What We're Looking For
HEXFILED publishes science fiction and speculative fiction that bridges the boundary between organism and machine. We are drawn to strange work without being obscure.
Our editorial focus leans toward stories where the speculative element shapes the story’s infrastructure rather than decorating the top. We love biological SF, ecological futures, post-human consciousness, weird and slipstream fiction, military SF, and stories where the science is imagined thoughtfully even if it isn’t real. We are less interested in chosen-one narratives and portal fantasy.
We prefer stories that give the characters a selfhood. Not necessarily a fully realized identity if it clashes with the story’s concept, but a sense of interiority as much as the premise allows.
We appreciate stories that make us feel something alongside the imagined weird. We have a soft spot for fiction that is simultaneously absurd and grieving. If there’s a word for that, we’re probably absurdogrievophilics. We love stories that feel alive, where readers can feel the words as much as understand what they mean.
Content
Dark themes, moral complexity, violence, and uncomfortable subject matter are welcome when they serve the work. We do not publish sexually explicit content, gratuitous gore, or content that demeans or targets people based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, disability, or other protected characteristics. Hate speech is not a theme we explore.
Categories & Lengths
We accept work in the following categories:
- Short Fiction: 1,000 – 10,000 words
- Novelette: 10,001 – 17,500 words
- Flash Fiction: under 1,000 words
- Speculative Poetry: any length; no more than 5 poems per submission
- Speculative Nonfiction & Creative Essays: 500 – 5,000 words. We are interested in essays that engage with the themes of the magazine — the biological, the artificial, the speculative — as genuine intellectual inquiry. Hybrid and lyric forms welcome.
Work falling outside these ranges will be returned unread. If you are unsure whether your piece fits, query first at submissions@hexfiled.com.
Formatting Requirements
We follow Shunn Standard Manuscript Format for prose. Poetry may be submitted in your preferred house style. Please include:
- Author name, contact email, and word count in the header
- 12pt Times New Roman or Courier, double-spaced, one-inch margins
- Scene breaks indicated by
# - File format: .doc, .docx, or .rtf — no PDFs, please
Simultaneous & Multiple Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but please notify us in your email that the piece is a simultaneous submission. Please withdraw immediately if accepted elsewhere. We accept one prose submission and one poetry submission per reading period, per author. Do not submit the same piece to multiple categories.
Response Times
We aim to respond to all submissions within 14 days. We do not send form acceptances or rejections—every response is written personally for your submission. If you have not heard from us after 21 days, please query via email with your submission date and title.
Feedback & Revise-and-Resubmit
Our personalised feedback is intended to explain our decision and, where possible, help the writers with their future work. Unless we explicitly invite a revise-and-resubmit (R&R), please do not resubmit the same story. We’re always glad to consider new work from you. An R&R invitation means we see potential in the piece and would like to see it again after specific revisions. It is not a guarantee of acceptance, but it is a signal of real interest in your work.
Rights & Reprints
Authors retain all rights to their work. By submitting, you grant HEXFILED first world English publication rights for a period of 90 days from the date of publication. After this window, you are free to republish elsewhere; we ask that you credit HEXFILED as the original publisher. We accept reprints on a case-by-case basis—please indicate in your cover letter if you are submitting a reprint, and include the original publication details.
Editorial Revisions
Accepted works may be lightly copyedited for house style. Any changes beyond minor corrections, including structural or substantive edits, will be shared with you for review and approval before publication. We do not make significant revisions without the author's agreement.
Acceptance constitutes an agreement to publish, but does not guarantee placement in a specific upcoming issue. Scheduling is at the editor's discretion.
Payment
HEXFILED is currently a non-paying market. It is a new, independent magazine run by one editor, and we want to be upfront about that. We do not offer payment at this time. The goal is to grow into a paying market, and that will be announced clearly when it happens.
What we do offer: careful, attentive reading; detailed personalised feedback on request; and publication in a magazine that takes the work seriously.
The Parallel Biome — Archival Submissions
A HEXFILED Serialized Sub-Issue · Learn more →
HEXFILED publishes The Parallel Biome, a serialized sub-issue featuring recovered evidence from alternate or parallel timelines.
We're seeking archival artifacts: field reports, intercepted transmissions, recovered documents, environmental samples, technical schematics, medical records, surveillance footage transcripts, or any other "evidence" from worlds beyond ours.
Format: 1,000–3,000 words. Must read like recovered documentation, not traditional narrative fiction, for full immersion. Visual elements (diagrams, stamps, letterheads) encouraged but not required.
Worldbuilding: Your parallel world should feel lived-in. We want verisimilitude — bureaucratic language, institutional aesthetics, specific details that make the world feel real. It can be a single entry or a serialized one. For serialization, we recommend you send us at least three entries, so we can get a better sense of your world.
Examples
- GCS field notes documenting post-Overgrowth ecosystems
- Server logs from a timeline where AI achieved consciousness in 1987
- Medical reports from a world where humans merged with fungal networks
- Intercepted radio transmissions from the last human settlement on Mars (Timeline Gamma-3)
Submit Parallel Biome entries to submissions@hexfiled.com with "PARALLEL BIOME" in the subject line. Include your world name or timeline designation if you have one.
On Artificial Intelligence
HEXFILED does not accept work generated in whole or in part by artificial intelligence language models or AI writing tools. This applies to prose, poetry, essays, and all other submitted categories. By submitting, you confirm that the work is entirely your own original writing.
We take this seriously and will withdraw acceptance if AI generation is discovered after the fact.
How to Submit
Send your submission directly to submissions@hexfiled.com. Please include your manuscript as an attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf) and a brief cover letter in the body of the email: your name, title, category, word count, and a short publication history if you have one (not required).
Find Us
HEXFILED is listed on The Submission Grinder, Duotrope, and Chill Subs. You can track your submission and find us alongside other markets there.
"We read everything. We take risks on strange, difficult work. We are not looking for the safest version of your idea—we are looking for the one that kept you up at night."
— The Editor
Contact
Submissions:
submissions@hexfiled.com
General & editorial:
editor@hexfiled.com
Curiosities & other:
curiosities@hexfiled.com
General enquiries:
hexfiled@gmail.com