Two New Fantastic Schools Anthologies – Submissions Wanted and Welcome

(If you are interested, or know anyone who might be, please get in touch.)

Fantastic Schools is currently looking for submissions for two new themed collections:

Universities – stories set in a university or college environment, with older students and/or lecturers, featuring a combination of magical and mundane academic issues. Stories about new students going to a new home, away from home and in the big city for the first time in their lives; stories about academic research projects and teamwork, stories about academic honesty and dishonesty, from tutors struggling to get tenure to younger academics trying to game the system so they can carry out research instead of teetering, or younger tutorials trying to reform a very old and cumbersome, indeed conservative, system.

Familiars – witches and wizards have often had familiars, animals that help them in their magic, often sharing a magical bond with their master. Cats and dogs, snakes and owls … we are looking for stories centred around familiars, from the tiny duckling that turns out to be a dragon or sickly familiar that turns out to grow into real monster, to the haughty human-level intelligence familiars that see themselves in partnership rather than bondage, or have to be placated to convince them to assist their human ally. Stories can feature everything from a simple non-human ally to a familiar bond that is actively dangerous, perhaps even cursed.

As always, please send us a query first to ensure that we do not have too many stories on very similar subjects. Please send to the below address:

Ideally, the deadline for both is currently set at July 2025. However, that may change to later in the year depending on submissions and/or time commitments.

The general rules remained unchanged:

The Fantastic Schools anthologies are intended for a YA and general audience. Stories do not need to be directed at a YA audience, but story content should be appropriate for both teen and adult readers.

Magic schools must be original to the author or used with the author’s express permission. No unauthorized fan fiction will be accepted.

Please query with your story idea, so to avoid too many stories on the same exact topic.

Word count: 3000 to 12,000 (for longer stories, inquire.)

Payment: Authors will receive equal shares of 55%  of profits.