This is explicitly a speculative poetry (and related micro-flash-prose) market. We welcome both established artists, and those experimenting with such genre narratives and forms for the first time.
We want to read your poems and stories of monsters—whether your protagonists are giant or relatively human-sized; traditional, pop-cultural, or newly created—as set in (or against) the context, landscape, environment, and character of the 21st century American Midwest.
These can include, but not be limited to:
Monsters, cryptids, kaiju and mythic beasts that are traditionally based in the American Midwest.
Monsters that might just be visiting, vacationing in, or relocating to/from the American Midwest.
Monster narratives that illuminate, celebrate, or challenge stereotypes of Midwestern identity.
As with previous Middle West Press projects, we hope to publish work that intersects in some way with the people, places, nature, and history of the terrains and cultures we inhabit, especially works stemming from the lived experiences of women, youth, poets of color, poets who identify as LGBTQ+, military veterans, and other marginalized voices.
Our informal rule-of-thumb is that the modern U.S. states—carved from the Louisiana Purchase, and/or states located west of the Ohio River and east of the Missouri River—safely define our intellectual playground. The Middle West is a moveable feast, however. We recognize that the “Middle West” includes themes, characters, and geographies that cannot be contained by mere borders. In fact, the Middle West may be most apparent in places where it is not—or when viewed and experienced by geographic “outsiders.”
As final words of inspiration, the editors of Cryptids, Kaiju & Corn: Poems and Micro-Stories about Modern Midwest Monsters write:
Tell us stories like “Paul Bunyan vs. Godzilla!” Or “Little House Bigfoot on the Prairie!” Relocate the giant robots of Pacific Rim to the New Madrid Fault! Tell us about noodling Lovecraftian catfish, or how-to repair supernaturally possessed tractors! Tell us about the joys and dangers of urban-coyote lycanthropy, or about joining the Children of the Corn Palace! Surprise us!"
Qtd. in Middle West Press Website, 2025

I didn’t have time to be anyone’s muse… I was too busy rebelling […] and learning to be an artist. "
-- Leonora Carrington