Roses & Wildflowers Spring 2027 Submission Call

COMING SOON

Yellow Kings, Red Queens and Broken Things

Writer’s Challenge

Submit Here:  

 

 This issue is dedicated to Samuel R. Delany, who wrote the groundbreaking novel Nova, published January 1, 1968 and had somewhat to say about tarot in those pages. 

“Mouse, the seventy-eight cards of the Tarot present symbols and mythological images that have recurred and reverberated through forty-five centuries of human history. Someone who understands these symbols can construct a dialogue about 

a given situation. There’s nothing superstitious about it.”

― Samuel R. Delany, Nova

We offer a tarot challenge to all speculative fiction writers and poets! Sharpen those quills!

Spring 2027 Themed issue: Yellow Kings, Red Queens and Broken Things 

Submissions open May 19, 2026 (limited) June 21st, 2026 for everyone.

Closes September 17th, 2026

Early opening: We open submission at midnight on May 19th, 2026 exclusively for people living in climate related disaster areas and war zones. Please note this status on your cover letters.

 

Open for all: Submissions will be OPEN FOR EVERYONE on June 21st, Midsummer Day, 2026. The revolution of the tilted axis of the earth is the reason for the season.

Submissions close: September 19th. We will be reading for selection the month of September and completing selections early October 2026. We will try to send out notices in October before the holidays begin.

Submit here: https://forms.gle/ZAj2AjbFoA11V5rB7 (open May 19 2026 at midnight)

 

Please state: Spring 2027 “Yellow Kings, Red Queens and Broken Things” on your manuscript under the word count. And: do not forget your name & contact info! (Poets, we’re looking at you.)

Please read the guidelines thoroughly.

Manuscripts received before May 2026, by any other method, or not in Shunn Standard Manuscript Form will not be read.

 

Submit Here: Open May 19 2026 

 

Our Writer’s Challenge for Spring 2027:

 

Divination. Meditation. Making choices. 

As artists and story makers, it’s all about choices. The path to creating art, no matter how obscured, hard or how long it takes to get from idea to manifestation. 

And, sometimes the road to transformation: inner, societal, facing our heart’s desires, our shadows, self delusion, and our demons. 

All too often chasing the tail of the Questing Beast. 

Divination. Meditation. Making choices. 

 

The 36 card of the Lenormand deck, the 78 card tarot, and independently created oracle decks have inspired artists, poets and fiction writers alike for generations. Two of our “regulars” have created decks. Arts Editor for this magazine, Helena Domenic, reviews tarot for artistic merit in our sister publication, Coreopsis Journal. 

 

In this spirit: we present a challenge to writers, poets and for artists in sound, the audio selection for this issue: choose one of the 12 cards from the selections listed below. Then: get out those sharpened quills and send us your tale. 

 

The art in the following decks has been reviewed in our sister journal of the mythic arts, Coreopsis Journal of Myth and Theatre (links included) and have inspired the writers on our staff in our own artistic journeys.

We challenge all writers and poets with the following: Choose one card from the images provided below (by us) and tell us the tale. Inspire us. Give us a moment to consider the shadows in the room. Send us on a wondrous journey. Tell us about tomorrow. 

 

Tell us about choices, yellow kings, red queens, and broken things. Remember: It must be one of the cards pictured below.  

Place the number, name of the deck and the card you chose under the word or line count in the upper right corner. (Example: #0, Tarot of Pandemic and Revolution, “The Fool” )

 

Choose one: 

• King in Yellow Tarot :  Le Cinq de Coupes, XVI : La Maison Dieu, et Le Sept de Deniers

See, broken things always have a story, don’t they? -Sara Pennypacker

Choose one:

“The King in Yellow” as a play, and as inspiration for stories and art from Poe to Twain to the present, has haunted creative imaginations like a half-remembered nightmare since its first appearance in 1895. Among the card readers of Europe, the play was not something new but the possible culmination of something older: the King in Yellow Tarot. Painter Kurt Komoda, “in a fevered fugue of inspiration” reproduced designs thought long lost. More about the artist who created this deck here: https://agonyagogo.com/

