispered: It’s not just a story.

Submission Guidelines

Deadline: July 31, 2025
(That’s plenty of time to brush the dust off your weirdest work… or write something entirely new.)

Formats & Lengths:

• Short fiction: up to 10,000 words

Theme:
Thresholds in any and all interpretations. What lies between. What cannot be seen straight on. Maybe you’re the threshold, maybe you’re the portal.

Payment:

• $0.015/word (up to $100)

• All contributors in the U.S. receive a physical copy of the anthology.

• No fee for your first submission; additional entries $10 to support cover art & design.

Simultaneous submissions welcome (with agreement to notify if accepted elsewhere). Work must be unpublished.

Editing:
Selected work will go through a light but intentional developmental editing process to strengthen the anthology’s overall arc and connection, so your willingness to participate in collaboration is required. Think of it as part séance, part revision. After the authors’ second draft is submitted, we will line edit/proof to optimize for layout.

The Submission Form

Submit your work via this link:
👉 Submit to Thresholds 👈
You’ll receive a confirmation email once received.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone 18+. All backgrounds and experiences welcome.

“Ultimately, a puzzle is a conversation between the player and the maker. The puzzle maker is teaching you a new language.”

What This Is (and Isn’t)

This isn’t a prestige press pretending to be your patron.
This is a love-letter to the weird, the warped, and the whispering places in fiction.

No paywalls. No cliques. Just a growing experiment in indie publishing and strange storytelling from The Curious Post—made by writers, for the ones who can’t stop staring at the veil.

Stay curious.

—
The Editor
Nico Harlakenden

📬 Subscribe to The Curious Post
📚 Details about Forbidden Fruit (Vol. 1), out September 2025