Submissions
Silent Motorist Media is now open for submissions! For submission guidelines pertaining to Mysterium Tremendum, please click here to be redirected to the Mysterium Tremendum page.
We are now accepting submissions from authors of underrepresented demographics for Hymns of Abomination: Secret Songs of Leeds, a tribute anthology to Matthew M. Bartlett. We are looking for fiction from 3,000 to 7,000 words set in or heavily utilizing some element of Matthew M. Bartlett’s fictional universe. This open call is relegated exclusively to LGBTQ persons, people of color, women, disabled persons, and other demographics you won’t find overloading most TOCs due to exclusionary practices (whether intentional or not).
Here’s the TOC so far: Nathan Ballingrud, John Langan, Brian Evenson, Gemma Files, S.P. Miskowski, B.R. Yeager, Jonathan Raab, Tom Breen, Joseph Pastula, Joanna Parypinski, Farah Rose Smith, Scott R. Jones, Betty Rocksteady, Christine Morgan, Kristine Ong Muslim, Christopher Slatsky, William Tea, Donyae Coles, S.L. Edwards, John Linwood Grant, and two collaborative efforts, one between Robert S. Wilson and Jon Padgett, another between Sean M. Thompson and Brian O’Connell.
This call for submissions will last until December 1st, 2020. We are able to pay a $100 flat fee for accepted works. We will not accept reprints or simultaneous submissions. Please allow us up to two months following the due date to respond to you. Send your submissions with “HYMNS SUBMISSION” in the subject line of the email to silentmotoristmediasubmissions@gmail.com. Please note that using a different subject line than the suggested one makes it more likely for your submission to get lost!
For those who don’t know…
Bartlett is a beloved voice in contemporary weird fiction known for his richly nightmarish tales of Leeds, a fictionalized version of a village that’s part of Northampton, MA. What began as Livejournal posts circulated among friends in the early 2000’s, Bartlett’s short, macabre, and imaginative yarns found their way into Gateways of Abomination, a collection that swept the small world of weird fiction into giddy delirium. Nathan Ballingrud aptly describes the experience of discovering Gateways in his introduction to Creeping Waves, Bartlett’s second anthology: “What I encountered was a writer in full flourish, in complete command of his art. I encountered a savage dream which moved with the lethal confidence of a great white shark. Bartlett was no dilettante; here was someone channeling a vision. The book seemed to vibrate.”
There aren’t many readers in the know who would argue otherwise. heart of the community, influencing a wide berth of current authors (many of whom have agreed to appear in this anthology) and surely more to come. His achievements include an entry (for his short story “Rangel”) in Year’s Best Weird Fiction vol. 3 edited by Simon Strantzas alongside weird fiction superstars like Robert Aickman, Ramsey Campbell, and Kristi Demeester. He’s even contributed to Cadabra Records’ eerie blend of spoken word and haunting soundscapes with releases like Mr. White Noise, Call Me Corey, and Ginny Greenteeth (the latter read by Laurence Harvey). The point is that Bartlett isn’t going anywhere, and that’s good news for weird fiction and horror readers. As Scott Nicolay has said, “Matthew Bartlett is one of those authors whose emergence redefines the genre. Barker, Ligotti, Barron, Llewellyn… Bartlett.” That’s quite some praise. It also happens to be the widely-held consensus regarding Bartlett’s work.
“Bartlett writes like a man in the grip of a vision,” Orrin Grey wrote. If his writing’s a vision, it’s contagious–every year lures more readers into Leed’s shadows for thrills more terrible than can easily be described. And with this tribute we joyously descend further into his nightmare. What better way to celebrate Bartlett’s legacy than to don his vision like a suit? Only we must be cautious–the suit isn’t empty.
Click here to read our 2018 interview with the man himself!
