Roses and Wildflowers

Welcome to Roses and Wildflowers! The Creative Works Imprint of Coreopsis Journal of Myth & Theatre. Home for mythopoeic fiction, poetry & art.

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN For Autumn 2024: Walking Away

Submit using our form here: https://forms.gle/YJFPammmUYXHG5QNA

Questions & Queries: send no messages through this site, use:

ritualartsofficial@gmail.com

NOTE: we do not accept submissions via email.

A Home for Mythopoeic Fiction, Poetry and Art Fabulism, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Wonder Tales

This is a new project and we are really excited about it! Issues will be published 2 times per year and themed.

We are pleased to announce that we will be accepting submissions in the following areas:

* Short Fiction: 1,000-7,500 words. We will select up to 4 stories for each issue. 

* Poetry: Up to 40 lines, lyric or narrative poetry on a mythopoeic theme. You may send up to 5 poems per submission. Submit once per issue. Put your name and contact info on the manuscript: Do not submit “blind”. We will select 1-3 pieces per issue. Payment: We will publish one poem per author each issue. Epic pieces and “slam” works are not being considered at this time. Shorter, lyric poetry is best. 

* Audio: Roses & Wildflowers accepts well-produced audio submissions. We will feature one audio submission in each issue. Send queries.

* Artworks to accompany fiction and poetry are welcome. For information about each issue’s needs, please send a query. 

  • Payment 2024: We are a brand new publication, we will be able to accept 3 poems at $5 for one poem per writer. For Short stories under 7,500 words, we can accept 3-4 stories at $20 each.

Social Media

Join Roses & Wildflowers for conversation and updates at: 

Discord: https://discord.gg/TJ5Bwbcc

FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/352305836796236

Follow Coreopsis at https://www.facebook.com/coreopsisjournal 

ello: https://ello.co/coreopsisjournal

On Twitter @myth&theatre

Full Submission Guidelines:

* Short Fiction: 1,000-7,500 words. We will select up to 4 stories for each issue. One hard and fast rule: If it’s not mythopoeia, it’s not for us. Shunn standard manuscript format: 12pt. Times New Roman, double spaced. Put the word count in the upper right hand corner, your (legal) name and contact email in the upper left. Put you nom de plume under the title of your story.

To see examples of a standard manuscript, go here: https://www.shunn.net/format/

* Poetry: Up to 40 lines, lyric or narrative poetry on a mythopoeic theme. We will select 1-3 pieces per issue. Payment:.. We will publish one poem per author in each issue. Epic pieces and “slam” works are not being considered at this time.

* Audio: Roses & Wildflowers accepts well-produced audio submissions. We will feature one audio submission in each issue. 

  • Relevant original musical offerings or a new imagining of traditional story-songs, such as ancient works, ballads, or troubadour-era compositions. You must own all rights, covers are not accepted.
    • Length: a multi-versed ballad, yes, a full symphony or opera, probably not. 
  • Oral Storytelling. Your original poetic or short fiction performance.
    • We are not looking for a poem or story read into a microphone, but examples of the art of storytelling. Storytelling in an ancient artform and we will be looking for submissions that are superlative performances of the art. 
  • “Theatre of the Mind” radio-style audio plays.
    • We love them. Send us your best. 
  • Experimental myth-based works
    • (see guidelines below)

* Artworks to accompany fiction and poetry are welcome. For information about each issue’s needs, please send a query. ritualartsofficial@gmail.com

Send your submission to us here using this form: https://forms.gle/tdBfHqkcF9vuQYzp9

If you don’t hear from us after waiting 4-6 weeks, send a query to: “RW SUBMISSION”

ritualartsofficial@gmail.com Put the title of your submission in the subject line.

Do not submit anything via email, dropbox or or shared doc.

Payment for 2024: We will be able to pay accept 3 poems at $5 for one poem per writer. For Short stories under 7,500 words, we can accept 3-4 stories at $20 each. Please query for art and audio.

