Let’s celebrate the growing night with some chilling October tales.

Tangled Locks Journal is excited to announce a call for submissions for short literary works that evoke an eerie and unsettling voice. We invite writers to send stories, flash fiction, or prose poems that disturb, provoke, and linger in the reader’s mind long after the final line.

For inspiration, we encourage you to read “Decisive Action,” which masterfully builds tension through unexpected choices; “Situs Inversus,” where reality twists in discomforting ways; and “There’s Movement,” a piece that unsettles through subtle, haunting imagery.

We welcome submissions from both emerging and established writers, and encourage experimental forms that play with narrative structure or voice. Whether your piece is set in a haunted home, a distorted reality, or explores the psychological depths of fear, we want to experience fresh interpretations of eeriness. Surprise us with the unexpected.

Submissions should be original, previously unpublished, and no longer than 1,500 words. We seek pieces that lean into ambiguity, evoke a sense of unease, and blur the boundary between ordinary and uncanny. Send us your most haunting voices and stories by October 20,2025. Selected stories and poems will be published in our online journal the last week in October.

Guidelines and Submission Portal are on Submittable.