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Art Poetry Prose Photos Books&... Links Archives Credits Contacts Submit About Home

String by J. David Bell

They stand on the shoulder by their crumpled Toyota Prius, waiting for the cops and the Triple-A tow truck to show. Jasper eyes the accordioned fender, his upper lip clenched in his lower. Lila braces for the one-liner she knows is coming. Why can he never take anything seriously? It drives her mad.

Baby Dreams by Stephanie Reese Masson

I saw the baby in my dreams last night, a broad, fat-faced infant with a head full of short, dark hair. But, like most dreams, the details weren't quite right. The baby was too big to be a newborn, his face too full and his eyes too wide open and bright.

Number One Son by Guy Hogan

Several years ago at the age of fifty-one, Scott Delaney proposed marriage to Shea Yeager twelve years after his father died of cancer. Shea Yeager was thirty-eight, a full professor in the English Department of the University of Pittsburgh; but she had never married or had children.

"Chasing Tumbleweeds" by Norbert Luciano

A girl would wrap little notes in the tumbleweeds that came leaping and bouncing into her farm and then let them go on their way to the very edge of nowhere, to reach the loneliest of cowboys "out there,"

STUDENTS by Robert Michael

I stared at the artifacts I used in my history classes--the slave bell from Pompeii, the sculpture of the shewolf suckling Romulus and Remus that I bought near the Trevi, where tourists pulled up in taxis, threw coins in the fountain, and then rushed away without ever leaving the cab; my tin of Bon Bon Napoleon candies; a facsimile of a French royalist newspaper that had called l'Empereur "the Corsican monster" upon his leaving Elba, but ended up a week later announcing that "His Imperial Highness" would be arriving in Paris tomorrow.

King Danny O'Beam by Terry McDermott

Running a small promotion kept Sarah Jane from having a life of her own. After the main event, she would help the road crew disassemble the ring, and then drive several hours into the night. Most of the time one of the wrestlers or an assistant would travel with her. On this certain night she was all alone, and began thinking about her life.

And For the Kids...

THE LITTLE VIOLIN by Jo Janoski (A Children's Story)

In the Magic Music Forest, hidden far away from the outside world, a wonderful and unique orchestra played beautiful music. What made the music magical was the fact the instruments played all by themselves without any humans anywhere in sight. All the animals and birds gathered every Sunday afternoon for their concerts. With the sun shining and critters humming along, no better place existed to be on Sunday.

Human Cardinal by Terry McDermott (A Children's Tale)

Everyone loved the little green wrestler, who once worked at an ice cream parlor. The mood of the crowd drastically changed when the tie-dyed hippie wrestler Kent Cool entered the ring. Queen Rat Lady was at his side. Kent Cool grabbed the microphone from the ring announcer. "Ladies and Gentlemen I am not going to wrestler tonight," he said as the audience cheered.

Send your short stories to: short story editor.

Submission Guidelines

We do not charge for submissions to Word Catalyst. Therefore, it is your responsibility to proofread your material and make sure it meets the following guidelines before submitting it.

1. Please check your spelling and grammar before submitting.
2. Submissions may be attached or included in the body of your email. If you include it in the body please do not put in hard returns as they all have to be removed manually and may be returned to you for that reason.
   Do not use all caps or underlines in titles. All caps should be used only for emphasis.
3. Do not indent paragraphs. All text should be justified left with a space between paragraphs.
4. Please consider the fact that we have writers and readers of all ages and if you use language that is vulgar or inappropriate to a literary magazine it will be edited out or rejected. We are also not interested in erotica.
5. Your work will be edited for typographical errors and offensive language only. We will not change your writing style or correct your grammatical errors. This is your responsibility.
6. Please put the category you are submitting to in your subject line with all submissions.
7. If you are in doubt as to whether your material is suitable for Word Catalyst please take the time to read previous submissions.
8. We have not currently set a word or line limit. Please try to remember that we are a magazine and not publishers of novels or novellas. I am, however, more interested in content than length as long as it is within the limits of short story length.
9. To submit photos please keep them approximately 600 pixels (width) and no longer than 900 pixels. And the file size should be less than 200k. Submission size for all pictures in one email should be less than 1Meg - please send multiple emails if your total exceeds the 1Meg size.

The best source of what we accept is our archives. Please take the time to look through them and take note of our style as well as what we have accepted in the past.