The City asks for much and gives little, so how do people make a life for themselves with their backs against the wall? For this special edition of Podcastle, we invite writers to give us their takes on the strange, the fantastical, the arcane ways and myths of how people make the impossible possible. We are interested in tales featuring both human and nonhuman characters encountering the challenges of a city; the wily, the shrewd, the schemers, the devious, and those who do not survive in The City at all despite their best efforts.

Submissions from all over the world are welcome, but we are particularly interested in hearing from folks of the global majority. There are many stories set in western cities, and we are keen on expanding our perspectives to include reckonings with urbanity and the idea of “modernity” in places where imperial and colonial interests overwhelmingly define the city and its hardness. We were so inspired by episode 934, C.T Muchemwa’s The Inheritance, which sees a young man in Harare inherit a spirit in the shape of a chicken that makes all his money troubles go away, but saddles him with even bigger problems. We are interested in hearing more about that kind of pull and push. For instance, some speculation on the very real phenomenon of magical doctors advertising their services on posters stuck on poles in Nairobi, Maputo or Lagos; promising an end to issues with poor grades at school, property disputes, divorce and bad luck. What could go wrong? What could go right? Tell us what magical stories your city inspires!

We’re a fantasy publication, so all stories must have a fantasy element that’s crucial to the tale, though it can be subtle. We are unable to consider science fiction or straight-up horror, though dark fantasy is more than welcome. We will consider both originals and reprints for this call, paying our standard rate of 8 cents per word for originals and $100 for reprints. We’re looking for stories between 2,000-6,000 words, though we will consider up to 7,000 words for reprints.

We’ll be open to submissions for a 6 week window, from 9th October to 13th November 2026. Please submit through our Moksha portal. Our standard guidelines apply to anything we haven’t specified here.