General Guidelines or what we are looking for: 

What is mythopoeia? Mythopoeia

Mythopoeic Literature

We define this as literature that creates a new and transformative mythology, or incorporates and transforms existing mythological material. Transformation is the key — mere static reference to mythological elements, invented or pre-existing, is not enough. The mythological elements must be of sufficient importance in the work to influence the spiritual, moral, and/or creative lives of the characters, and must reflect and support the author’s underlying themes. This type of work, at its best, should also inspire the reader to examine the importance of mythology in his or her own spiritual, moral, and creative development.  – The Mythopoeic Society, https://www.mythsoc.org/about.htm 

Issue themes and Publication Dates

We publish 2X per year on the following dates: Spring 2024: February 29 (March 1) and Autumn 2024: September 20

Themed issues: 

Submissions open nowAutumn 2024 Theme: “Walking Away”. (Call posted October, 2023); Submissions open February 5, 2024. Closing when full. 

Send your submission to us here using this form: https://forms.gle/tdBfHqkcF9vuQYzp9

In 1973, Ursula LeGuin wrote a short philosophical story that describes the perfect, peaceful, graceful city. A place with no hunger or sorrow, crime or discontent. A place where no one was homeless, lacked fulfilling work, and the arts and sciences flourished. Omelas. A place with a dark and terrible secret. And some walked away, unable and unwilling to pay that price.

When is it right action to walk away? What is lost? What is Found? What is left behind? Can anyone ever return?

Send your submission to us here using this form: https://forms.gle/tdBfHqkcF9vuQYzp9

Spring 2025: Anarchy and Harmony Writers & Poets Challenge

Submissions open June 2024. 

The band takes the stage at the No Name Bar at the Crossroads between Worlds and Time.

Choose a song from this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-6cKU2APMMh6Li8Bic88jwGhxWIDSUiY  

….. and tell us the story. 

Start your cover letter by telling us what song you chose. Don’t explain or tell us why, but let your story or poem stand on its own once you’ve named your song.

Autumn 2025: MYTHO-ANARCHISM 

Submissions open February 5, 2025

Published September 2025 (On the Autumn Equinox)In the fifty years since The Dispossessed was published, the role of anarchism in speculative fiction worldbuilding has remained minimal and challenging, with popular science fiction and fantasy franchises still dominated by social structures of empire, monarchy, capitalism and military/pseudo-military industrial complexes. Following in the footsteps of Le Guin, Roses and Wildflowers is continuing our exploration of environmental and the accompanying societal and cultural changes upon us as a species, is seeking short speculative fiction and poetry exploring economies of reciprocity and non-hierarchical alternatives.

Future issues under development: 

  •  Holidays. Any. All. Real and imagined. Any and all species. 
  •  Strange love triangles (quadrangles?) A question of romance Any species: Interstellar. Interdimensional. Beyond faery. Beyond the grave. 
  • Winter Tales  By the fireside and in the shadows beyond: the welcoming cup, the hearth, the snow covered path, ice painting the windows, the shadows beyond the fireside, the long darkness of winter’s deep.
  • Naming the Wind. What tales does the wind bring as it tosses waves and sends the leaves flying in the gale? What’s in a name? When the soft breezes of summer and the howl of the gale speak their tales.

Important Stuff we need to tell you

Cover letter: Please include your contact info and whether you are writing under a pen name. Tell us if this is a simultaneous submission or a translation. You do not need to include your publication information, paypal address, or bio. We will collect that information upon acceptance.

Payment upon acceptance. For 2024: $5 per poem (one per author) $20 per short fiction. MS Word .doc only.  No PDFs, RTFs, ODTs, webpages, or shared doc links. Do not place your poems in the body of an email. 

Art: Send a query with your contact information and a link to your portfolio to: “NashayArt” at ritualartsofficial@gmail.com

Rights: We request one-time, first electronic publishing rights. All future rights will be retained by the creator. We simply ask that when / if published elsewhere, acknowledgment is given to its first appearance in “Roses & Wildflowers”, Date, V#, and N #.

If a “Best of” or Collected Anthology is published, publication rights will be renegotiated for that publication.

Audio submission Guidelines
Roses & Wildflowers accepts well-produced audio submissions. We will feature one audio submission in each issue. 

Primary criteria: mythopoetics and speculative fiction in all of its forms.

