Submission Calls
In January we will launch our Winter Pop-Up featuring stories containing animals in places they shouldn’t be.
Following this we open for our Spring general submissions on 1st February (for two weeks or until caps are met). This issue will have a guest contributor and reader – Sarah Royston – who is a master of lyrical writing about landscape, folklore and ecology.
For this call we’re looking for REPRINTS only as we celebrate all things preloved, and seek stories with an element/sense/suggestion of springlike things such as:
Details of the Spring call can be found HERE
We’re also planning a Spring Pop-Up after the general issue launches. During April we’ll be looking for flash fiction featuring collectors and their special/strange/unique collections.
Trash Cats are known for being curious collectors and our Ed has a few weird and wonderful collections herself.
We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Details of the Spring Pop-Up can be found HERE
Our Summer general submission period is between 1st and 15th June. This call will be un-themed so get it in your diaries and start scouring your flash and short story WIPs. Our previous general issues will give you a taste of what we love. Find them HERE
Following its success this year, we hope to return to the Trashcan Generator in August 2025 with another Prompted Stories submission call. Watch the website and social media for news on that. Read 2024’s Prompted Stories HERE to see how imaginative our contributors were.
Our Winter general submissions period is between 1st and 15th October. Any theme for this call will be announced during the year.
Writing Resources
In 2025, we plan to add generative writing resources to our trashcan to help and encourage writers and submitters to TCL and beyond. These will include:
The Trash Cat’s Basic Guide to Submitting Your Treasured Words to Literary Publications –
a workshop hosted by our Ed,
JP Relph and Mathew Gostelow
An interactive workshop for anybody new to subbing or looking to refresh their subbing game. JP and Mathew bring their experience and knowledge of submitting to guide you and help you make the best choices for your writing. They’ll help you figure out what you want from publication, identify possible Lit Pubs and research them, understand guidelines and Rights and be confident and ready to hit SUBMIT!
Time and Date TBC
Cut-Ups: Collaboration with the Third Mind:
A workshop using the Cut-Up technique to revitalise your fiction and poetry – hosted by Mathew Gostelow
In the hands of collage artists, Dadaist poets, and hip-hop producers, cut-up techniques transport us by juxtaposing disparate images and moods in unexpected ways.
But why should those guys have all the fun?
In this workshop we will explore uses of cut-up to generate writing prompts, story ideas, and entirely new works.
Bring an abandoned, unfinished story and leave with the germ of something else entirely.
Time and Date TBC
A write-along with Trash Cat using the eclectic prompts from the Trashcan Generator.
Write, share, get feedback and encouragement.
A chance to carve out some dedicated writing time and write along with others in an online gathering. We’ll use prompts you get to blind-choose from the Trashcan Generator (a Setting/Situation, a Character, and an Object/Occurrence) as were used in our Autumn 2024 Pop-Up submission call. Trash Cat will send you your prompts a couple of hours before the write-along so you can get thinking and word splurging.
After the writing period, there’ll be an opportunity to share your drafts and get some quick feedback from the group and Trash Cat.
Times and Dates TBC
We hope you’ll join us in submitting or attending one of our online thingummyjigs in the coming year.
Thank you everyone who supported Trash Cat Lit’s first year of publishing. Here’s to many more treasured words.
JP, Editor
TRASH CAT LIT 