Short Description
The sea is a wild and wonderful place. The sea is dangerous, yet beautiful; familiar, yet mysterious. The sea overwhelms us with its beauty and waters; we drown in her beauty, just as we suffocate in her salt. The sea opens pathways to other lands, trade routes and cultures, enriching our language, stories and experience.
In counterpoint, the mighty sea is filled with complex worlds, monsters that rise from the deep, flashes of beauty and colour. We reached to the sea for sustenance but we have also irresponsibly poisoned its depths with our plastics and waste, threatening and destroying its fragile ecosystems.
The Malaysian Writers Society calls for submissions about the sea and our relationship with it. This anthology aims to spread awareness about our beautiful ocean and the work in and around it. We especially would like works that highlight new and ongoing conservation efforts, or share with us startling new science about the sea. Fascinate us with a tale that make us go, “huh, I never thought about marine life in that way before!” Remind us of the nightmares that invoke awe in our hearts. Give us a slice of life from volunteer work; tell us a story about bioluminescent plankton; wax poetic about brave policy makers; tell us tall tales based on mythology of the sea: we would love to hear it all.
Submission Requirements
- Short stories should be between 2500 to 5,000 words.
- Flash fiction should be no more than 1000 words
- Essays/creative nonfiction pieces should be no more than 4,000 words.
- Poetry should be no more than 50 lines, or up to three poems, no more than 50 lines in total.
- You may submit twice, not including revision requests.
- All submissions must be in Times New Roman, font size 12. Essays and short fiction should be double-spaced. This also applies to work in Bahasa Malaysia. Poetry should be submitted in the line spacing intended.
- Write a short bio about yourself in the cover letter.
- You may also submit works previously published elsewhere (reprints). Please state in your cover email where they have been published before. Please provide prior publication details (name of publication; editor, publisher; year; ISBN if any).
- No part of your submission may be produced by generative AI. Please protect your submissions by refraining from uploading it to databases for spelling and grammar checkers.
How to Apply
Online Application
Entry Fee
For originals, we will pay RM200 for short fiction, RM150 for essays, and RM40 per poem. Originals are works that have never been published before. We ask for First World Publication Rights (i.e., the right to be the first in the world to publish this work).
For reprints, we will pay RM150 for short fiction, RM100 for essays, and RM20 per poem. Please ensure you have the rights to the work, as we want to pay the author and not some other entity.
Location
Malaysia
Timeline
- Application Deadline: 30 September 2025
Website Link: https://malaysianwriterssociety.org/portfolio/mywriters-anthologies/
