What Qualifies as Utopian Speculative Fiction?

 

Accepted stories will meet most if not all of the following four criteria:

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• NOT dystopian: envisions, builds, and sets stories in worlds in
  which humanity, technology, and nature coexist in harmony
  rather than in conflict; and/or depict future communities that are decidedly not dystopian, are clearly better than the real world of today, and in which those communities are actively struggling to build a just and equitable utopian world, even if they haven't yet fully reached that goal. 
   

• Hopeful: uplifting, leaves the reader with a sense of inspiration, aspiration, and optimism even when that hope is rooted in struggle.
   

• Solutions: stories with a focus on solutions to climate change and the effects of climate change on the planet, ecosystems, and communities, as well as works that focus on solutions to other global social problems and envision futures with new, democratic, participatory, and collaborative political and economic systems.
   

• Speculative: stories can be any from any SciFi/Fantasy type genre, it can be set in the future or in the past or an alternative present as long as it contains a central speculative element and meets the other three criteria. For example, a horror story could be speculative, but might have a hard time fitting the NOT dystopian and hopeful criteria. But if you think your horror story qualifies as utopian, then submit it.

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Formatting and Submission Guidelines

 

Stories can be submitted by either publishers or authors. If you are an author and your story was not self-published, then please check with your publisher before submitting the story yourself. This helps do two things: 1) inform publishers about the anthology and submission window, and 2) keep duplicate submissions to a minimum.

The following guidelines apply to both publishers and authors.

 

Submissions will be only be accepted through Moksha.

Please submit .doc or .docx, EPUB, MOBI, or PDF files only. 

Please use modern Shunn formatting.

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Please include a brief cover letter that includes the following information:

 

• Story Title

• Author name

• Genre

• Date of original publication (full date preferred, but if you don't know the exact date, then month/year is okay)

• Name of original publisher (if self-published simply state that)

• Issue or Volume number (if applicable)

• A link to where the story/issue/anthology can be read or purchased online.

• Any relevant author ID hashtags you want to include. Examples include but aren't limited to
  #BIPOC #LGBTQ #Indigenous #GlobalSouth #NeuroDivergent #Disabled etc. And if the story's protagonist shares that identity, then #OwnVoices

• Please submit stories individually if at all possible. Publishers: if it is for some reason necessary to submit a file of a whole issue or anthology that has other stories, then please be sure to list the titles of all the stories in the file that are being submitted for consideration.

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If you have any questions about formatting or other submission related issues, please email the anthology editor at info@android-press.com. with the subject heading "Utopia Anthology Questions."

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