We will accept:

  • Relevant original musical offerings or a new imagining of traditional story-songs, such as ancient works, ballads, or troubadour-era compositions. You must own all rights, covers are not accepted.
    • Length: a multi-versed ballad, yes, a full symphony or opera, probably not. 
  • Oral Storytelling. Your original poetic or short fiction performance.
    • We are not looking for a poem or story read into a microphone, but examples of the art of storytelling. Storytelling in an ancient artform and we will be looking for submissions that are superlative performances of the art. 
  • “Theatre of the Mind” radio-style audio plays.
    • We love them. Send us your best. 
  • Experimental myth-based works

As with all submissions to Roses and wildflowers we are not interested in depictions of graphic violence or sexual content, allegory, or content that denigrates anyone based upon age, gender, orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, or race. 

Live performance is accepted, however, be mindful of the clarity of the audio. 

Please send a query regarding your project addressing these questions to ritualartsofficial@gmail.com.

  • Is your submission a musical composition, poetry or storytelling performance, or an audio-play?
  • Length of your submission? (Rule of thumb: 3 to 5 minutes for a song or poetry performance, up to 10 minutes for a story, 20 -30 minutes for an audio-play.)
  • Who owns the rights to your submission and do you have, or can you provide, all permissions for use?
  • Is there accompanying artwork or prose narrative?

Please provide all performance and production credits along with all permissions for use.  

If we choose to review your submission, we will ask you to provide an mp3 of your submission using dropbox. 

You may also provide a private link to vimeo or bandcamp rather than dropbox.

While we do not fund projects, we do provide payment for publishing your work on the same basis as the artworks published in Roses & Wildflowers each issue. 

All copy and performance rights remain with the artists. 

Payment is provided upon acceptance. 

We do not, at this time, accept video. 

Fiction Guidelines

We like: 

We want to see intelligent prose with sound and logical world building and interesting character arcs. Whether character or plot-driven, give us compelling protagonists and believable antagonists. We like re-imagined fairy and folk tales (new and imaginary), solarpunk, cozy spec fiction, fantasy, science fiction (including climate fiction), urban fantasy, eerie tales, and dark fantasy. If you send us magical realism (https://writers.com/what-is-magical-realism-in-literature) be sure that you are well versed in what that is. We like innovative ideas about societal structures and norms, all wrapped into great storytelling. We like new takes on ghost stories, steampunk, space operas, or the quests of heroes, heroines, and fools. And while it may sound cliché, we like really good stories that make us wonder, or laugh, or cry, or feel everything all at the same time. Your editor has a fondness for writers that aspire to poetic prose that jumps off the page and sings. NOTE: Submissions are open to everyone, everywhere in the world, but we can only edit fiction in English (British and American). 

It will be important to consider the issue theme when submitting your work. 

We don’t like: 

  • No graphic or gratuitous violence or sexual content. NO “furry,” “kink,” or other porn, softcore or otherwise. 
  • No fan-fic. 
  • Diatribes against any ethnic group or race, sexual preference, or gender will be automatically rejected. 
  • No allegories, biblical or otherwise. 
  • Submissions that have no relation to the issue’s theme.
  • We do not publish reprints. 
  • Let us know if this is a translation. 
  • No AI-generated works. Let us know if the work is AI-assisted (for example if an AI program corrected your spelling) and what percentage of the work AI assisted with. If it’s more than 1% it’s not for us. No exceptions

Hard sells: 

Horror, body mutilations, vampire/werewolf romance, teen sex, sword & sorcery, and epic fantasy (GoT or LotR-style). Plots that involve a deus ex machina outcome. Anything over 7,500 words. Proofread your submissions and then proofread them again. 

Simultaneous submissions are OK, but please tell us up front and, if you place your work somewhere else, please let us know right away. No multiple submissions.

Payment Details

Payment: We will select up to 3 stories per issue and, because of a very generous donor, we will be able to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 per story, via PayPal or by old school check in the mail.  Spring 2024: We are a brand new publication, for “issue zero” we will be able to pay accept 3 poems at $5 for one poem per writer. For Short stories under 7,500 words, we can accept 3-4 stories at $20 each.

Art: Please send query.

Payment upon acceptance.

Link to Coreopsis Journal HOME  for non-fiction guidelines.