Maidenholy Magazine

Weird fiction for sad people.

Copyright © 2025 by Maidencholy Magazine

ABOUT

Maidencholy Magazine is an alternative small press for niche speculative fiction without a home. We adopt stories that fall outside traditional genre expectations, which deserve a platform to find their lonely audience longing for something more.We're looking for the bombastic, weird, and depressing tinged with cleverness, nuance, and hope.
Inspired by underground maidcore music, pulp comics, light novels, and manga, Maidencholy Magazine aims to provide its readers with a healthy dose of action and adventure while satisfying their gloomy hearts with nurturing connections between characters and their metamorphic arcs.We publish stories that'll evoke emotions you struggle to put into words yourself.Our small press is the perfect home for those who indulge in world-building and crafting bizarre magic systems. We appreciate seeing mundane objects, elements, and concepts turned into extraordinary superpowers, myths, and tech that expand your unique universe.

MASTHEAD

A creed of sorrowful scholars who write and edit tirelessly in the night. They conjure characters, along with their experiences and worlds, and seal them into tailored tomes. These stories, harkened to them through dreams and dark thoughts, play in their minds endlessly. Through sable-drenched pens or the hammering stamps of keyboards, they archive what must be preserved to inspire the best in humanity despite its most malicious spawn. In Nageku’s maiden name, that is their mission.

CALENDAR

Maidencholy Magazine is published on a seasonal basis, releasing one new issue each Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Every issue has a unique theme posed as a question paired with a motif that unifies the stories.

Current Season Call: WINTER
Answer the Question: Why is someone worth saving?
Include the Motif: BONES
Deadline: December 31st, 2025
Expected Publication: February 1st

ISSUES

Here you'll find our library of lost narratives tombed in tailored tomes. It may be a ghost town, but it'll soon be a full graveyard of stories we'll never forget. Check out our upcoming debut issue, Dread Frost.Subscribe to Maidencholy Magazine for new issues, updates, and submission calls directly in your inbox!
Maidencholy Magazine is a free-to-read publication at this time. Additionally, we don't, and will never, charge our beloved contributors to share their work. While Maidencholy Magazine is a sacred passion project, we would like to keep doing this ritual for many moons to come. If you have a little fortune to spare, it'd be much appreciated. In the future, we would like to pay our creatives and expand what we do here.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

What We Want:
Genre fiction ranging from sword and sorcery to high-tech lowlife, or psychological horror to schlocky slashers. Make it entertaining. Make it fun. Make it WEIRD! Whether it be an adventure across the lands, sea, and stars in a ship made of flesh, a thrilling psychological war unraveling in dreams of cosmic goldfish, or a black comedy in a digital wonderland that has no beginning or end. We want to see speculative ideas executed with as much style as substance. Stories about heroes overcoming insurmountable odds, whether they be chosen ones, misfit losers, vengeful revenants, or villains seeking redemption, are also our favorites, but NOT a must.Exceptions:
We have a soft spot for modern secondary world sci-fi and fantasy. Think Violet Evergarden, Spy X Family, Fullmetal Alchemist, Castle in the Sky, Arknights, Vampire in the Garden, Attack on Titan, and so on (if you couldn't tell, we like anime and manga). Worlds that look a lot like modern or vintage civilizations, but have different histories, geology, species, and technology. Highly speculative elements like magic or monsters don't have to appear, but they're welcome in any form.We Also Accept Art:
If you’re a paintbrush wizard with a wicked style, we’d love to feature your art on the cover or within the pages of Maidencholy Magazine. Our preferences for art pretty much match our taste in stories. We appreciate cool-looking eye candy, whether Western or Eastern; all are welcome. However, we prefer to feature our mascot, Nageku the Maid, on the cover. If you want to propose a concept or work with us, we’re all ears! And we can’t believe that we have to say this, but absolutely NO AI-generated images!What We Don't Want:
We don’t accept reprints, but we are okay with repurposed, unpublished stories. As long as it fits the seasonal theme, matches the motif, and is a fun read.Maidencholy Magazine isn't the place for cynical political stories with nothing positive to add. We prefer timeless, humanist tales that transcend cultures and become new myths. Let us get lost in your fictional world and the raw human (or non-human) experience in it. In other words, escapism.However, this publication is about overcoming trials in all forms. Whether that be fighting demons, facing societal challenges as being “different,” or being loyal to a particular faith. We welcome the inclusion of any perspective, so long as it is self-aware and doesn’t read like a hateful manifesto or direct hate at a real-life group. We want to get lost in your world’s unique problems. Don’t be chained to trying to be relatable in the current day.This is a pulpy, entertainment magazine, so arthouse or experimental stuff isn’t quite our style. We want to sit back, understand the story, and enjoy the ride. That needn’t mean we don’t appreciate a tasteful tale with unconventional storytelling techniques, taboo themes, and alternative characters. Just don’t bury the cake of your message under a heaping pile of symbolism frosting.Some of us like a good romance, but we’re going to pass on the erotica, although brief sex scenes are fine. Just don't get carried away. Make it a quickie. Sexual themes, sexy characters, and fan-service are a-okay, but we aren't the place for p*rn.
We, of course, also don't want the glorification of sexual abuse, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, extremism, yada yada— you get the picture. You should have some common sense.And for the love of Edgar Poe, no AI garbage. Thank you.How to Submit:
Please note that for both fiction and art, we will not accept fan fiction that infringes on copyright (make sure any references are public domain) or anything depicting illegal activity, discrimination, or defamation of a real person or entity. We don’t want to be attached to that mess.Fiction:
We accept stories from 2,000 to 7,000 words, though the latter will have a limited slot for each issue. Please use .docx or .doc files only, and make sure the text is in standard manuscript format. That means Times New Roman text style in a 12-point font size using double-spacing, 1-inch margins, and ½ inch indentations.Email your story to [email protected] with the subject line FICTION SUBMISSION - (SEASON) - (YOUR NAME).In the body, enter your tailored cover letter, a 100-word bio, and links to any social media or websites you may have. Perhaps an appropriate picture (PNG) if you’re not too shy.
Attach the story document to the email. In the file, have your contacts and name in the upper left corner. Remember, no PDFs.Art:
We want art to fit on one page spread. We may layer text over the art to divide parts and chapters. No watermarks, but your work will be credited in the issue. Please submit in PNG format.Email your art to [email protected] with the subject line ART SUBMISSION - (SEASON) - (YOUR NAME/TAG)In the body, enter your tailored cover letter, your art tag/watermark, and links to any social media or websites you may have. Attach the image to the email. Remember, PNG only.BE AWARE:
We DO check each submission for AI and plagiarized content, so don’t try it, or you're excommunicado.Acception:
If you’re selected, that means we REALLY loved your piece! Maidencholy Magazine takes pride in everything we publish, and we’re incredibly grateful you considered submitting to us. Upon acceptance, we’ll forward a contract which confirms you, and you alone, are the original creator of the submission, and that it doesn’t infringe upon any copyright or contain material that violates someone’s privacy.
If you don't hear from us, don't be afraid to inquire about the status of your submission, and please let us know if your work has been accepted anywhere else.We try to let our contributors know if they've been accepted or not, so please be patient with us on response times.

Copyright © 2025 by Maidencholy Magazine