Read Helena Domenic’s review in Coreopsis Journal: https://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/spring-2025-issue/review/review-of-the-king-in-yellow-tarot-deck/

Tarot deck images copyright Arc Dream Publishing

2. Tarot in Pandemic & Revolution : El Sol, Siete de Espadas, Caballero de Espadas 

 Only a minority of science fiction dystopias attempt to plumb the real existential roots of oppression, the flaws in humanity’s nature that undermine our best attempts at organizing ourselves into social units. Paul Di Filippo 

Choose one:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painter Adrian Arias’ most ambitious project to date is Tarot in Pandemic & Revolution, a multifaceted collaboration conceived and orchestrated by Arias where he engaged sixty two visual artists and poets in the creation of a community tarot deck that speaks to historic events that transpired over the years 2020-22.

“…I decided to ask my artist friends to create this deck all together, and after several months I got 78 images of 23 artists.” (For more information about artist Adrian Arians, go here: http://adrianarias.com/tarot-in-pandemic-revolution/) These images are original paintings by Susan Matthews. 

Read Helena Domenic’s review here: https://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/autumn-2022-issue/tarot-deck-review-tarot-in-pandemic-and-revolution/

Copyright

3. The Rainbow Bridge Oracle The Magician, The Star, and Icon

“Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all.”

― Emily Dickinson

Choose one: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rainbow Bridge Oracle. A truly visionary oracle deck by artist Lauren Raine. “We live in a time of enormous, rapid change.  I can instantaneously talk to someone in China or in Australia. I can see their faces on Zoom. I can access the greatest library the world has ever known because it is, literally, at my fingertips. We have become a global society with all the diversity and creative potential of human endeavor.  And we also share the greatest crisis humanity has ever had to face: that of planetary climate change.” Lauren Raine (Learn more about Lauren Raine, here: https://rainbowbridgeoracle.weebly.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

And in Coreopsis Journal here: https://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/autumn-2022-issue/the-rainbow-bridge-oracle/

4. The Illuminated Quabbala Tarot The Empress, The High Priestess, and The Chariot

Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.

Anais Nin

Make your choice of one card!

 

 

 

Helena Domenic, besides being our intrepid Arts Advisor, has created an inspiring Tarot deck. She has been working on the original art for this deck for several years. You can read more about it and about Helena and her art here: https://www.artofhelenadomenic.com/team-4

“it is better to accept the inevitable with energy. Well then, if I have not chosen up till now, now I choose. That is freedom. Having chosen, I am free.”

― Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren

Now sharpen those quills and go write!

From the editors. A note about horror in this issue: 

• While mythopoeia is sometimes an “eye of the beholder” proposition, eerie tales, suspense fiction, dystopia and dystopian alternate histories, dark fantasy and SF is fine, however all stories must have a recognisable speculative fiction element without which the plot would fall apart.
• Translations and non-English submissions: Alas! We only know how to edit in English. Please submit your work in English, American or British is equally acceptable. We can arrange to publish your original work in your native, first language alongside the English translation, but you will be responsible for all proofreading and copyediting, including any added expense. Please request this in your cover letter.  How to write a cover letter.

Do nots. We are not the market for these items:

• No stories that rely on eviscerated intestines or flying body parts as the climax. Or as a part of the plot. Really. Just don’t.
• Respect everyone equally. Anything that is intentionally derogatory because of profiling or prejudice toward any group of human beings will not be read or tolerated. We cannot say this strongly enough.
• No derivative works (fan fiction).
• No “revenge porn”. Or porn of any kind.
• Anything over 7,000 words.
• We don’t publish flash fiction or epic poetry beyond 40 lines.
• AI: our policy is strictly NO AI. We only want original, human created works. 

 

Audio submissions: CLICK HERE

For queries concerning art: please send a query to Sonali Roy, Arts Editor, sonali.roy60@gmail.com

General Submission Guidelines and Important Things we Have to Tell You: https://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/roses-wildflowers-submission-guidelines/

 

Looking for Coreopsis Journal? Go here: