2026 Anthology Call for Submissions
Theme: True Story
Submission Window: 2/28/2025 – 7/15/2025
Genre: All genres welcome
Length: Between 2,000 and 4,500 words
Some fiction is obvious, some is dangerously close to reality, and some has elements of both.
With this collection, we would like to honor the art of writing to create meaning out of our chaotic lives and the magic and beauty of real life.
Toward this end, our theme is…
True Story
We leave most of how you interpret this theme up to you, but we encourage submissions with a clear tie-in to a real event, person, place, or extraordinary era within the Rocky Mountain Region.
If there is a newspaper clipping or a photo of the real-life event or “legend” that inspired the story, include it with the entry so we might consider publishing it alongside the piece.
As you’ve seen from our conferences, many of our members hail from the Front Range of Colorado. Additionally, our members hail from Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Montana.
Bring us your fiction inspired by urban legends, ghost stories, mining mishaps, weird news, and miracles.
As we have gotten to know many of you over the years, we want to ensure that submissions are accepted based on their merit. To that end, we are doing things a little differently this year—blind submissions!
What does this mean? Well, it means you will submit your story through an anonymous form. Your submission will then be sent to us but no identifying information will be sent along with it. The title of your document will be given a random submission ID. Once we have made our decisions, we will be able to reveal in the database which ID is associated with each submitter. Until that time, however, all identifying information is hidden. This also means you will need to scrub your submissions of any identifying information! No headers or footers that might tip us off to who you are!
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at anthology@rmfw.org.
When you are ready to submit, please fill out the form below.
Please be aware: While we ask for the Category/Genre of your submission, this is solely for informational purposes and will not affect the evaluation of your submission in any way. It simply helps reviewers identify the genre they are reviewing.
Anthology 2025 Submission Form
2024 RMFW Anthology: Without Brakes, Fingers Crossed
Available Now!
Edited by: Paul Martz and Linda Ditchkus
A wall. A doorway. A yawning chasm. A bridge. Unable to see the signs, we race to what lies ahead. Do you surrender, screaming into the darkness? Or summon the strength and courage to endure an uncertain future?
From the creative minds of Rocky Mountain Fiction writers, this multi-genre short story collection imagines how humanity will navigate a landscape of natural disasters and unpredictable obstacles. In every gripping story, love for family, community, and longing for what was previously considered normal gives people strength to blaze new trails and charge forward—with fingers crossed.
- Receding reservoirs uncover more than hidden gems in the Rockies
- A mountain town becomes humanity’s last ghastly refuge
- Youth transform a military mission from revenge to a partnership in the Mile-high City
- Scarce resources become as cherished as a Palisade peach
Featuring stories by: Paolo Bacigalupi, J. Warren Weaver, Collin Irish, Lesley L. Smith, Jeff Jaskot, Mark Stevens, Rachel Delaney Craft, Natasha Watts, Ryanne Glenn, Laurel McHargue, Pat Stoltey, Cepa Onion, Rick Ginsberg
2022 RMFW Anthology: Bizarre Bazaar
Release Date: 09/01/2022
Edited by: Amy Drayer and Veronica R. Calisto
Get ready to meet your favorite new short stories! We are pleased to announce the 2022 RMFW Anthology, “Bizarre Bazaar,” featuring fresh tales from:
Alison Thayer, BJ Eardley, Cepa Onion, Doug Christi, Eleanor Shelton, Francelia Belton, Jennie MacDonald, Jill English Johnston, John M. Campbell, Kelley J. P. Lindberg, KL Mendt, L.V. Ditchkus, Mel Lake, Natasha Watts, Rachel Delaney Craft, Rick Duffy, Vista McDowall
2020 RMFW Anthology: Wild: Uncivilized Tales
Cover Art: Amy Drayer
Released: 09/11/2020
Edited by: Tasha Christensen and Rachel Craft
Fearless or feral?
Liberating or life-threatening?
The wild side of life takes many forms. It seeps through the cracks of our world in the form of stray cats, tenacious weeds, oppressive relationships, and haunting memories.
These fourteen stories by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers explore the wildness that lives inside all of us—and what happens when we let it out.
2018 RMFW Anthology: False Faces: Twenty Stories About the Masks We Wear
Edited by: Warren Hammond and Angie Hodapp
Masks. Everybody wears them. Perhaps they are tangible, worn for a job or as part of a costume. More likely, they are metaphorical, shaped by the stories we tell each other and the lies we tell ourselves. This collection of twenty tales by members of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers explores what happens when we conceal ourselves behind carefully constructed identities. Why do we hide? What are we afraid to confront? And what happens when at last the masks come off?
2016 RMFW Anthology: Found
Winner of the 2017 Colorado Book Award for Best Anthology!
Sometimes things are better off lost. And sometimes they were never meant to disappear. Either way, when they’re found, everything changes.
Explore fifteen illuminating tales of short fiction that reveal the consequences of finding something once lost or better off forgotten.
From Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers comes this collection of inspired works from both award-winning and talented new writers including Mark Stevens, Dean Wyant, J.A. Kazimer, Joshua Viola, Diana Holguin-Balogh, Terry Kroenung, Natasha Watts, and more.
2014 RMFW Anthology: Crossing Colfax
Playboy Magazine once called Colfax Avenue “the longest, wickedest street in America.” We invite you to explore Colfax Avenue – its past, present, or future. Its greatest moments, real or imaginary, and its darkest secrets. Tales of romance, action, fantasy and more – Colfax has seen it all. Includes the work of well-known novelists Warren Hammond, Linda Berry and Angie Hodapp.
2009 RMFW Anthology: Broken Links, Mended Lives
2009 Colorado Book Award Finalist In a complex world splintered by myriad interests and needs, we rely increasingly on links. Connections are formed between people, between cities, and among nations. Intricate networks are formed between everything from computers and satellites to iPhones and hamburger franchises. This pulsing, living planet spins within the patterns of its links. Includes the work of well-known novelists Mario Acevedo, Carol Berg, Jameson Cole and Cindi Myers.
2007 RMFW Anthology: Tales from Mistwillow
Travel to this legendary Colorado town, nestled in the Rocky Mountain foothills, shrouded in myth and mystery. Members of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers have woven inspiring, chilling and downright fun stories about this fictional town. Relax, settle back and enjoy the suspense, the mystery, the love, the comedy, and the ghosts that wander this colorful western town that harbors so many secrets. Includes the work of well-known novelists Cindi Myers, Jeff Shelby, Janet Lane, and Terry Wright.
2004 RMFW Anthology: Tales from Dry Spell: Tales of Thirst and Longing
A dreary winter afternoon, an apple pie, and a bottle of cognac ignite a thirst for a time long gone but not quite forgotten … A homesick mother, an understanding daughter, a promise kept, and a poignant return to the Atacama Desert … A remarkable horse, an outlaw drifter, five days in the desert, and a too-sly-for-her-own-good beauty who overestimates the power of feminine wiles … Grandpa’s little habit and the private achings of an aging heart … Join the storytellers of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers as they appeal to the yearnings of your soul. Includes the work of award-winning novelists Kay Bergstrom and Margaret Coel.