Scattered Flock publishes two issues every year in the spring and the fall, and accepts submissions all year round.

Send your submissions to: Info@ScatteredFlockJournal.com

SPRING 2026 ISSUE: AWAKENINGS & RECKONINGS

Deadline for spring issue consideration: December 31st, 2025

This spring, Scattered Flock invites contributors to explore the season of transformation through the lens of the Major Arcana of Tarot. We are seeking:

  • creative writing
  • academic articles
  • opinion pieces
  • visual art

For this issue, we emphasize five cards that embody spring’s spirit:

  • The Fool — the leap into the unknown, reckless and bright, the courage to begin.
  • The Empress — fertility, abundance, and the lush flourishing of creation.
  • The Star — hope and renewal after darkness, the guiding light.
  • Judgement — awakening, reckoning, and rebirth; the call that cannot be ignored.
  • The High Priestess — choice, union, and bonds that shape the future.

We especially encourage visual artists to submit speculative reimaginings of these Major Arcana—visions of tarot that explore ancient pasts, futures uncharted, and worlds not yet born.

What does it mean to begin again? To face a reckoning? To find abundance in strange soil? Send us your visions of spring’s awakenings and reckonings.

Further details and inspiration to help your creativity and interpretation flow:

The Fool is the first step, the spark of a journey, the wide-eyed openness to possibility. It is youth, risk, innocence, and the wild courage to begin.

In speculative fiction, this might mean explorers stepping onto strange planets, dreamers conjuring impossible futures, or characters stumbling into portals without a map.

The Fool embodies spring’s freshness: reckless, bright, and filled with promise.

The Empress is abundance, growth, and the lush flourishing of life. She is the earth awakening, gardens spilling over, creativity without restraint.

In speculative work, she might inspire stories of verdant alien landscapes, ecosystems overtaking old worlds, or mothers birthing strange futures.

This card invites artists and writers to revel in excess, beauty, and the unstoppable force of creation.

The Star is renewal after crisis, the guiding light that follows the storm. It represents hope, inspiration, and clarity, a reminder that something better is possible.

For speculative stories, the Star might be a beacon calling lost travelers, visions of utopias glimpsed through struggle, or strange cosmic lights that promise salvation—or deception.

Like spring, the Star whispers of beginnings after winters of hardship.

Judgement is the moment of awakening, rebirth, and being called to one’s true self. It is accountability, but also transcendence: hearing the call that cannot be ignored.

In speculative fiction, this might mean the dead rising in unexpected forms, civilizations facing reckonings with the worlds they’ve built, or characters shedding old selves to become something new.

Spring’s bright light does not only nurture, it also reveals.

The High Priestess is the keeper of secrets, the liminal threshold between the known and the unknown. She is hidden wisdom, quiet power, and the pull toward what lies beneath the surface.

In speculative fiction, this might mean characters unraveling ancient prophecies or unlocking the forgotten knowledge of a vanished civilization.

The High Priestess reminds us that spring is not only about new growth, but also about deepening insight and trusting the mysteries that guide us.

Submit your piece at Info@ScatteredFlockJournal.com. Please include in your submission:

  • Your name as you would like it to appear in the magazine.
  • Which of the five tarot(s) your piece is inspired by.
  • A short bio of 50-60 words.
  • (for academic articles) An abstract of your article.

Submission Guidelines

Academic Articles

We welcome short academic pieces (up to 3,000 words) that offer thoughtful literary analysis, genre studies, or reflections on speculative fiction. Whether you’re unpacking the symbolism in Tolkien or exploring folklore influences in fantasy, we invite submissions that engage critically with the genre. All articles should follow current MLA style guidelines and be submitted with an accompanying abstract.

Creative Writing

We’re looking for short stories, flash fiction, excerpts, or even experimental prose that plays with form and genre (between 500 and 3,000 words). Your piece can be high fantasy, low fantasy, magical realism, science fiction, horror, or anything that falls under the wide umbrella of speculative fiction. We encourage original voices and bold storytelling.

Opinion Pieces

Opinion pieces (between 500-1000 words) are informal, personal reflections on speculative fiction. You can discuss a favorite trope, critique recent trends, review a new release, or rant about your newest obsession. This is a casual but thoughtful space to spotlight the niche interests that exist within speculative fiction.

Artwork

We are accepting original visual art that engages with speculative fiction. This can include illustrations, digital works, maps, or sketches —any medium that brings fantastical or science fictional themes to life. Please include a short artist’s statement or description with your submission.

FAQ’s

  • Can I submit more than one piece?
    • An individual may submit up to two pieces per written category (academic article, short story, opinion piece) per issue.
    • There is no limit to art submissions.
  • Will I be able to keep the rights to my content?
    • All authors and artists retain the creative copyrights to their works.
  • Will you consider a piece if its over the word limit?
    • If a piece is slightly over the word limit we will still consider it. We want your incredible work and will find a way to make space to showcase exemplary talent. That being said, our word count limit is generous, so unnecessary wordiness may count against your submission.
    • Please note that the Works Cited in an academic article is not included when considering word limit.

Submissions Policy and Rights

All authors and artists retain the creative copyrights to their works.

By submitting to Scattered Flock, you grant us the non-exclusive right to publish your work in both our print and digital formats, including archival display on our website, for a period of up to three (3) years in print and five (5) years online from the date of publication.

Authors retain full copyright and may republish, anthologize, or adapt their work elsewhere at any time, suggesting that Scattered Flock is acknowledged as the original place of publication.

After the stated archival period, we may remove the work from our active archive at our discretion, though we may seek permission to reprint it in anthologies or special editions.

We do not request exclusivity before or after publication; simultaneous submissions and future republication are permitted.