As we head into August and focus on our popular Prompted Stories challenge, we’re also excited for the rest of the year. We have no less than FOUR more submission opportunities before the end of 2026. Something for everyone, we hope.
Here’s a summary of everything that’s coming so you can add us to your subbing calendar.
The August Prompted Challenge
| FORM | FLASH FICTION |
| WORD COUNT | 100 to 500 |
| GENRE | ANY |
| THEME | MUST USE PROMPTS SENT BY TRASH CAT |
| SUB WINDOW/ DEADLINE | 19th to 21st AUGUST |
There’s still time to get involved in this fun prompt-driven submission call. Below is our timeline for key dates in the month.
1st to 6th August – Prompt Generation
4th August – Swapsies Day
7th to 21st August – Writing Period
19th August – SUBMISSIONS OPEN at Noon (BST)
21st August – SUBMISSIONS CLOSE at 8pm (BST)
Issue publishes in early September
You have until Thursday 6th August to submit a request for prompts, which are needed to submit a story, so if you’d like to give it a go, click on the Generator image below.
Prose Poetry Special Call
| FORM | PROSE POETRY |
| WORD COUNT | up to 300 |
| GENRE | ANY |
| THEME | CELEBRATING DIFFERENCE AND TENACITY |
| SUB WINDOW | 1st to 10th September |
We are delving into a more lyrical and lush way of writing a story with this special call inspired by Seattle raccoon, Jimothy. He is an inspirational trash cat who thrives despite his disability – showing the kind of endurance and love for life we’d like to see celebrated in this call. This can be people of course, animals like Jimothy, or even plantlife and insects.
This is not a call for standard poetry – line breaks etc – but instead we want to see a blend of prose and poetic devices. For a more detailed explanation, and some amazing examples free to read online, click on the image below.
We don’t want any really dark stories here, unless they resolve into something warm and hopeful. Give us quirky, fun, sweet, tenacious and wrap it beautifully in micro prose poetry.
Halloween Horror
| FORM | FLASH FICTION |
| WORD COUNT | 100 to 1000 |
| GENRE | ANY HORROR SUBGENRE |
| THEME | BIOHAZARDS |
| SUB WINDOW | 27th SEPTEMBER to 11th OCTOBER |
This is our first genre-specific call and we are so excited to bring a binload of horror stories to Trash Cat Lit. We’re hoping to see lots of different horror subgenres and imaginative, horrifying (in the best way) flash fiction.
For the 2026 Halloween call, we have a theme of Biohazards – one or more must feature in your flash fiction. We have a terrific mood board on the submission call page with images, quotes and examples of movies and books who have done biohazards well.
Go and get inspired by clicking on the image below.
Winter General Subs
| FORM | FLASH FICTION and SHORT STORIES |
| WORD COUNT | 100 to 750 (Flash) and up to 2000 (Shorts) |
| GENRE | ANY |
| THEME | WINTRY STORIES |
| SUB WINDOW | 1st to 14th November |
For our seasonal general submission call, we are looking for stories which have a wintry setting or mood. As always with general subs, you can submit one flash and one short story.
We have curated a beautiful mood board packed with images, quotes, song lyrics and ideas to inspire and encourage you into that chilly place that seems so far away on these sticky days of summer.
Click on the image below to go to the mood board. Guidelines on our general submission calls are HERE
Post-Apocalypse with a Swift Twist
| FORM | SHORT FICTION |
| WORD COUNT | 300 to 2000 |
| GENRE | ANY POST-APOCALYPSE |
| THEME | STORIES INSPIRED BY TAYLOR SWIFT SONGS |
| SUB WINDOW | 1st to 14th November |
This is going to be something….
We are combining two of Trash Cat’s favourite things: post-apocalyptic fiction and the music of Taylor Swift. You don’t have to be a Swiftie to get involved in this – we’re looking for you to be inspired by her lyrics or song titles, that’s all.
Do not send stories featuring Taylor herself, even Final-Girling against zombies or aliens, she is simply to inspire you with her own remarkable storytelling.
Your apocalyptic world can be full of horror, cosy, strangely sci-fi, utterly fantastical, or any other genre you want to write.
We have curated a page with ideas, types of pre-apocalypse catastrophe, and a glimpse of what we’d like to see in this special binbox. Click on the image to go and have a looksee.
There it is folks, an at a glance roundup of the submission calls we have to come. We hope something catches your writer’s eye and gets you brain pan buzzing with ideas.
Do always read the submission call pages thoroughly and ensure you understand our guidelines and Ts & Cs before you submit.
We can’t wait to read your words!
TRASH CAT LIT 