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Fission #4 - submissions are closed

Submissions for Fission #4 are now closed. We received 350 entries (compared to 230 in 2023)—thank you to all who submitted. BSFA Fiction editors Eugen Bacon and Gene Rowe are still reading through your offerings, and hope to start sending out responses in April.

Questions? Email fission@bsfa.co.uk

What we accept when we're open

We publish original science fiction stories (genre-bending stories welcome!) up to 5,000 words, and offer a contributor payment rate of 2 pence per word. One submission per author, simultaneous submissions welcome, but tell us when your work is accepted elsewhere so we can withdraw it from Fission.

You don’t need to be a BSFA member to submit.

Note on generative AI: We do not accept any work created or altered by generative ‘AI’ such as, but not limited to, Midjourney and ChatGPT.

Fission #3 - ebooks now available!

Thanks to all who submitted to Fission #3.

Editors Eugen Bacon and Gene Rowe received 235 stories (over 700,000 words) in just two weeks! We shortlisted 40, whittled down to 20 superb stories. Pepping up this selection is our 21st story, a Spanish-English translation - our collaboration with the Spanish publication, Celsius.

We’re thrilled to share with you Fission #3 authors:

  • Kevin Taylor - Rhombus, Kite, Triangle (Celsius swap - Spanish trans.)
  • Fiona Moore - Daedalus’ Wings
  • Desmond Astaire - It’s a Nash Equilibrium, Then
  • Angela Liu - Happiness Quality Quotient
  • Tony Jones - Fiat Nox
  • Elaine McIonyn - And Will Be Used Against You
  • Matt Thompson - Aria dell’Ostrica
  • Sam Rugg - The Measure of a Men
  • Melissa Ferguson - Phlogiston
  • David Wright - Las Artes Hipnóticas (2032)
  • Peter J. Carter - Douglas Allen: Galactic Attorney-at-Law
  • Lyle Hopwood - The Burn Out
  • Rob Butler - 100 Places to visit before you die: No. 97: The Moon
  • Carol Ryles - Home is Where the Heart Was
  • Morgan Parks - I Said Aliens

We are pleased to announce publication of the second volume of Fission #2, edited by Gene Rowe and Eugen Bacon. As before, thanks to all who submitted stories, we’re sorry we couldn't take more. 

Fission #2 Volume 1

After two intense months of reading over 230 submissions, we’re pleased to announce that we very much enjoyed the stories, and will be publishing two volumes of Fission #2, edited by Eugen Bacon and Gene Rowe.

Congratulations to the following authors whose science fiction kept us enthralled, now available in Vol. 1:

  • Ron Hardwick, ‘Sage and the Resurrection of Doctor Chronos’
  • Aleksandra Hill, ‘Words of Advice at the End of the World’
  • David Tallerman, ‘Face the Inevitable’
  • Caroline Misner, ‘The Epsilon Requirement’
  • Andrew Darlington, ‘Buffalo Soldiers’
  • Peter Medeiros, ‘Bad Architecture’
  • Tim O’Neal, ‘Otherworldly Jellyfish’
  • Mary Soon Lee, ‘Truth Conquers All’
  • Clare Turner, ‘In Person’
  • Chinaza Eziaghighala, ‘Osimiri’
  • Phil Nicholls, ‘Missy Hood Tweets’
  • Maddison Stoff, ‘Zombie Harold Holt Returns to Parliament’
  • K. C. Grifant, ‘Cynscout’
  • Michael Noonan, ‘All the Time in the World’


Cover by South African author and artist, Stephen Embleton

  • Antonia Rachel Ward - Personification
  • Ron Hardwick - Future Imperfect
  • Marc A. Criley - Possumsaurus amicus
  • C. L. Spillard - Sound of Mind
  • Jason Fischer and Martin Livings - A City Beneath (And How to Hide From It)
  • Eva Garcia Guerrero - The Precious Physical World (Celsius swap)

Congrats to our stellar cast - Kevin Taylor's story is our hands-down pick for English-Spanish translation and publication in Celcius.

Remember, Fission ebooks are available to members for free download at BSFA online. You can buy print paperbacks on Amazon.

Fission #2 Volume 2

Fission #2 Volume 1

Fission #1

Fission #2 Volume 2

Congratulations to the following authors whose stories are out Vol. 2.

  • Rob Nisbet, ‘A Brief History’
  • David Gullen, ‘Bluebell Apocalypse’
  • Nina Shepardson, ‘The First Contact Cookbook’
  • Michael James, ‘Short Turn Memory’
  • Redfern Jon Barrett, ‘The Past Made Flesh’
  • Matt McHugh, ‘The Heart Knows Only That It Wants’
  • Mark Thomas, ‘Mittens Aurelius: Meowditations’
  • James Edward O’Brien, ‘Postmortem Mandy’
  • Ray Daley, ‘I Hide Behind Cardboard Cliffs and Polystyrene Rocks’
  • Bruce Golden, ‘Rite of Passage’
  • Melissa Ferguson, ‘Deliquescence’
  • Jason J. McCuiston, ‘An Enemy’s Wake’
  • Peter Glazebrook, ‘Enturing Love’
  • Fiona Moore, ‘The Little Friend’
  • Matt Cahill, ‘Somewhere in a Dead Field’
  • Ian C. Douglas, ‘Charles Darwin and the South Seas Monster’.

Review copies? Email: fission@bsfa.co.uk

  • Ellen Denton, ‘The Portal’
  • Ian Whates, ‘The FenZone’
  • Jeffrey Somers, ‘Free from Want’
  • Patricia García-Rojo, ‘The Fifth Awakening’ (CELSIUS, Translator: Mike Lucas)

Congratulations to everyone chosen! 

New in 2021, Fission is our annual anthology of SFF fiction. Edited by Allen Stroud, and launched in collaboration with Spain's Celsius 232.

Fission aspires to grow to connect SFF communities around the world. 

Fission #1

Our 2021 stories:

'The Aminals Marched in Two By Two' by Syeda Fatima Muhammad
'A Pall of Moondust' by Nick Wood
'Lyonesses' by So Mayer
'The Lego Calf' by Jon Bilbao
'The Witch and the Elderman' by Peter Haynes
'The Trip' by Michael Crouch
'Etaerio' by Rosie Oliver
'The First and Last Safe Place' by C. John Arthur
'Here' by Gene Rowe
'The Blood Between Us' by Katherine Franklin
'Wanderlust' by Eugen Bacon & E. Don Harp
'Time Keep' by Elad Haber
'Power of Attorney' by Louis Evans
'I Love Google Maps/Death to Google Part 1' by Paul Beacon

The story chosen to be published in Celsius is 'Lyonesses' by So Mayer.

Fission #1 is now available for BSFA members in the 'Members Publication' area of the website. Login (top right) and then the webpage will be added to the 'Publications' section.

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