… the CSFG’s Next anthology.
A bit of background: in 2012 Rob Porteous and I issued a call for submissions for the ninth in the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild‘s ongoing series of speculative short fiction anthologies, Next. It’s now time for the groundwork to be set towards production of the next (i.e., tenth) CSFG anthology, and while the new editorial team of Mitchell Akhurst, Phillip Berrie and Ian McHugh have rejected any and all of my eminently sensible suggestions to badge it as something like Next Next, The Return of the Next, or The Son / Daughter of Next (delete as appropriate), they have come up with a title and theme which is just (about) as good: The Never Never Land.
The full details for the anthology’s theme and the submission process are on the CSFG website, but I’ll snurch liberally from them here by way of signal boost:
The Never Never Land will be an anthology of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror stories edited by Mitchell Akhurst, Phillip Berrie and Ian McHugh. It will be published in April 2015 as both a trade paperback and in e-book formats.
What We’re Looking For
CSFG anthologies have been elsewhere and encountered the other, we’ve met the outcast and seen behind the mask and what happens next. Now we want to bring the stories back here, in our new anthology with the working title of The Never Never Land.
For The Never Never Land, we’re looking for Australian stories, whatever that may mean to you, or stories that are inspired by this country.
If you send us Peter Pan stories, you’re probably missing the point.
Think On the Beach, Mad Max, Two Hands and Tomorrow, When the War Began. Think Terry Dowling’s Rynosseros and Wormwood stories, Sean Williams’s Books of the Change, Patricia Wrightson’s The Nargun and the Stars and the stories in Gillian Polack’s Baggage anthology. Or step outside and look around you, and think something completely different. We want to capture the diversity of what an “Australian + speculative” story can mean.
Submissions will open from 1 June to 31 August 2014. Stories submitted outside this period will be discarded unread.
The Details
You do not need to be a CSFG member to submit, but you must be Australian (see note below).
Submissions will be read blind (ie, the editor’s won’t have the author’s details when making their selections) to ensure that CSFG members compete on equal terms with other writers and that stories are selected on merit.
We’re paying a flat rate of AUD$30, one copy of the trade paperback and one copy of the e-book on publication of the anthology. We’re buying first English language print and electronic rights.
Stories must be between 1,000 and 5,000 words in length and must contain some element of science fiction, fantasy or horror. We’re open to any subgenre of SF and fantasy, but see the note below on horror. We’re not seeking poetry.
No simultaneous submissions (i.e. please don’t submit your story anywhere else while it’s with us, or vice versa). We’ll endeavour to respond to submissions as quickly as possible.
No multiple submissions (i.e. only send us one story). If your story doesn’t suit us, but we see enough in it to ask for a rewrite or to see something else, we’ll let you know. If your story is rejected, please only send us a rewrite or another story if you’re invited to do so.
[As alluded to above, the full details — and there are a few further points — are over on the CSFG website, so if you’re interested, make sure to hie on over there and check them out.]
Simon Petrie 
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