This winter, we are publishing The Many Lives of Atlas A, a collection of your finest short stories where the main character or a supporting character of your story is one Atlas A.
Here is a brief background and character sketch of Atlas A:
A man of few words and the oldest of three siblings, by age twenty-two, he dropped out of college twice, first in mechanical engineering, then in law. This led to a falling out with his father and he was left off the will. After disappearing for years, he resurfaced as “Atlas A.” He now has a team running logistics for businesses including his parents’ diner. His father offered to restore the will, but Atlas insisted the inheritance was best left to his siblings. To his mother, Atlas seemed a man between worlds — he had her over for dinner once every month, they engaged in candid conversation while he cooked family recipes, yet she didn’t know him at all.
You have full creative liberty which extends to choosing any identity marker for Atlas, including ethnicity, and as such, the second “A” in “Atlas A” can be short for a last name that ties into the ethnicity; choosing any gender identity for Atlas (we used “he” and “man” as an illustrative example only); and killing Atlas (yes, you read that right).
Your story must be literary but can be in any genre such as crime/noir, speculative, romantic, social, humour, realist, postmodernist, and so on, or a mix of genres.
Your creative liberty, however, doesn’t extend to being hateful, a plagiarist, a proselytiser, a political preacher, using AI, justifying violence, and writing pornography. Also, we’re not interested in stories written for children and/or young adults.
Submissions open on July 1, 2025 (12 AM, Indian Time).
Submissions close on July 31, 2025 (11.59 PM, Pacific Time).
Any submissions received outside this window or via means other than the one mentioned below (keep reading) will be deleted unread.
Please submit only one short story of 800-3500 words. We are not reading poetry, drama, art, photography, etc. for this issue.
We prefer you follow the William Shunn Proper Manuscript Format, Modern Edition (https://www.shunn.net/format/story/). There is no need to write your address and phone number in your manuscript.
Submissions must be accompanied by a brief cover letter in the body of the email with the following information:
- Title
- Byline
- Word Count
- Genre
Submissions must be original, previously unpublished, exclusive, and without any use of AI.
Submissions must include this declaration, pasted in the cover letter: This is my original work and has no use of AI. I have not imported “Atlas A” into a work that has already been published/curated before, in print or online, including on personal websites, blogs and social media. I understand that the character “Atlas A” is the creation of the editors of The Hooghly Review and if my work is not accepted for publication, I shall change the character before publishing it elsewhere. I understand the nature of this submission call and therefore, this is an exclusive submission.
Email your submission document along with the above information and declaration to [email protected] with the subject line: [Your Name] — Atlas A
Incorrect/incomplete subject line may cause us to misplace your email, leading to a non-response from our end.
Please do not send multiple emails and/or create more than one email thread regarding the same submission.
Please do not send multiple submissions.
All submissions will be responded to by September 30, 2025. Please feel free to query if you have not received a response by that time.
Publication is scheduled for November, 2025.
F.A.Q.
Submission Fees: No.
Payment: We wish we could. If we release this collection as an e-book such as via Amazon KDP Select, contributors will receive a free copy. This is something we are still working through; we’ll provide updates on social media.
Rights:
- Copyright of the work remains with the contributor.
- We ask for First Electronic Publication Rights and credits when your work is republished.
- We also ask for Archival Rights on our website indefinitely.
For further clarification, please contact us via email or social media DM.
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The above guidelines can be downloaded here.
